When we first started trying to conceive, my doctor recommended that we go on a tour of the hospital to get an idea of how things work.

Now that we are preggo, we decided to talk about different hospitals. The one we originally looked at is in downtown Milwaukee, and while it is a nice hospital, it is a little older, darker, etc. There are two newer hospitals in the Milwaukee suburbs we were interested in, so we decided to go and take a look.

The first hospital we looked at was in the same system as our current doctor. It is much newer and very nice. The gave us a great tour and a schedule of prenatal classes we can sign up for. They also gave us a nice frame for our first sonogram 🙂

The second hospital we visited was in a different system. We knew that if we ended up choosing this hospital that we would need to switch doctors, which wasn’t something we really wanted to do, but we were open to it. We also just found out that our doctor is retiring in a year, which wouldn’t effect this pregnancy, but means that we would need to switch doctors if we ever decided to have another kid.

We were given a brief tour, not as detailed or comprehensive as the other hospital, but there were some benefits I saw at this one that the first one didn’t have: whirlpool tubs in every bathroom, pullout couch beds for the dads, spa-like bathrooms with rainfall showerheads, etc. Another added bonus was that they “hide” all of the cords and monitors behind the artwork in the room, which makes a neat freak like me very happy – the room seemed a lot less cluttered (yes, I know those things are necessary, but I like that they are put away).

I was already leaning toward hospital number two, and then the cherry on top of the cake: they play a cute little baby lullaby throughout the entire hospital every time a baby is born. How adorable is that??

Needless to say, we picked the second hospital. Now I have to do some research and figure out if I can find a doctor in our network that delivers there. Wish me luck!

Did you shop around for different hospitals? How did you end up choosing?