Bringing a Bit of Home to the Antepartum Unit.

SARASOTA, FLA. -- No one at Sarasota Memorial Hospital objected when a patient's family carried a dog in a picnic basket into the antepartum unit.

"I said, 'Sounds like a good slide,' and headed over to the ward to take some photos, Dr. Washington Hill, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the hospital, said at a perinatal symposium sponsored by Symposia Medicus.

"Little things can sometimes make such a big difference for these women, who sometimes feel as if they're in prison here," said Ellen. Kopel Zottoli, a clinical nurse-specialist in maternal-fetal medicine.

"I couldn't live on that ward without seeing my dog, so I understand how other women must feel missing the comforts of home," she said in an interview

Sarasota Memorial Hospital sees many Long-term antepartum patients because it is a referral center for four surrounding counties. Pregnant women with premature rupture of membranes, preterm labor, and other high-risk conditions move in to the antepartum ward with a prescription for indefinite bed rest. "Anything we can do to make their stay more pleasant may increase compliance with the plan of care and hopefully lead to a better prognosis for their pregnancy" Ms. Kopel Zottoli said.

And she has gone to great lengths to achieve that.

"I had one woman who said she couldn't take it any more. I said, 'Is there anything at all we can do to make you stay?' She asked for chicken-fried rice. That and a massage was all it took," she said.