tell me everything about the gw nicu

[Anonymous]

i'm likely to have a nicu baby at gw. if you'd had a nicu baby there, can you tell me all about your experience? what should i know? i don't have any nicu experience, so all nicu tips welcome, especially if they're specific to gw.

[Anonymous]

My nephew was there -- born 8 weeks early. This was years ago and I am sure the nicu is even better.

He grew to be 6'4" tall, athletic, handsome and super smart!

You will be in good hands!

[Anonymous]

I had a baby there in 2018. (He is now six and healthy as a horse.).

Incredible medical care - top notch. Very cautious with health but also willing to let me hold/snuggle/nurse as much as Baby’s condition allowed. Nurses were so kind.

They have restrictions on number of visitors because it’s a small space. So don’t plan on inviting your whole family or anything. Warn others that if they come they can’t hold the baby most likely - since it can’t happen all the time, that is reserved for you and DH.

The rest of advice will be different based on expected length of stay - do you know? Is a preemie birth expected?

[Anonymous]

PP back to add - it was such a stressful time that I took no photos (unwarranted shame may have played a role too - I just wanted to forget the nightmare beginning and get to the “normal” baby part).

But now I wish I had photos of him in the NICU. It’s part of his story, and he is curious now that he is older, and I actually cherish the single photo I have of that time. So take lots of photos and decide later what to do with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a baby there in 2018. (He is now six and healthy as a horse.).

Incredible medical care - top notch. Very cautious with health but also willing to let me hold/snuggle/nurse as much as Baby’s condition allowed. Nurses were so kind.

They have restrictions on number of visitors because it’s a small space. So don’t plan on inviting your whole family or anything. Warn others that if they come they can’t hold the baby most likely - since it can’t happen all the time, that is reserved for you and DH.

The rest of advice will be different based on expected length of stay - do you know? Is a preemie birth expected?

Is it one big room for all babies/families? Is there any privacy? How do you handle pumping?

I’m 28 weeks now and very high risk for preeclampsia. BP still “normal” but trending upward. Hard to know exactly when things will turn bad. I want to be prepared.

[Anonymous]

They have a private pumping room if needed

https://www.gwhospital.com/conditions-services/maternity/neonatal-intensive-care-unit-nicu

[Anonymous]

This is a tough one because I imagine most people who have been in the NICU have strong feelings about it one way or the other. My son was there in August 2020 for just over a week. It was all one room with the beds close together. Very tough to get any privacy, so I would be prepared for that. At that time only one parent was allowed at a time, so hopefully that is no longer the case now that there are fewer covid restrictions. I pumped there a couple times but it was very awkward due to how visible I was to the rest of the room and the lack of places to plug in the pump. A previous PP said that there is now a pumping room, so that's a good change. The doctors were very good - very communicative re: the plan of care. This is my biggest need-to-know tip - find out when rounds are in the morning and make sure to be there to talk to the attending while they're there and hear the discussion among the attending and the residents. It was very difficult for me to get information otherwise and impossible to get anyone on the phone. The nurses do not necessarily know the plan of care so can't communicate it. In the end though my baby is healthy and 4 years old now. I wish you all the best of luck and hope your baby can come home quickly.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, PP here with one more thing I just remembered - the nurses did not encourage me to hold the baby and in fact told me I couldn't. I spoke to one of the providers I delivered with when I met them in the hall and they told me this was BS - that there were very few conditions where you can't hold your baby and that I should be able to hold mine. So I told the nurse that I spoke to one of the providers and they recommended I hold the baby, and tada, I was now able to hold the baby. So every day after that I told the nurse I wanted to hold the baby, and if they pushed back, I asked them to tell me why and magically I was allowed to.

I hope this was just a symptom of healthcare providers being exhausted from covid and just not wanting to do extra work to help you get the baby out of the bed with all the wires and such and that this doesn't happen anymore, but I can't tell you how magical it was to be able to hold him so want you to be prepared to advocate for that.

[Anonymous]

what about sitting there, sleeping there, doing work there? can you leave stuff there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, PP here with one more thing I just remembered - the nurses did not encourage me to hold the baby and in fact told me I couldn't. I spoke to one of the providers I delivered with when I met them in the hall and they told me this was BS - that there were very few conditions where you can't hold your baby and that I should be able to hold mine. So I told the nurse that I spoke to one of the providers and they recommended I hold the baby, and tada, I was now able to hold the baby. So every day after that I told the nurse I wanted to hold the baby, and if they pushed back, I asked them to tell me why and magically I was allowed to.

I hope this was just a symptom of healthcare providers being exhausted from covid and just not wanting to do extra work to help you get the baby out of the bed with all the wires and such and that this doesn't happen anymore, but I can't tell you how magical it was to be able to hold him so want you to be prepared to advocate for that.

This is also a GW problem. I gave birth there and was lectured and told all sorts of “rules.” For example I was required to keep a breast feeding log. I was lectured to for not filling it out. I got up without slippers on and was yelled at for that.

Gave birth at a different hospital for second child and was prepared for something similar as GW.

postpartum care there is terrible and I’d only give birth there if I had a postpartum doula by my side at all times.

OP my lesson learned is push back. You’re a customer! At one point during Covid they told me my husband couldn’t leave the hospital and I told them this isn’t jail and that’s simply not true he must stay here. Then they said they wouldn’t let him back in and I told them he’d call the police for not letting him into the hospital to retrieve his child.

GW is crazy so get ready.

[Anonymous]

They will take care of the baby, for sure
For the mother, you're at risk. Get a doula to be by your side and advocate

[Anonymous]

my niece and nephew were born at 24 weeks and i credit GW nicu for their lives. thriving and healthy 11 years later

[Anonymous]

I had a baby in the GW NICU for weeks and a baby for weeks in the Children's NICU. Both received excellent care. Communicating with the doctor was a bit awkward sometimes. The nurses were absolutely excellent and loving.

In Children's, there is privacy. At GW, it was one room but, though full of babies, there weren't any other parents there whenever I was so it didn't lack for privacy.

Both parking lots are terrible, Children's slightly less bad. The medical care was excellent. Though extremely stressful, baby and I were well cared for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what about sitting there, sleeping there, doing work there? can you leave stuff there?

If you can sleep upright in a chair they might not stop you. No place to leave stuff. You can work if you can put your laptop in your lap but there would be no privacy for calls. Basically the space allocated to you is the chair you pull up next to your child’s bassinet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a tough one because I imagine most people who have been in the NICU have strong feelings about it one way or the other. My son was there in August 2020 for just over a week. It was all one room with the beds close together. Very tough to get any privacy, so I would be prepared for that. At that time only one parent was allowed at a time, so hopefully that is no longer the case now that there are fewer covid restrictions. I pumped there a couple times but it was very awkward due to how visible I was to the rest of the room and the lack of places to plug in the pump. A previous PP said that there is now a pumping room, so that's a good change. The doctors were very good - very communicative re: the plan of care. This is my biggest need-to-know tip - find out when rounds are in the morning and make sure to be there to talk to the attending while they're there and hear the discussion among the attending and the residents. It was very difficult for me to get information otherwise and impossible to get anyone on the phone. The nurses do not necessarily know the plan of care so can't communicate it. In the end though my baby is healthy and 4 years old now. I wish you all the best of luck and hope your baby can come home quickly.

This is surprising to me that it’s all babies in one room. My baby was in the NICU at VHC and each baby is in a private room with a rocker, sleeping chair, etc. I never saw the other babies or parents when I was there.