Question for an American (don’t worry, it’s lighthearted)

[ShesTheAlbatross]

In tv/film, whenever someone has a baby in America, there is often a waiting room full of friends and/or family.

Is this just a tv thing because it provides good fodder for an episode? Or is it an actual thing? Because I think that in Britain we’d consider the whole family camping out in the hospital for an entire labour and delivery a bit deranged - there are certainly no waiting rooms for family in the maternity unit.

Some older hospitals still have large waiting rooms. Nowadays, there are often smaller family rooms down the corridor from the room where the woman is laboring.