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Question to ask during hospital tour
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Anonymous
| 23 weeks here and have not yet taken a tour of the hospital where I am scheduled to deliver (Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Bethesda). What kinds of questions did you ask/do you recommend asking/wish you had asked/ etc.? |
Anonymous
| Saw this post but no responses. I have my first hospital tour tomorrow (Sibley, followed by Inova Fairfax next week) and was wondering if anyone has advice on questions I should be asking. I am strongly leaning towards Inova Fairfax (which is a 2-minute drive from my house) and really only considering Sibley because I am currently a Reiter Hill patient. But other than the availability of private rooms (which I hear are scarce at Sibley) I'm not sure what other differences there are or what I should even be thinking about. |
Anonymous
| I think the questions will depend on what kind of delivery you are hoping to have. I delivered at Sibley and during my hospital orientation I realized there would be no walking of the halls or drinking of water or anything that would support a natural delivery. |
Anonymous
|
To the PP, can I ask why these things (i.e. walking the halls, drinking the water) are off limits at Sibley. I will be delivering there in January and am just curious.
To the Reiter and Hill patient, how will you deliver at INOVA as their patient? Are you switching practices? Again, just curious since I'm also a R&H patient. |
Anonymous
| Sibley actually has more private rooms than double rooms, although they are not luxurious. You should call before you are delivering to get on the list for a private rooms which does give some priority but both times I delivered there I got a private room no problem. I would ask about the nursery rules. I understand that Shady Grove does not allow you to send your baby to the nursery unless you have a c-section and no one to help with the baby. Not sure if this is a trend at other hospitals. I do know that it is not true at Sibley. |
Anonymous
|
Some questions to consider:
1. Are there private rooms, are they all private or are some shared? Be sure you are clear that BOTH labor/delivery and recovery rooms are private. 2. Visiting hours? 3. During labor do they have bouncy balls, other labor tools for you to use? Can you walk around/get in shower, etc., situation permitting? 4. What is their policy on the nursery v. "rooming in"? 5. Get a sense of their policy on breastfeeding. Do they mark the baby's bassinet to let nurses know you are breastfeeding? 6. Do they have lactation consultants on staff that will meet with you for free in the first 24-36 hours? 7. Check out the food options in the cafeteria--are they open 24 hours? Do you have to order within certain mealtimes? 8. Are there TVs in each room (seriously, since you are up 24 hours at a time, it seems, it can be a relief to have something on...) 9. Also, when you go, check out parking, how easy it is to get in and out (if your DH will be coming in and out or returning home to shower, get you food, etc.), learn where you will go to "check in" when you first arrive, etc. 10. Ask if they have someone who can check the installation of your car seat... |
Anonymous
|
13:37 here.
The reason you can't roam the halls is because you are hooked up to machines once you are checked in. Or so I was told during orientation. I think you'd have to have a very strong will to keep them from just doing what they do, but I never went to the hospital in labor so my experience is probably different from what you are planning. The reason you can't eat or drink anything is because if you are laboring without success and it turns out a c-section is needed, they don't want you to aspirate anything. I had to stop eating and drinking about 8 hours before my c-section. My plan was to labor at home as long as possible before going to the hospital so I'd be free to walk up and down stairs, bounce on my ball and sip water, but nothing worked out as envisioned and I ended up having c-section. At Sibley we didn't have any trouble getting a private room on a Saturday. I think the availability of private rooms will also depend on the season. I think there are lots of March babies born to June brides and lots of early October babies who were conceived during New Year celebrations. We had our baby room-in with us. We sent her to the nursery for one stretch each night, but I think we slept better when the baby stayed with us. I didn't change her diaper until she was at least a day old because I couldn't get out of bed for a day after the C. |
Anonymous
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14:39 here--
another thing when touring the hospitals is to find out what level NICU they have, and/or what the process is for if god forbid something happens and your baby needs extra care. The highest is level 4 NICU--only Georgetown and CHildrens have that in this area. Holy Cross, Washington HOsp, and maybe others have level 3b. I dont know the levels of any others. It may or may not be that important to you, but for us it was an important insurance measure for peace of mind--if something would have happened I didnt want to think of them airlifting my baby to a different place than me. |
Anonymous
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Why don't you listen to the maternity tour first...the nurse is usually pretty thorough (they do this stuff 100s of times) and are very familiar with new-moms/new patients concerns.
The tour (at least at Inova) covers everything from the admissions process to L&D to post partem - including ID, various birth plan accomodations, items NOT to bring, private rooms, contacting the pediatrician, and nursery/bed-side baby and more (or course). The nurse will also speak on (limited) about the security devices in place which I found very interesting (and reassuring). Think of it as going on a college campus tour. Have some thoughts in the back of your mind, look at the maternity ward website, and at the end of the tour if your concerns and questions are answered, then chime in. Even if you think of something afterwards, just call the hospital and ask. It isn't like the hospital tour is the one and only chance. OP - Plus, I assume your doc. has privileges, correct (both at Sibley and Inova????)? So, your doc. should be able to answer your questions too. OP- Another logistic question for you to consider - are you even able to find a pediatrician that has priviliges at both Sibley and Inova Ffx? Or will you just use the "default" pediatrician at the hospital and have the records transferred? |
Anonymous
I delivered two years ago at Sibley (vaginally) and had no problem sending baby to the nursery. However, I guess they may have changed their rules since, but I don't know why they would do such a thing? |
Anonymous
I don't think Sibley has much of a NICU to speak of, but thankfully G/town is super close. When we delivered, we had some complications (our baby had a bit of a temp) so when she came out, a pediatrician was called in from G/town to check her out. I only realized this after I got a bill in the mail from G/town! |
Anonymous
| On sibley I think that pp was saying that you CAN send the baby to the nursery whenever you want, but that other hopsitals may be more strict. |
Anonymous
|
At Georgetown, the nursery is only "open" between midnight and 6 am. All other times you have to room-in. I had a c-section, so I don't know if there are any limits based on the type of birth you had.
It would probably be discussed during the tour, but I would find out what to do if you want to go to the L&D in the middle of the night. At GUH, for example, you have to go through the emergency room entrance (during the day you can just go through the main hospital entrance and go upstairs to L&D). I actually went into labor in the middle of the night and it was nice to know where to go (would not have wanted to run around the hospital trying to figure out what to do). |
Anonymous
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If you're at all interested in natural childbirth (or even if not and you just want some food for thought/potential questions), http://www.motherfriendly.org/pdf/Having_a_Baby-English.pdf
If that direct link doesn't work, go to http://www.motherfriendly.org/downloads.php and click under the section called "Having a Baby? Ten Questions to Ask" |
Anonymous
| I recently delivered at Shady Grove hospital and found the tour useful. Shady Grove does allow you to roam the halls if you want. They are also very supportive of midwives and natural birth, I found. And I don't think they REFUSE to take babies in the nursery, but their preference (and mine) is to keep babies in the room with the parents. They only keep babies in the nursery at night or if there is a problem. All the rooms are private, and they are very nice. I found the L&D nurses to be great. The nurses we had while I was recovering were nice, but they stressed us out by insisting we give our baby formula when she was having trouble latching on initially. During our tour, we were told that all the nurses are trained to help with breastfeeding, but when we asked for help, they were not so great. And their advice contradicted what we'd learned in our breastfeeding class, and what the hospital's own lactation consultant told us. Anyway, I'd do the tour, but just wanted to share a bit of our experience at Shady Grove. The overall experience was positive, but don't plan on getting much breastfeeding help! |