Walter Reed NMMC Bethesda for labor and delivery

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any input on their experiences with childbirth at WRNMMC Bethesda? I currently go there for Repro endocrinology and it is often very hard to get in to see a doctor. I am concerned that I may have the same problem when seeing an OB. Also, I am high-risk. Any experiences/input regarding high risk pregnancies at WRNMMC?

[Anonymous]

I had a baby there in 2011, and will deliver there again in a couple of weeks. I'm AMA, but otherwise not high risk. If you're already seeing RE there, they may be able to help get you set up.

MFM is great, but general OB is a bit of a cattle call. You can always see someone, but if they decide not to call you "high risk," you will just see whomever, usually midwives. On the other hand, if you do have a problem, they have an Acute Care OB clinic which will see you right away, always a doctor.

L&D was fine, but not super special or warm and fuzzy. Postpartum rooms are nice. I had a c-section which was fine.

My Walter Reed experiences have been for 2nd and now 3rd babies. If it had been my first, I might have felt a bit dismissed and "like a number." My DH works there, though, so I didn't seriously consider going elsewhere since it made it possible for him to come to all the appointments.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your response! very helpful. I have heard really great things about VHC (and it is closer) but I am already very familiar with bethesda due to regularly going to the RE clinic.
Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

I had my son there. Also AMA but not high risk. I wanted to see a midwife, and ended up with one that was fantastic. As PP noted, though, scheduling can be an issue - if you're fine seeing whomever, you won't have a problem getting appointments. But if you want a specific provider, it can be difficult - when I had problems getting appointments with the midwife I ended up going to the patient advocate. You may need to be persistent. And for delivery you'll get whatever doctor is on duty (though that may be different if you're high risk). It's a training hospital, so many of the doctors involved are still residents or interns. I also had a c-section and the anesthesiologist and surgeon were both junior, but they were fully supervised by senior docs the whole time, and I had no concerns; I thought the delivery went well, and I was able to hold my son pretty quickly. When we did the L&D tour, the nurse who gave the tour was upfront about the fact that they do continuous monitoring of laboring moms and while they'll accept birth plans, they aren't particularly receptive to the Bradley method. I thought the post-delivery care was good - my chief complaint was that the lactation consultant on duty was bad. The hospital doesn't have a nursery - babies room with moms, which I liked but isn't for everyone. DH was able to stay in the room as well (we also live in VA, so the drive home would have been long). Overall we were pretty happy with the experience. We've stayed on for pediatric care as well.

There's definitely a unique aspect of being at Walter Reed - several of the medical personnel involved in my care had recent experiences in Iraq or Afghanistan. One medic told me the L&D ward was a nice change of pace.

As an aside, I went to the breastfeeding group at VHC after I had my son - definitely recommend it and their new parents group.

[Anonymous]

Agree with everyone else. Though, in my experience, making appointments was not an issue. I was carrying twins which they do NOT consider high risk. MFM was really great.
Delivery was ok, but like the PP said, c-section was mainly done by residents who are fully supervised by senior staff.
One word of coution: don't let residents do every test that they currently learning about. I've made this mistake and let a first year resident to check my cervix for no apparent reason at 32 weeks. She did it twice manually and twice with the ultrasound wand. That caused my cervix to start dialating and landed me on full bed rest for the next 4 weeks. Everything turned out good but could have been an emergency c-section
Good luck

[Anonymous]

If you have another option choose it. I delivered #1 at Bethesda in 2003 just as we were invading Iraq. Needless to say that I showed up to the hospital and almost no one was there. During the build-p, I literally had to wait until a non-military doc or midwife could make it to the hospital to see me because no one was available for the appointment.

On delivery day, DS was delivered by a brand new OBGYN and because he was scared to death I labored on my back the entire time and then had a flush wand inserted because the OBGYN thought that DS had excreted inutero - wrong. He left the wand inserted for way too long and I gained like 10 lbs of fluid because of it. DS was born fine.

I had no experience breast feeding so I had no idea that DS was merely licking and didn't have proper latch until he didn't make weight on his first check-up appointment. I delivered on a Saturday and the lactation consultants don't work weekends there. Ughhh

Fast forward for #2 and #3. They were delivered at INOVA Alexandria and experienced only positive things. I was never high risk until my water broke for #3 at 26 weeks. I was admitted to the hospital for the next 7 weeks until she was born. They then were able to care for her in their level 3 NICU. Something to think about at Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Not to discount the pp's story, but 2003 was 10 years ago. The NICU at Bethesda can handle anything short of transplants, and they helicopter you to Children's if they can't handle it.

Bethesda has also been greatly expanded in the last few years -- they have never been short-staffed like the pp describes.

I am the original respondent, and I will just reiterate that if this is your first baby and you'd like more personal attention, that is hard to come by. But that seems to be the biggest problem. Now that I'm on #3, I'd rather skip the prenatal appointments altogether and just go in for tests and acute care, anyway. I go, of course, but I'm liking the largely "hands off" approach this time around.

[Anonymous]

I'm pregnant (17 weeks) with baby #2. Had the first at Navy Balboa Hospital in San Diego. I'm considered high risk, and have been able to see the same doctor so far for my appointments. The prenatal assessment group is fantastic.

Personally, my sister had her child at Inove Fairfax, which is highly rated, but I was not impressed. Their "security" was laughable, they broke her water without telling her (or telling her that they was meconium in it) and they had her on pitocin for almost 24 hours. Needless to say, she ended up having an emergency C-section at the end of it.