IWK ends maternity tours

Tours for expectant mothers at the maternity ward of the IWK Health Centre are coming to an end this Friday.

The hospital said tour groups can be disruptive for women who are in the process of delivering a baby, and that the facility will curb the spread of germs by reducing the number of people who pass through.

Currently, a tour of a birthing room is one of the last things expectant mother do during the IWK's prenatal classes. Upwards of 20 people take the tour at once, often while women are actually delivering babies.

Ann McCabe, the director of the hospital's newborn health program, said most mothers and families don't want large groups of people walking through.

Tour helped expectant mothers prepare

Wanda Cox, a doula who often assists women at the hospital, said ending the tour tradition will have a significant impact on expectant mothers.

"I was disappointed," Cox said. "I think that the option of women being able to go in and see the facility for themselves goes a long way to help them prepare for their childbirth and definitely given that's what I do — help women get to that place of feeling really comfortable — that's just one more option that we don't have available to us anymore."

Cheryl Blackmore is a mother who took the tour and found it helpful. "It told me what to expect, the different kinds of machinery, what rooms are used for what, who would be in my room, what facilities and things I would have access to," she said.

In place of the real-world tour, the IWK has posted a video on its website that gives a virtual tour of the maternity ward. The video follows a few couples through the process of giving birth, and the IWK argues it's better than a real-life tour, because anybody can watch it.