Newprt News, Va. – Expectant parents can now access virtual tours of the Riverside Regional Medical Center labor and delivery unit and childbirth preparation classes via Zoom, Riverside Health leadership announced this week.
“During this time of uncertainty, I think a lot of people are really anxious, especially first-time moms who have not had a baby before,” said Ticorea Williams, RN, Director of Nursing for Labor and Delivery at Riverside Regional Medical Center. “Not only are they worried about childbirth and everything that comes with it, they have to worry about a virus that’s going around, not having visitors at the hospital and so many of the unknowns. We launched these virtual events to help bring as much normalcy to the current climate as possible.”
Virtual tours via Zoom, the popular free videoconferencing service, will be held Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. now through June 2, 2020. Childbirth preparation Zoom classes will start April 20, 2020 as a four-class series offered in two-hour increments.
Register online for the virtual events here.
The two-hour childbirth classes will be held on Mondays and Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m. to complete the series in a two-week period. April classes will be held April 20, 23, 27 and 30. May classes will be held May 4, 7, 11 and 14 and then again May 18, 21, 25 and 28. June classes will be held June 1, 4, 8, and 11.
“We hope that it will further help parents prepare and give them the confidence they need to manage their labor and delivery experience,” Williams said.
During the virtual tour and classes, Williams said, participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and see the hospital itself, pictures of the delivery rooms and neonatal intensive care unit, and receive instructions on how to get to the labor and delivery unit upon arrival at the hospital.
“People who have never stepped foot in the building before might have a lot of questions and we want to be able to answer them,” Williams said. “When people are on the tour in real life, they have lots of questions, too.”
For the childbirth prep classes, the Riverside team created a course that features both education from a presentation and also an instructor taking participants through different scenarios.
“Our main goal with all of this is to keep our team members, patients and families safe,” Williams said.
For more information about COVID-19 and Riverside Health’s response, visit riversideonline.com/Coronavirus-COVID-19.cfm.
Published: April 18, 2020