Giving Birth: During Your Stay at Mass General

If you have a vaginal delivery, it is likely that you will be in the hospital for 48 hours after you deliver. If you have a cesarean section (c-section), you could be in the hospital for 96 hours after delivery.

After you deliver, you will remain in the Labor & Delivery Unit to recover. Recovery time for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery can be up to two hours and two-to-three hours for a c-section. Your newborn will stay in your room with you unless there is a medical need for your baby to be transferred to a nursery. 

Your Care Team

In the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, we all work as one team to ensure the best possible care for our patients. When you first arrive, your team in triage includes:

• Two Labor & Delivery nurses
• A midwife

When you move to the Labor & Delivery Unit, your team includes:

• A labor nurse
• An obstetrician or midwife (depending on which provider you have been seeing during your pregnancy)
• An anesthesiologist

Please note that our Labor & Delivery teams generally work 12 hours shifts. Depending on when you get admitted, you will likely meet two teams during your labor.

Food

During labor, you will be on a clear liquid diet. This includes:

• Water and ice
• Juice
• Ginger ale
• Sports drinks (i.e. Gatorade)
• Popsicles & Italian ice
• Gelatin
• Broth

These items are available for you on the Labor & Delivery Unit.

After delivery, you can have food delivered from our patient food kitchen. If you deliver before 8:30 pm, you will receive a menu. If you deliver between 8:30 pm-8:30 am, you can receive a bagged meal and will have access to soup or cereal until the kitchen reopens in the morning. 

During your stay on the Postpartum Unit, you will receive a menu each day to order all of your meals. Your partner will need to obtain food on their own. Learn more about food options on campus at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Your Room

All of our Labor & Delivery rooms are equipped with the following items:

• Labor bed
• Rocking chair
• Recliner chair
• Infant warmer
• Bathroom with a shower and seating (a few rooms have a jetted tub/shower combo, which are available on a first come, first serve basis)
• Optional additional labor equipment, including birthing balls, birthing bars and birthing stools

All of our postpartum rooms are equipped with the following:

• Postpartum bed for the patient
• Sleep chair for the partner/support person
• Bathroom with a shower
• Fully stocked bassinet for your baby
• TV
• Mini refrigerator

Parking at Mass General

When you arrive at Mass General to give birth, you can park in any of our garages: the Fruit Street Garage, the Parkman Street Garage or the Yawkey Center Garage. The Yawkey Garage is the only garage attached to the main building, but please note that the bridge closes after 8 pm. If you arrive after 8 pm, please park in the Fruit Street Garage or the Parkman Street Garage.

Visit the Parking at Mass General page to learn more.

Take a parking ticket and have it validated each day on the first floor of the garage where you park. The validated patient rate is no more than $15 a day.