GW vs. Sibley

[Anonymous]

loved my GW experience. yes there were students ( i only remember one med student)- I do remember saying no to a nursing student because she was being annoying and pushy (and there were plenty of health care providers in the the room already).

[Anonymous]

I loved my birth at Sibley in May. However, I didn't ask to labor in the shower, etc. since I was a "get an epidural as soon as possible" kind of gal. I did think that the postpartum nurses were surprisingly hands off, but my first was a preemie, so it could just be that a full term baby was a different experience. Having the nursery there was AWESOME.

I would expect that the experience would be different now than in the height of COVID, so I would try not to use the first experience as the baseline (I understand this is hard to do).

[Anonymous]

I’ve given birth at Sibley twice in the past 3 years. I think the delivery nurses are wonderful and the postpartum nurses aren’t awesome. They’re kind of pushy and like you said, give some weird advice (one insisted I couldn’t shower until 24 hours after giving birth). But I think as a seasoned mom, you could easily push back on that.

[Anonymous]

I gave birth in 2019 in GW and what really annoyed me was that I asked the anesthesiologist to do my epidural instead of a student and he refused to do it and told me that the resident had to do it, I was in the middle of painful contractions so I didnt want to keep asking but Im due in a couple months and still hesitant to go back there

[Anonymous]

Would you consider Georgetown? I'm currently expecting and while I haven't delivered yet, I'm in my 3rd trimester and have been very happy with the care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I gave birth in 2019 in GW and what really annoyed me was that I asked the anesthesiologist to do my epidural instead of a student and he refused to do it and told me that the resident had to do it, I was in the middle of painful contractions so I didnt want to keep asking but Im due in a couple months and still hesitant to go back there

Did the resident mess up? A resident did mine ( and a combo spinal tap) with no attending present. I was just thankful to be put out of my pain and could barely speak at that point

[Anonymous]

Was planning on delivering at Sibley. My doctor sent me to GW for a “higher level of care.” After stabilization, I was offered to return to my Sibley doctor but in patient. I opted to stay at GW. There was an attending present 24/7. The residents were absolutely wonderful. I never saw a student 🤷🏼‍♂️.

[Anonymous]

Definitely Sibley. I had my first at Sibley and my second at GW. I found Sibley much more organized and peaceful--it mostly does childbirths, elective surgeries and rehab stuff--whereas GW has the whole gamut of critical and emergency care.

I opted for GW the second time around because it was closer to my office for appointments, but I didn't like the GW OB practice, and GW Hospital itself was a zoo--took forever just to admit me and find me a bed even though I had pre-registered and was in active labor, tried to discharge me 24 hours post-partum because they were crowded and needed the bed, even though insurance pays for 48 hours of post delivery care. I did have a gaggle of medical students witness my child's birth. I didn't love that from a privacy/dignity perspective, but they asked for my consent and I said yes because every doctor needs to learn.

[Anonymous]

I wonder what people mean by a swarm of students. Literally, one student is assigned to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you consider Georgetown? I'm currently expecting and while I haven't delivered yet, I'm in my 3rd trimester and have been very happy with the care.

loved georgetown and the med students were not intrusive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I gave birth in 2019 in GW and what really annoyed me was that I asked the anesthesiologist to do my epidural instead of a student and he refused to do it and told me that the resident had to do it, I was in the middle of painful contractions so I didnt want to keep asking but Im due in a couple months and still hesitant to go back there

Don’t go to a teaching hospital if you don’t want residents to do stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I gave birth in 2019 in GW and what really annoyed me was that I asked the anesthesiologist to do my epidural instead of a student and he refused to do it and told me that the resident had to do it, I was in the middle of painful contractions so I didnt want to keep asking but Im due in a couple months and still hesitant to go back there

A resident is not a student. He/she is an MD. Perhaps the best analogy would be a well-educated apprentice?

[Anonymous]

Sibley. But also, nurses in recovery are always pretty mediocre (whereas L&D nurses tend to be rock stars). It's less about the hospital and more about the fact that recovery wards just don't attract the best staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what people mean by a swarm of students. Literally, one student is assigned to you.

During my delivery at GW the attending OB had 4 residents with her and the lead midwife had one student midwife, so that was at least 5 extra people who were coming and going in my room and gawking at me like a freak show and who seemed weirdly excited by the complications of my delivery, which was insanely stressful for me. This was especially true given that I was frightened for my own life and my daughter’s and also trying for an unmedicated vaginal birth and was completely naked for most of the end because after a day of unmedicated labor I felt like I was dying and was in so much pain I could not force myself to muster the energy to put on a hospital gown.

During the birth itself there was at least 15 staff people in the room, and 5 of those were learners. Needless to say it was awful. I had an instrumental birth and the excitement in the room was palpable from the learners who could barely contain their glee. The fact that I was terrified my child was coming out brain dead after hours of decels and non-reassuring HR and my lack of pain relief from a botched epidural was certainly not anything anyone cared about. It made me realize just how horrible it is to be a case of medical interest, and I felt dehumanized by the experience and treated less like a person and more of a learning opportunity for students who didn’t see me as a person but as something to further their own skills on. I also felt like being in a teaching hospital made the staff doing the teaching far more focused on the learners than giving good patient care to the actual patient at hand. To them, I felt more like a prop.

When I had my next baby at Sibley I had a fair bit of trauma to overcome from that experience. I ended up needing a scheduled C section which I was terrified about, but which was shockingly civilized compared to
my first birth which I absolutely felt debased by. My new, kind and very experienced OB had each staff person introduce themself to me ahead of time and everyone there was extremely professional and kind. That left me with a pleasant memory of the experience as I was focused solely on getting through the surgery and meeting my child instead of being a Guinea pig. And everyone respected my dignity during the surgery and postpartum, something sadly lacking at GW.

If given a choice, I will never willingly go to a teaching hospital again after my first experience. Being someone’s Guinea pig is not something I ever want to repeat.

And for what it’s worth - my own dad, who had a hip replacement surgery done at a teaching hospital in another state last year- had a similarly poor experience. Despite being reassured that the doctor who he sought out for his expertise would be the one performing his surgery, when he reviewed his surgical notes it was actually a supervised student who had done it. Needless to say, he was pissed off and reflected that at a teaching hospital, he should have known better and not trusted the doctor.

[Anonymous]

Sibley! Delivered first at GW and second Sibley. Sibley was quieter and nurses coordinated visits so there were less visits and nursery option was amazing.