Women's services may be defined as addressing the physical, psychological, and financial well-being of females of all ages as well as their children. Programs and facilities range from hot lines for counseling on abuse, adoption, birth control, depression, and pregnancy through to small satellite neighborhood centers focusing on testing and disease prevention. Large tertiary regional centers contain sophisticated facilities for treatment of cancer, infertility, high-risk pregnancies and low-birth-weight babies. Large academic medical centers and freestanding facilities associated with medical schools may handle between 3,000 and 8,000 births a year and offer neonatal intensive care facilities at the highest level, Level III, as well as labor delivery recovery suites (LDRs), and labor delivery recovery and postpartum suites (LDRPs)—often in combination.

The majority of facilities are hospital based for efficiency and backed up with specialists in case of a complication. There is still a strong tendency to make the facility appear as "unbig" a hospital as possible, often through dedicated entrances or separate pavilions.

The LDR concept has been successful in all of the case studies. Discussions with patients, staff, and physicians indicated that the design of the LDR room enhanced care. In-room computer workstations allowed the nurse and patient to interact while not jeopardizing the patient's privacy. Having in-room infant care, or nursery care being left up to the mother, is a way for a mother to get to know her infant at her own pace.

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