At the University of Chicago Medicine Family Birth Center – Hyde Park, our team provides personalized care in a comforting and nurturing environment from triage through childbirth and recovery. 

Conveniently located inside Comer Children’s Hospital on our Hyde Park medical campus, we offer:

• Private labor and delivery suites, some equipped with birthing tubs and other amenities to help support you through labor
• Private postpartum suites, where you can focus on your recovery and bonding with your newborn
• Two state-of-the-art surgical suites offering the latest advancements for cesarean deliveries (C-sections)
• A Level IV NICU just steps away, where our neonatology team provides the highest level of care for critically ill and premature infants

Try Our Family Birth Center - Hyde Park Virtual Tour

We are a Baby-Friendly USA designated hospital.

The Family Birth Center - Hyde Park is internationally recognized as a birth facility that offers extensive support for breastfeeding parents and babies. With us, your entire care team is specially trained to help you and your newborn get a healthy start to breastfeeding.

Trusted Expertise and Guidance to Support Your Pregnancy Journey

When you choose the Family Birth Center, you'll be matched with one of the following specialists for prenatal care, based on your health history, preferred location and other personal considerations:

• A general obstetrician
• A certified nurse midwife
• A maternal-fetal medicine specialists (an obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancy care)

Your prenatal care provider will help you manage symptoms and understand your options while leading your care team in supporting your birth experience.

Comprehensive Care for You and Your Baby with Our Robust Team of Specialists

The Family Birth Center brings together a dynamic team of experts to personalize your care from your first prenatal care visit through postpartum and infant care, including:

• Dedicated obstetric anesthesiologists available 24 hours a day during labor and delivery
• Specially trained physician assistants (PAs) and nurses who support patients through prenatal care, labor and delivery and postpartum care
• Lactation consultants and counselors available to offer expert breastfeeding guidance and resources at your bedside and after you go home
• NICU experts — just steps away from the Family Birth Center — providing specialized care for babies with complex health needs
• Experienced pediatricians who partner with you and your child, offering outstanding care from birth through adolescence

Our private labor and delivery suites help provide a comfortable, supportive environment that promotes natural labor progression. These rooms are equipped to encourage free movement, helping you manage pain naturally, position your baby optimally for birth, and potentially shorten labor time.

Labor and Birth Aids

The Family Birth Center – Hyde Park is stocked with a range of labor and birth aids, including:

• Birthing balls (also called labor, pushing or yoga balls)
• Peanut balls
• Pushing and squatting bars
• Birth stools (also called squatting, birthing or labor stools)
• Mirrors

Warm Water Immersion Therapy (Hydrotherapy Tubs)

Our natural birthing suites are equipped with built-in warm water immersion therapy (hydrotherapy) tubs. During active labor, hydrotherapy can offer pain relief and other benefits prior to delivery. The water is kept at a controlled temperature to avoid dehydration.

The advantages of warm water immersion may include:

• Soothing labor pain
• Softening the perineum, which may reduce the chance of episiotomy
• Lowering blood pressure
• Increasing blood circulation, allowing more oxygen in the womb
• Enhancing comfort and flexibility in positioning
• Mental and physical relaxation

'Gentle' C-Sections

A C-section does involve surgery, but we understand that your experience is far more than an operation. At the Family Birth Center, our experts perform "gentle" cesareans that support an inclusive delivery and bonding experience for you and your family.

In most cases, we allow one family member or guest to accompany you in the operating room. With a gentle C-section, sometimes called a "family-centered" or "natural" cesarean, you have choices that traditionally have only been offered with vaginal births.

During a gentle C-section experience, we encourage you to see, hold, feed and start bonding with your newborn right away.

Whenever possible:

• Immediate skin-to-skin bonding is supported and encouraged with cesarean and vaginal deliveries.
• Your blood pressure cuff and any other monitoring devices are placed on one arm, leaving your other arm free to hold your baby.
• You can breastfeed after cesarean delivery.

State-of-the-Art Surgical Suites and NICU

At the Family Birth Center – Hyde Park, our team manages even the most complex births with confidence and expertise. If a cesarean delivery (C-section) is the best option for you and your baby, our surgical suites are fully equipped to provide a safe, supportive environment to personalize your birth experience. Additionally, our location inside Comer Children’s Hospital enables streamlined transfers to our Level IV NICU for newborns who need specialized care due to illness or premature birth.

Visitor Accommodations

Each private suite is equipped with a convertible sleeping cot for overnight visitors. With a maximum of three visitors at a time allowed in your suite, our Family Waiting Room is available to accommodate additional guests.

Free Wi-Fi

The Family Birth Center – Hyde Park also offers free wireless internet access to keep you and your guests as informed, entertained and connected as you wish to be.

Last updated: February 28, 2025

At the Family Birth Center – Hyde Park, we understand that your child's birth is a peak moment of excitement for you and your closest supporters. We welcome spouses, partners, co-parents, intended parents, children and doulas, as well as other family members, friends and guests who you choose to include in your childbirth experience.

Our visitor policies prioritize safety first, while allowing your loved ones to be at your side as much as possible. Visitor access is limited as outlined below. In some cases, visitor access may not be allowed at all. Limited exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis.

Masking

Masks are welcomed at the University of Chicago Medicine and may be mandatory in certain spaces within our medical facilities as well as for some patients, visitors and staff. These policies and guidelines are subject to change. In addition, as a patient, you and your family can request that your healthcare providers wear masks during appointments or during your hospital stay. Let our teams know about this request when you check in and you will be given a teal sticker to wear. Visit our masking page for the latest information.

Entryway Health Screening

Visitors will be required to undergo a health screening. Anyone with a fever, cough, or flu-like illness will not be allowed to visit patients or accompany them to appointments. Visitors who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 10 days will not be allowed.

When are visiting hours?

During labor and delivery:

There are no visiting hour limitations for adults.

During postpartum recovery:

One visitor (usually the support person) may have 24-hour visitation privileges as long as they are at least 18 years old or the parent of the baby. All other visitors may visit between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.

How many visitors are allowed?

These guidelines apply to patients who test negative for COVID-19. Patients who test positive are allowed one visitor.

Family Birth Center Emergency Department

• One support person is allowed.

Laboring Patients

• Three support people are allowed in the patient room.
• A certified doula is allowed in addition to your other two support people.
• Switching support people during delivery will not be allowed.

Antepartum and 3 North Obstetrics and Newborn Units

• Visiting hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Two support people are allowed in the patient room.
• Visitors will not be allowed to wait in the Family Lounge.

To meet the individualized emotional, psychological, safety and physical needs of each patient, the number and age of visitors and hours of visitation may need to be amended through consensus between the nurse manager, charge nurse and the physician.

Are children allowed to visit during labor and delivery?

No. Children are not allowed to visit during labor and delivery.

Antepartum and Postpartum Recovery Units

Children of the birth parent and/or siblings of the newborn may visit between 12 p.m. and 7 p.m., but must have accompanying supervision from an adult other than the patient the entire time the children are present.

• They will be asked to state their date of birth when presenting to the department.
• They may visit between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. (Exception: when the minor is the father of the baby)

Siblings/Children Visiting

• Maximum four people at bedside at one time.
• Siblings/children must be asymptomatic to visit.
• Sibling visitation hours are daily from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Flu Season

For the safety of our mothers and babies, children under the age of 12 are not allowed visitation during flu season.

To meet the individualized emotional, psychological, safety and physical needs of each patient, the number and age of visitors and hours of visitation may need to be amended through consensus between the nurse manager, charge nurse and the physician.

What are your infant security and safety guidelines?

The birth parent and one designated support person will have ID bands to match the one placed on the baby at birth. ID bands are connected to a hospital-wide electronic monitoring system. In addition to ID bands with unique matching identifiers for birth parent, support person and infant, your infant will have a security tag and band placed on one leg. Bands are checked whenever a baby is taken out of a room or brought back in. The baby will keep the ID band and security tag on until birth parent and baby are discharged at the front desk.

Visitors will have to present photo identification (i.e. driver’s license or state ID) for verification.

All visitors will be checked against the visitor list and visitor restriction list.

All visitors coming in contact with the newborn will be instructed on performing hand hygiene before and after contact with the infant including after diaper changes.

Do visitor policies change during flu season?

Yes. For the safety of our patients, we enforce additional visitor restrictions during flu season each fall and winter, including:

• No children under the age of 12 allowed
• No one with flu-like symptoms allowed to visit.