Our nationally recognized maternity care team at St. Luke’s is happy to help you welcome the newest addition to your family. We’re here to answer your questions as an expecting and new parent. Here are some common resources to make your time in labor and delivery easier.
Pre-register for Labor and Delivery
For your convenience, you can pre-register for your admission for labor and delivery at St. Luke's.
Where to Go When You Arrive at the Hospital
When you arrive at St. Luke’s Hospital to deliver your baby, you will go directly to the Birth Care Suites on the fifth floor. You can park in any of the surface lots or parking garages. Complimentary valet parking is also available from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, in front of the hospital's West Medical Building, which is just west of the hospital lobby entrance. If you arrive between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., please go to the Emergency Department entrance, which is on the second level of the hospital. Temporary parking is available in front of the entrance.
In addition to your hospital bag, please be sure to bring your insurance card and photo ID with you.
For any questions regarding hospital charges, please call St. Luke’s Billing Department at 314-576-8100 or visit Patient Billing Resources.
Donating Cord Blood
Soon after your baby is born, your provider will clamp and cut the baby’s umbilical cord. You can choose to collect your cord blood for donating or banking for personal use. The blood found in the umbilical cord and placenta are full of stem cells. Stem cells may benefit people with a wide range of conditions — everything from anemia and certain types of cancer to immune-system disorders. Right after birth is the only time that you can put cord stem cells into storage. Stem cells are in other parts of the body, like the blood and bone marrow, but they’re much more difficult to collect than the umbilical cord and placenta.
If you decide to donate your baby’s cord blood, we collect cord blood for the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank. When you donate cord blood to a public cord blood bank, it becomes available to potentially save the life of someone who needs a stem cell transplant because of a life-threatening disease. Cord blood stored in a private bank is reserved for use by someone in your family. It’s unlikely that any given child would be able to use their own cord blood in the future.
Cord blood collection is a personal decision. Discuss your options and preferences with your care team before your due date.
Newborn Health Screenings
We screen all babies born at St. Luke’s for a variety of conditions to protect them from serious health problems. We screen for conditions required by the state of Missouri, including:
- Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)
- Phenylketonuria (PKU)
- Galactosemia
- Sickle cell disease
- Thyroid disease
We perform most of these screenings by collecting a small amount of blood from your newborn’s heel. We’ll also check your baby’s hearing in a noninvasive and painless test.
Visitors and Security After Birth
We offer open visiting hours so you can decide when you want family members and friends to visit. Children are welcome to visit when accompanied by an adult. To protect the health of your new baby, we ask that visitors stay home if sick. For the well-being of all patients, St. Luke’s is a smoke-free environment. Visitors may not smoke in the hospital.
Our top priority is keeping you and your baby safe. We’ll give you and your baby special security IDs and limit access to authorized visitors in the Well Baby Nursery and the Special Care Nursery.
Room-Service Meals
We provide one free meal for your support person. You can order meals on-demand through our hotel-style room service. You can eat when it’s most convenient for you. We also deliver freshly baked cookies every day to the rooms of all our maternity patients, because you deserve a little something special during your hospital stay.
Keepsakes and Gifts
To help you celebrate the birth of your new child, our maternity team has put together a few special extras, including:
- A microfleece Halo™ SleepSack swaddle blanket for your baby to wear at home
- A packet of postpartum care and new parent resources and information
- Baby buntings to celebrate holidays and special occasions
- Newborn pictures taken in your hospital room by Bella Baby Photography
- The option to commemorate your child or grandchild’s birth for years to come on our Footprints into the Future wall