Experiences with Physicians & Midwives (or large practices) and INOVA Alexandria

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2nd the recommendation for Dr. Ahdoot if you have a planned c-section (you have to go with whomever is on call otherwise). He is AWESOME. I’ve had really good experiences over many years at the practice overall - and Dr. Giammatorio who started it literally delivered me 32 years ago so I always think that is awesome.

Dr. G only works as a gynecologist.

Now he does, sure, but I was born in 1987 when he was obviously a full-blown OBGYN.. I was just relating that I think it’s cool. I don’t see him personally; I see Dr. Ahdoot whenever I can.

No it's totally cool, I was just pointing that out. I was born at Sibley with Capital Women's Care in 1985 and I think that's cool too.

[Wally5]

Jumping on this thread to share a review of Inova Alexandria with future expectant moms looking for feedback.

You can do better than this hospital. I delivered my baby here in Jan 2020. He's my first child, so I don't have other experiences to compare this one to. While I generally had decent care, there were many things about Inova Alexandria that were not as advertised, and as a result, we struggled on a few fronts.

First, they actively advertise that they provide nitrous oxide to laboring mothers. This was one of the reasons I chose this hospital. They do not. I was already well into labor by the time I was told that there was no nitrous available at the hospital. I had mentioned this several times prior, had discussed it with my physician/midwife practice (who exclusively delivers at Inova Alexandria), and it was in my birth plan-- no one thought to tell me that there was no nitrous until go time.

Second, once I decided to get an epidural (given that there was no nitrous and I'd been induced a long time prior), the anesthesiologist clearly messed up as he was setting it up. To the point where he apologized to my doula-- not to me or my husband mind you. Thank God I didn't end up with something terrible happening on that front.

Third, since I was induced, I was in the hospital for longer than expected before delivery. They had the most uncomfortable bed known to man. I got no sleep, and both my husband and I went into the delivery completely exhausted as a result. Birth plan basically went out the window.

Fourth, this hospital PRIDES itself on breastfeeding support. It's everywhere on the walls, the literature, you name it. But guess what-- their support is lousy. I had to request help multiple times. It got to the point where I had to beg the head nurse to ask a lactation consultant to sit with me and make sure he was latching. Breastfeeding is hard regardless- but at a "baby friendly" hospital where they tell you about their fabulous lactation support, and I did literally everything in my power to flag that there was a problem and I was struggling, they failed me. I saw at least four different lactation consultants. There was a lot of happy talk, but very little practical help. When it wasn't working, they couldn't help me, and I left the hospital basically hopeless. I had to hire a lactation consultant to come to my house the next day and by that point my baby was a big fan of formula.

Fifth- As it turns out, part of the reason breastfeeding didn't work for me was b/c I had severe postpartum preeclampsia that went undiagnosed while in recovery, even though we spent extra days at the hospital because my son had jaundice. My body was busy trying to keep me from stroking out rather than producing milk. Thank God I was told by a midwife to make an appt within 48 hours of discharge to have my blood pressure checked. I might very well have died in my sleep otherwise.

Sixth, I had the worst experience with a nurse of my life there. One particular nurse insisted on drawing blood from my days old son in the most painful way possible while he screamed as I've never heard a baby scream before. She was ignorant, ill-trained, and thinking of her to this day makes me furious. Other blood draws were a breeze compared to this because they were done properly and he never screamed again. She clearly had no idea what she was doing.

Seventh, My baby had jaundice and they did a terrible job of giving you any option but to have a giant, drafty, old school light machine wheeled into your room so that you- in a hospital with trained staff and having had no sleep in days- have to make sure that a tiny baby who cannot have a blanket doesn't take off the thin fabric that protects his eyesight, etc. It was awful.

Eighth, there is not really a nursery here. They make this clear on the tour, but you might want a hospital with a decent nursery. What they have is makeshift, drafty, and not appropriate for proper care.

Ninth, they literally never let you sleep. I'm not talking about the baby keeping you up. They come to check vitals constantly at all times of the day even when there's a do not disturb sign up. We went home having not slept in basically five nights, which led to a nightmare scenario for a brand new family of three. Despite all of this checking, they still didn't catch that my body was shutting down. Maybe that wasn't possible to do-- but it is notable that I kept alerting nurses to classic preeclampsia symptoms and I was repeatedly told that those were normal after having been pumped with fluids during labor.

Tenth, I left never wanting to come back to this place ever again. It was a miserable experience despite the fact that there were some staff who were helpful and tried their best. Unfortunately, I had to go back to their ER two days later because they had all of my recent birth records and health history on file. Here's where they actually saved my life, and I had a generally good experience with excellent staff- save for the lactation consultant who was horrible, insulting, and should be fired.

[Anonymous]

I delivered my third baby with P&M.

There’s pros and cons to everything. With #1, I used a solo practitioner and I swear she gave me pitocin in part because her shift was close to ending and she wanted to deliver the baby (NYC) instead of passing me off to whoever the next person was. Even if you use a smaller practice you’re not guaranteed to have your doctor deliver the baby because they do have to take breaks.

For baby #2, I used an OB/gyn practice group but perhaps a smaller practice group than P&M in NJ. They tried to get you to see different doctors too, so you would know the person who delivered your baby. I had seen the person who delivered #2 at least once. I knew who she was. For this baby I asked for an epidural but he was born before I could get it. He weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz.

Because baby number two weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz. at birth — when I was pregnant with number three and had recently moved to Northern Virginia I decided to try physicians and midwives because I wanted to find a practice that I felt wouldn’t push me to get induced early due to fears of a big baby (and they did not want to induce me early). I would say during the pregnancy I probably saw all different practitioners and I didn’t even feel like I had any one practitioner (and frankly I still don’t feel like I have one practitioner there for my annual check ups). One thing I liked in particular about physicians and midwives is that it’s such a large practice that they always have a doctor and midwife at the hospital. With the other practices, they did not always have a doctor at the hospital and instead they had to come specifically if you needed it. As I mentioned, I didn’t have an epidural for baby 2 and while I was in labor with baby 3, I was waiting for it to get as painful as it had with baby 2 as my sign to go to the hospital and it just never got that painful. In the end, I almost had the baby in the car but I managed to make it to the hospital. I called P&M at L & D a few times, talked to the midwife on call about how I was trying not to have the baby in the car and she did have to come down to the car and meet me with the wheelchair because I said I couldn’t walk up. She ran down, wheeled me up - and the first cervix check was - there’s the head! The midwife (and a trainee midwife) and the nurse ripped off my clothes I had the baby in 10 minutes and they called it a drive-by delivery. They did my intake after I deliverEd the baby. Overall I was pleased with my care and I thought they handled it well and were nice and cool about everything. I also had mastitis for the first time, two times with this baby, and I thought I received good care from them. One of the times with mastitis, I threw up in the trash can in the exam room and the midwife held my hair back and patted my back.

[Anonymous]

^^
Oh and with the older two kids I did send them back to the nursery and had them brought out to me every three hours to nurse. Initially I was annoyed about the baby friendly situation at Inova Alexandria. I will say I didn’t sleep at all with baby number three while in the hospital as she was in my room, and she’s now five and I’m still tired so there’s that, but my milk did come in the fastest with her.

[Anonymous]

I have been a patient at P&M through three pregnancies. Two of those pregnancies were miscarriages, and one was a full-term birth. Overall, I have been very happy with the practice. It has always been easy to schedule appointments, and test results come back fast. One of my miscarriages was an MMC that required a D&C at 10 weeks, and the other happened naturally at 6 weeks. I felt that they handled both miscarriages well, although I was less than thrilled with the sonographers both times. I was very happy with how the birth of my son went at Inova Alexandria. I did get some later ultrasounds to keep tabs on a couple fibroids, and they were able to give me 3-D pictures.

[Anonymous]

It looks like I’m one of few dissenting opinions here but I delivered my first with P&M at Inova Alexandria and switched to VHC for my second because of the awful experience at the hospital itself with postpartum care (rude nurses, nurses touching me without explaining why or what they were doing, etc.), flat out wrong breastfeeding advice, no nursery, etc. P&M itself as a practice is great and I didn’t have any issues except for maybe being a little bit high-risk shamed by a few providers (none of the ones mentioned here - Elise and Whitney and Dr. Ahdoot are all awesome). Just be sure you’re ready to advocate for yourself with hospital staff.

[Anonymous]

Wally5 wrote:Jumping on this thread to share a review of Inova Alexandria with future expectant moms looking for feedback.

You can do better than this hospital. I delivered my baby here in Jan 2020. He's my first child, so I don't have other experiences to compare this one to. While I generally had decent care, there were many things about Inova Alexandria that were not as advertised, and as a result, we struggled on a few fronts.

First, they actively advertise that they provide nitrous oxide to laboring mothers. This was one of the reasons I chose this hospital. They do not. I was already well into labor by the time I was told that there was no nitrous available at the hospital. I had mentioned this several times prior, had discussed it with my physician/midwife practice (who exclusively delivers at Inova Alexandria), and it was in my birth plan-- no one thought to tell me that there was no nitrous until go time.

Second, once I decided to get an epidural (given that there was no nitrous and I'd been induced a long time prior), the anesthesiologist clearly messed up as he was setting it up. To the point where he apologized to my doula-- not to me or my husband mind you. Thank God I didn't end up with something terrible happening on that front.

Third, since I was induced, I was in the hospital for longer than expected before delivery. They had the most uncomfortable bed known to man. I got no sleep, and both my husband and I went into the delivery completely exhausted as a result. Birth plan basically went out the window.

Fourth, this hospital PRIDES itself on breastfeeding support. It's everywhere on the walls, the literature, you name it. But guess what-- their support is lousy. I had to request help multiple times. It got to the point where I had to beg the head nurse to ask a lactation consultant to sit with me and make sure he was latching. Breastfeeding is hard regardless- but at a "baby friendly" hospital where they tell you about their fabulous lactation support, and I did literally everything in my power to flag that there was a problem and I was struggling, they failed me. I saw at least four different lactation consultants. There was a lot of happy talk, but very little practical help. When it wasn't working, they couldn't help me, and I left the hospital basically hopeless. I had to hire a lactation consultant to come to my house the next day and by that point my baby was a big fan of formula.

Fifth- As it turns out, part of the reason breastfeeding didn't work for me was b/c I had severe postpartum preeclampsia that went undiagnosed while in recovery, even though we spent extra days at the hospital because my son had jaundice. My body was busy trying to keep me from stroking out rather than producing milk. Thank God I was told by a midwife to make an appt within 48 hours of discharge to have my blood pressure checked. I might very well have died in my sleep otherwise.

Sixth, I had the worst experience with a nurse of my life there. One particular nurse insisted on drawing blood from my days old son in the most painful way possible while he screamed as I've never heard a baby scream before. She was ignorant, ill-trained, and thinking of her to this day makes me furious. Other blood draws were a breeze compared to this because they were done properly and he never screamed again. She clearly had no idea what she was doing.

Seventh, My baby had jaundice and they did a terrible job of giving you any option but to have a giant, drafty, old school light machine wheeled into your room so that you- in a hospital with trained staff and having had no sleep in days- have to make sure that a tiny baby who cannot have a blanket doesn't take off the thin fabric that protects his eyesight, etc. It was awful.

Eighth, there is not really a nursery here. They make this clear on the tour, but you might want a hospital with a decent nursery. What they have is makeshift, drafty, and not appropriate for proper care.

Ninth, they literally never let you sleep. I'm not talking about the baby keeping you up. They come to check vitals constantly at all times of the day even when there's a do not disturb sign up. We went home having not slept in basically five nights, which led to a nightmare scenario for a brand new family of three. Despite all of this checking, they still didn't catch that my body was shutting down. Maybe that wasn't possible to do-- but it is notable that I kept alerting nurses to classic preeclampsia symptoms and I was repeatedly told that those were normal after having been pumped with fluids during labor.

Tenth, I left never wanting to come back to this place ever again. It was a miserable experience despite the fact that there were some staff who were helpful and tried their best. Unfortunately, I had to go back to their ER two days later because they had all of my recent birth records and health history on file. Here's where they actually saved my life, and I had a generally good experience with excellent staff- save for the lactation consultant who was horrible, insulting, and should be fired.

How could you say "pick another hospital, not that I have EVER had a different experience" in the same breath? I delivered at Inova Alex and then GW. Inovas care was SOOOOOO much better. The L&D/PP nurses were unbelievable compared to GW PP. Every hospital will have its plusses and minuses. It's all about who is on duty and what else is happening. Hospital beds suck everywhere. Lactation consultants in hospitals are overworked and unless you have a preemie, you won't get the care you want. I'm sorry your anesthesiologist sucked. Mine was amazing (at both GW and Inova). She took the pictures when my baby was born CSection.

Why did you let a nurse convince you to get your sons blood drawn?

No hospitals that are "baby friendly" have nurseries. That is LITERALLY the point. In room sleeping!

No hospitals let you sleep! Do you think this is a Hilton???

Then you said "here's where they saved my life." Have you NO gratitude??? You are a waste of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Wally5 wrote:Jumping on this thread to share a review of Inova Alexandria with future expectant moms looking for feedback.

You can do better than this hospital. I delivered my baby here in Jan 2020. He's my first child, so I don't have other experiences to compare this one to. While I generally had decent care, there were many things about Inova Alexandria that were not as advertised, and as a result, we struggled on a few fronts.

First, they actively advertise that they provide nitrous oxide to laboring mothers. This was one of the reasons I chose this hospital. They do not. I was already well into labor by the time I was told that there was no nitrous available at the hospital. I had mentioned this several times prior, had discussed it with my physician/midwife practice (who exclusively delivers at Inova Alexandria), and it was in my birth plan-- no one thought to tell me that there was no nitrous until go time.

Second, once I decided to get an epidural (given that there was no nitrous and I'd been induced a long time prior), the anesthesiologist clearly messed up as he was setting it up. To the point where he apologized to my doula-- not to me or my husband mind you. Thank God I didn't end up with something terrible happening on that front.

Third, since I was induced, I was in the hospital for longer than expected before delivery. They had the most uncomfortable bed known to man. I got no sleep, and both my husband and I went into the delivery completely exhausted as a result. Birth plan basically went out the window.

Fourth, this hospital PRIDES itself on breastfeeding support. It's everywhere on the walls, the literature, you name it. But guess what-- their support is lousy. I had to request help multiple times. It got to the point where I had to beg the head nurse to ask a lactation consultant to sit with me and make sure he was latching. Breastfeeding is hard regardless- but at a "baby friendly" hospital where they tell you about their fabulous lactation support, and I did literally everything in my power to flag that there was a problem and I was struggling, they failed me. I saw at least four different lactation consultants. There was a lot of happy talk, but very little practical help. When it wasn't working, they couldn't help me, and I left the hospital basically hopeless. I had to hire a lactation consultant to come to my house the next day and by that point my baby was a big fan of formula.

Fifth- As it turns out, part of the reason breastfeeding didn't work for me was b/c I had severe postpartum preeclampsia that went undiagnosed while in recovery, even though we spent extra days at the hospital because my son had jaundice. My body was busy trying to keep me from stroking out rather than producing milk. Thank God I was told by a midwife to make an appt within 48 hours of discharge to have my blood pressure checked. I might very well have died in my sleep otherwise.

Sixth, I had the worst experience with a nurse of my life there. One particular nurse insisted on drawing blood from my days old son in the most painful way possible while he screamed as I've never heard a baby scream before. She was ignorant, ill-trained, and thinking of her to this day makes me furious. Other blood draws were a breeze compared to this because they were done properly and he never screamed again. She clearly had no idea what she was doing.

Seventh, My baby had jaundice and they did a terrible job of giving you any option but to have a giant, drafty, old school light machine wheeled into your room so that you- in a hospital with trained staff and having had no sleep in days- have to make sure that a tiny baby who cannot have a blanket doesn't take off the thin fabric that protects his eyesight, etc. It was awful.

Eighth, there is not really a nursery here. They make this clear on the tour, but you might want a hospital with a decent nursery. What they have is makeshift, drafty, and not appropriate for proper care.

Ninth, they literally never let you sleep. I'm not talking about the baby keeping you up. They come to check vitals constantly at all times of the day even when there's a do not disturb sign up. We went home having not slept in basically five nights, which led to a nightmare scenario for a brand new family of three. Despite all of this checking, they still didn't catch that my body was shutting down. Maybe that wasn't possible to do-- but it is notable that I kept alerting nurses to classic preeclampsia symptoms and I was repeatedly told that those were normal after having been pumped with fluids during labor.

Tenth, I left never wanting to come back to this place ever again. It was a miserable experience despite the fact that there were some staff who were helpful and tried their best. Unfortunately, I had to go back to their ER two days later because they had all of my recent birth records and health history on file. Here's where they actually saved my life, and I had a generally good experience with excellent staff- save for the lactation consultant who was horrible, insulting, and should be fired.

How could you say "pick another hospital, not that I have EVER had a different experience" in the same breath? I delivered at Inova Alex and then GW. Inovas care was SOOOOOO much better. The L&D/PP nurses were unbelievable compared to GW PP. Every hospital will have its plusses and minuses. It's all about who is on duty and what else is happening. Hospital beds suck everywhere. Lactation consultants in hospitals are overworked and unless you have a preemie, you won't get the care you want. I'm sorry your anesthesiologist sucked. Mine was amazing (at both GW and Inova). She took the pictures when my baby was born CSection.

Why did you let a nurse convince you to get your sons blood drawn?

No hospitals that are "baby friendly" have nurseries. That is LITERALLY the point. In room sleeping!

No hospitals let you sleep! Do you think this is a Hilton???

Then you said "here's where they saved my life." Have you NO gratitude??? You are a waste of life.

I've delivered at Inova Alexandria with P&M and Virginia Hospital with another practice. VHC is hands down the better experience. Not even close.

And the point of "baby friendly" is to reduce costs. It has nothing to do with the baby or the mother - that's just how it's marketed. Multiple studies have shown how unsafe the practices at "baby friendly" hospitals can be. Unless you can have a partner with you 100% of your stay - difficult with older children - you are really risking the safety of yourself, and your child.

P&M is amazing though - just wish they delivered in other hospitals.