Why is Sibley bad?

[Anonymous]

Assuming you aren't high risk, why not consider an out of hospital birth? A much better option all-around, imo.

[Anonymous]

Had two babies there, including one that was in the special care nursery for a bit. Had a great experience and the nurses were amazing. It does suck to pay for a room.

[Anonymous]

DC #1 was born at Sibley. Wonderful experience with labor and delivery. Mixed experience with the 2 days recovery. Awful, awful lactation advice.

I thought I was in labor and went to Sibley with DC#2. On call doctor told me I wasn't in labor and sent me home. Less than 2 hours later I had the baby in the house.

As for a pp suggestion about a home birth- my second DC wasn't breathing when he was born. Scariest few minutes of my life. You never know what will happen. Yes, chances are everything will be fine, but I really wish an OB was present at the birth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, I forgot--they also did not have the right kind of gauze in the OR for packing the wound. I think they ended up tying together the little ones because there weren't strips? That seems crazy but that's what I remember.
I'm mainly going off how pissed off the two doctors seemed about all these things. I would have no idea what a properly stocked OR should have, but the doctors seemed pretty mad that this stuff wasn't there.
I should also say--this was all several years ago. Hopefully they've got it sorted out now. But they still are not the kind of hospital that gets major trauma, so I'd guess they just don't have the people in the building that can deal with it (like how they had to call in that specialist who took like 4 or 5 hours to get there--my guess is that someplace like GW would have someone like that actually in the building).

What a nightmare, so glad everything ended up okay for you.

I had a cyst removed at Sibley and while my surgeon was amazing, I was not impressed with the care I received from the hospital staff - I knew it was going to be a rough 2 nights when they forgot me in the recovery room for three hours, and it was. After that experience, when I got pregnant, I knew I had to switch to a different hospital even though I loved my OB.

[Anonymous]

Two of my close friends - both had textbook easy pregnancies and were not high risk - ended up needing NICU because of emergencies. Delivery emergencies are, of course, hard to predict. Both babies ended up being rushed to Georgetown NICU. One baby made it. The other did not.

Ended up going with Georgetown so the NICU was right there, but luckily didn't need it.

[Anonymous]

I liked it. It was like having a baby in a small town hospital kast decorated in the early 1980s. Nostalgic, if unmodern feel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A blood transfusion is actually a really routine and standard procedure that is unlikely to go wrong due to "operator error."

I'd like to hear a few more specifics from the poster claiming that the hospital lacked functional (what does that even mean?) transfusion capability in the OR. Before I blame a hospital

-- an RN who has never worked at Sibley

It was me--I'll try it get the medical terminology right, but forgive me if I don't. I had a arterial hematoma that burst through the vaginal wall leading to massive Hemorhage. The OB tried to sew it up in the delivery room but was utterly unsuccessful. My BP was too low to move me, so they gave me epi-something to get my heart beating more strongly then moved me to an OR. There was no blood warmer in the OR so they could not transfuse me. The anesthesiologist called a nurse to find one but it was taking too long, so he said he was going to go search ORs to try to find one and took off running. He did find one and I got 5 liters. The other problem was that they needed to call in a specialist (something like vascular intervention???) and it took hours for the guy to show up. The poor anesthesiologist kept calling and calling to ask where he was an when he would be there, and they just kept telling him within the hour. They did put foam into my arteries to stop the bleeding--luckily I was clotting okay, or I would not have made it until the guy showed up. Also, when the anesthesiologist first called for the specialist, they connected him to the wrong department and he had a farcical 5 minute conversation trying to figure out why they didn't understand what he was asking for, before he figured out it wasn't the right department even. It seemed pretty comical, largely because I was on massive amounts of pain killers that they had given me after the birth, when I kept complaining that the pain was getting worse.

They just seemed like a hospital that wasn't particularly prepared to deal with a lot of blood loss. I'm still here typing this, so it obviously wasn't catastrophic. I'm sure it's fine for most deliveries.

Ok, I take your point. PP RN here. I've never set foot in the Sibley OR / OB OR, but this sounds unprepped to me as an outsider. Your condition is not entirely unexpected and rare. Glad you and the baby are doing well!

[Anonymous]

I gave birth at Sibley 3 years ago. I wouldn't go back. I had a very quick (6 hour) birth from time my water broke, but no one would believe my baby was coming fast and they had no delivery rooms available so the had me sit around and labor in the waiting room. When a delivery room was available they said "we will check on you in a few hours". When I started hemorrhaging during birth my husband left to get help (leaving me alone) and the nurses at the station apparently said "according to our monitors she and the baby are fine." He begged them to come check me, at which point the nurse came in and they could see the head. She showed my husband how to help me push and left to get the doctor (so, we were again alone). I had asked for an epidural, but their labeling system was down that day and they'd left me in the waiting room for a few hours, so they were unable to label my blood and it was too late to find someone to walk it to the lab so no epidural. Except they wrote in my chart that I had an epidural. The doctor after delivering said "I'll give you something for your back pain" and I said "I don't have back pain" and she said "you will when your epidural wears off". She was IRATE with the nurses because appently she was about to start stitches. Ouch. She couldn't get the bleeding to stop and asked the nurses for a series of tools (as well as another doctor to assist) and they kept saying things like "that's not in the maternity ward". I did stop bleeding, but they decided to monitor my blood count every hour of my hospital stay to make sure I didn't need a transfusion. While not ideal to get woken up on the hour, to make it worse they didn't time this with things like my meds, or my baby coming in to nurse, so I never got more than about 25 mins of sleep for 2 nights after giving birth. My parents arrived when DD was 24 hours old and were upset that (a) my dad's credit card information was (probably) stollen in the cafeteria (fraudulent charges started appearing shortly after he used it) and (b) when they brought my DD to my mom the blanket DD was in had a loose string that was wrapped around her neck. My mom pointed this out to the nurse who said basically "huh". I had a really hard time in the weeks after my daughter's birth and I think a lot of that was Sibley-related anxiety. I LOVED my Sibley-affiliated doctor, but don't think I could deliver my next one there.

[Anonymous]

I had an unmedicated birth at sibley and like some PPs have said, the post partum care and lactation consultant was not the best, but the L&D was great.

It might depend on your OB, but my office always has someone on call there.

Baby was out in less than 4 hours after arriving there.

I stayed with my OB who only delivers there for this baby and now at least i know what to expect from post partum care.

[Anonymous]

I've had two births at Sibley and had an amazing experience. The nurses were so incredible and helpful, I can't even begin to say. There was one nurse in particular who I remember sat with me for like an hour in the middle of the night trying to help me breastfeed for two nights in a row. I'll never forget the nurses there and the care we received.

[Anonymous]

Reasons I would not go to Sibley (I've delivered at Sibley and WHC):
1. too biomedical. I had a section after laboring to ten. Baby was healthy at delivery. Took them forever to get DS to me, show him to me, never offered to show placenta, never talked with me or my husband in OR. That is the complete opposite of my section experienced at WHC. Also a surgical procedure - much MUCH more mama friendly.
2. L&D nurse was totally checked out during my whole labor. honestly, she was more into machines than me. it was horrible. even my doula thought so. this is 1 person. so a different nurse may be better. but it was really a bummer.
3. my private paid for room had fleas in the shower. no lie. it was disgusting. if i had been slightly more functional, i would have said something!


i found the postpartum care (both the nurses and the LC's) to be good.

[Anonymous]

Sibley is supposed to be great, which is why I was okay delivering there, and the facilities are clean and for the most the staff seems competent. What I didn't know before is that they have a 50 percent c-section rate and a policy they urge docs to follow on how long they'll let you labor if you haven't progressed (even if nothing is wrong with the baby). They also take the baby away a lot after it's born for various tests and pokes. I'm sure you could request this not happen, but you'll have to speak up -- a lot. I'll be delivering with midwives/OBs at WHC for this pregnancy. It's not as shiny as Sibley, but their section rate is one of the lowest in the area. And they do any tests right there in the room with you (as opposed to taking the baby away).

[Anonymous]

All of our kids were born at Sibley and had a good experience. Other relatives more recently have had successful (non-maternity) care in that hospital.

Depending on your due date, do you know that the entire hospital is scheduled to "cut over' to the new building (where the new ER is already open) next summer? The new building will feature all private rooms. The "old" wings will be renovated for doctor offices and other uses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They have little to no trauma care there. For instance, they don't get any major car accidents or shooting. If something goes very wrong, my experience is that they did not have the basic equipment or doctors on hand to handle it. I needed a transfusion and it took them waaaaaay to long to even get that basic stuff up and running. They needed to call in a trauma specialist and it took him hours to get there. I don't think that would happen at GW, which has a trauma center.

That was a few years ago, so maybe it's gotten better.

As violent crime increases in Upper NW without much police response, it seems that Mayor Bowser wants to help Sibley with that problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of our kids were born at Sibley and had a good experience. Other relatives more recently have had successful (non-maternity) care in that hospital.

Depending on your due date, do you know that the entire hospital is scheduled to "cut over' to the new building (where the new ER is already open) next summer? The new building will feature all private rooms. The "old" wings will be renovated for doctor offices and other uses.

I believe the opening of the maternity wing has already been pushed out again to the Fall