Maternal Health Division

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Goverment of India

B Conventional Labor Room Complexes for

Considering various factors including delivery load, usually these centers will have labor rooms with
number of labor tables ranging from 2 to 6. Suggested layout of labor room complexes with 4 labor
tables is given as annexure VII.

Overall specifications

a. The walls of the labor room complex should be made of 1’x1.3’ white wall tiles, with seamless
joint, and extending up to the ceiling.
b. The floor of the labor room complex should be made of white anti-skid vitrified tiles or natural
stone of size 2’x2’ and with seamless joints.
c. The main doors of the labor room complex should be made of wood and should be of size 7’X4’.
It should have two door frames, one large (3/5th of the width) and another small (2/5th of the
width).
d. The walls and ceiling of the labor room complex should be of white color.
e. The windows of the complex should be of size 3’x 2.5’. Each window should have 2-panel sliding
doors. The outside panel should be fixed and should have half ground glass and half mesh. The
second panel should be moving with frosted glass and a lock.

Lighting

The labor room complex should have adequate lights. Apart from the ambient light, there should
also be provision for additional focus lights for the labor tables and examination tables for
procedures. To ensure adequate lighting in the labor rooms of CHCs, the following guidance should
be used.

a. Lighting requirement using LED lights should be calculated. For conventional labor room layout,
the labor area should have 500 Lx lighting. Smaller attached rooms such as staff duty room,
utility rooms, storage areas should have at least 150 Lx. Passages should have 75 Lx. All the
wash rooms should have 100 Lx.
b. Based upon the above reference Lx figures, number of Lumens should be calculated for each
area using the area of the area in square meters.
c. Number of LED lights should be calculated based upon the number of Lumens required.
d. The LED lights should be placed in a way that they are situated some distance away from the
corners of the room.
e. Apart from ceiling mounted lights, there should be one goose-neck movable shadow less light/
focus light for each table. Wherever possible these lights should be mounted on the ceiling.
f. All the attached wash rooms should have adequate lights (at least 1 LED light).

Power supply

a. Every new construction should have adequate power back-up to continuously run the radiant
warmer, the lights and the fan.
b. Every new construction should have solar panels installed to provide the necessary power back-
up.

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Maternal Health Division
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Goverment of India

Ventilation

The labor room should have adequate ventilation. At the same time, the temperature of the labor
room should be kept around 250 C. The labor room should not have broken windows panes or
doors that can create draughts of air. To ensure adequate ventilation in conventional labor room
complexes of CHCs, the following guidance should be used:
a. The labor complex should have split ACs for ensuring adequate ventilation and air changes.
b. Tonnage for ACs for the different sections of the labor room complex can be calculated using
the following formula (for a room with ceiling height of 9')
Tonnage = (square root of area)/10
For example, for a section with an area of 150 square feet (15’X 10’), AC tonnage can be
calculated as follows-
Tonnage = (square root 150)/10
= 12.48/10
= 1.248 or 1.25 tonne
c. Number and size of split ACs should be calculated using this formula.
d. Apart from the AC units, the labor room complex should have one ceiling mounted fan for every
labor table in the labor area, and one ceiling mounted fan for every workspace.

Waiting/Registration area

There should be a reception and registration area at the entry of the labor room complex that is
separate from the regular in-patient reception area of the hospital for mothers in labor and in
emergency. Ideally, this entry should be approachable by ambulance. It should have the following
specifications:
a. Size and position as per the layout given in annexures VII.
b. A registration desk of size 4’X 2’.
c. Three chairs, one for person manning the desk and two for the pregnant woman and her
attendant.
d.Seating arrangement in the form of fixed chairs for 20 people.
e.Two toilets (size as per layout given in annexure VII), one for men and another for
women.

Triage/Examination Room

There should be an examination cum triage room to first examine the pregnant woman who has
come to the facility. The examination room will function as the triage area based on risk
stratification into low risk and the high risk, based on history, examination and referral notes. The
mother is examined, necessary investigations done, and admitted to LDR if low or no risk or HDU if
moderate or high risk. The examination room should have the following:
a. 1 examination bed with adequate provisions for movement and privacy including screens.
b. A table for nurse of size 4’ X 4’ for paper work.
c. 3 chairs, 1 for the nurse/examiner and 2 for the pregnant woman and her attendant.
d. A storage cabinet for storing essential supplies.
e. A granite counter running the full length of the shortest wall of the labor room to keep
equipment and supplies for use during the examination. The size of the examination should be

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Maternal Health Division
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Goverment of India

as per the layout given in annexures VII.

Staff Room

There should be a staff room with the following specification:

Labor & Delivery Area

The labor area should be organized in a way to ensure most efficient space utilization and free
movement space for the nursing staff between different labor tables.
a. The labor area should have adequate space to accommodate recommended number of labor
beds as per the layout given in annexures VII.
b. The labor room should have adequate number of labor beds as per the delivery load.
c. The labor beds should be placed in a way that there is a distance of at least 3’ from the side
wall, at least 2’ from head end wall, and at least 6’ from the second table in case of two-table
labor room. In case of single-table labor room, the table should have at least 4’ distance from
each wall.
d.There should be an attached toilet of size 6’x8’ with the labor room. The toilet should have:
• A western style toilet.
• A wash basin.
• An external window of at least 2.5’X 1.5’.

Newborn Care Area

a. The labor room should have one Newborn Care Area (NBCA) for every 4 labor tables. The NBCA
should not be a separate enclosed space attached to the labor room, but rather an area within
the labor room designated for resuscitation of newborns.
b.The NBCA should be situated in a way that there is no obstruction between the labor table(s)
and the corner and any child needing resuscitation can be shifted there within 5 seconds.
c. The NBCA should have the following:
• Radiant warmer.
• Resuscitation kit with functional bag and mask.
• Mucus extractor.
• Pre-warmed baby receiving towels.
• Shoulder roll.
• Pediatric stethoscope.
d.The radiant warmer should be placed in a way that it has free space on three sides.
e . There should be a clock with seconds hand on the wall near the NBCA.
f. There should be an oxygen cylinder/oxygen concentrator in the vicinity of the NBCA.

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Maternal Health Division
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Goverment of India

Nursing Station

The labor room should have one nursing station with the following:
a. An L-shaped table with size as per specification in annexures VII.
b.Two plastic/wooden chairs.
c. A storage cupboard for storing documents and supplies.
d.A white board on the wall next to the nursing station.

Store

There should be a store room within the complex with the following specifications:
a. Size as per layout given in annexure VII.
b.Cabinets and storage racks for storing supplies.

Clean utility area

There should be a clean utility area (size as per layout given in annexure VII) for storing autoclaved
supplies and other clean utility items.

Dirty-utility area

There should be a dirty-utility area (size as per layout given in annexure VII) for storing used and un-
clean re-usable supplies and other items.

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