Trying to choose between GW, Georgetown or Virginia Hospital Center for Childbirth

[Anonymous]

Georgetown L&D rooms are great (all have a shower or tub) level of care is fabulous, NICU is top notch. I had a great experience (vag delivery with epi). Anesthesiologist who did epi even called after I was home to check up on me, make sure I wasn't having any back pain, etc. We were very impressed. I liked all the OBs I met and when I had symptoms of a blood clot on a weekend while pregnant, they got me right in to rule out anything serious.

[Anonymous]

also, g'town a baby friendly hospital,. meaning it is very BF friendly. this is actually nice even if you don't BF, as it means that they minimize/avoid having baby leave your room.

[Anonymous]

I think VHC is baby friendly now, too. In February, baby never left my room. All tests, bath, etc., were done in my room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Teaching hospital shouldn't mean that they take your baby for test after test when you keep being told that they are done and complete and ready to be discharged, only to have another flake show up to take the baby for more tests.

Can you just decline these tests? (I'm really asking, not trying to snark on you.) I'm delivering at GW with Wisdom and if one of their big philosophies is not separating mom and baby, then it seems like if you can't understand why they're taking your baby away because they're explaining it poorly, you should just get to say no thanks.

The PP who wouldn't do GW again was me, just now getting back to this.

Some perspective: Yes, you can say no but you have to understand what you're saying no to. They ran tons of tests none of which I questioned, but then they kept coming to get the baby/bring the baby back, over and over. The morning before discharge, the pediatrician came in to say that baby was fine and IV was out (needed antibiotics for fever during labor) and that we were good to leave the next day. That evening, someone shows up and says they need to take her to the nursery for tests. I asked why and got that idiot deer in headlights look. They just kept repeating "there's a marker on the blood we need to check." I was exhausted, repeated what the pediatrician said, then said fine, then thought better of it and called the nursery and stopped the test until someone showed up to explain.

What ends up coming to light is that yes, tons of conflicting information - from L&D thru to care for me and the baby. It's major amateur hour over there because, teaching hosp or not, all those interns get involved in telling you things they have no business telling you. They finally sent a doc to me (a resident still, not a full fledged doc) and her answer boiled down to the miscommunication at GW being a huge problem and she wasn't usually there / came from Children's.

I should also say that a doctor who comes highly recommended on this board, I mean, REALLY HIGHLY recommended, tried to warn us off GW. And 3 people who work for GW also said they would never be a patient there when they heard about some of the things that happened during my stay. We didn't listen to the doc who tried to warn us off because we had another personal issue that made us really want to be at GW, but now I'd figure out how to get around that just to have gone elsewhere. Since we've now been to a pediatrician, we also got the "talk" about if the baby is sick enough to go to a hospital, stay away from GW. It's amazing what you can find out by asking the right questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Delivered at GW and will never ever do this again. I had more idiots in and out of both my Labor & Delivery room and my hospital room (they do not let you sleep, I was woken up every 45 minutes the first night after laboring the entire 24 hours prior) than I care to recall. No one at GW talks to anyone else either so everytime another moron comes in to your room you have to start all over again. One person takes the baby for tests, next person comes for baby, baby not there, goes to find baby for more tests, we ask what tests - they all look like a deer in headlights.

F. that. My baby and I are not testing grounds for your 18 year old nurses and 22 year old "doctors."

You should have done a little research - everyone knows GW is a teaching hospital, and everyone knows that you can say no to students and residents.

BUT they need to learn somehow, and better than on real people than on corpses that can't deliver babies.

I'm all for letting students learn on me. (Not the PP) I am not for having a student turn on all the lights and wake me up at 5:30am to take my vitals when I am obviously asleep. I liked GW otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Teaching hospital shouldn't mean that they take your baby for test after test when you keep being told that they are done and complete and ready to be discharged, only to have another flake show up to take the baby for more tests.

Can you just decline these tests? (I'm really asking, not trying to snark on you.) I'm delivering at GW with Wisdom and if one of their big philosophies is not separating mom and baby, then it seems like if you can't understand why they're taking your baby away because they're explaining it poorly, you should just get to say no thanks.

The PP who wouldn't do GW again was me, just now getting back to this.

Some perspective: Yes, you can say no but you have to understand what you're saying no to. They ran tons of tests none of which I questioned, but then they kept coming to get the baby/bring the baby back, over and over. The morning before discharge, the pediatrician came in to say that baby was fine and IV was out (needed antibiotics for fever during labor) and that we were good to leave the next day. That evening, someone shows up and says they need to take her to the nursery for tests. I asked why and got that idiot deer in headlights look. They just kept repeating "there's a marker on the blood we need to check." I was exhausted, repeated what the pediatrician said, then said fine, then thought better of it and called the nursery and stopped the test until someone showed up to explain.

What ends up coming to light is that yes, tons of conflicting information - from L&D thru to care for me and the baby. It's major amateur hour over there because, teaching hosp or not, all those interns get involved in telling you things they have no business telling you. They finally sent a doc to me (a resident still, not a full fledged doc) and her answer boiled down to the miscommunication at GW being a huge problem and she wasn't usually there / came from Children's.

I should also say that a doctor who comes highly recommended on this board, I mean, REALLY HIGHLY recommended, tried to warn us off GW. And 3 people who work for GW also said they would never be a patient there when they heard about some of the things that happened during my stay. We didn't listen to the doc who tried to warn us off because we had another personal issue that made us really want to be at GW, but now I'd figure out how to get around that just to have gone elsewhere. Since we've now been to a pediatrician, we also got the "talk" about if the baby is sick enough to go to a hospital, stay away from GW. It's amazing what you can find out by asking the right questions.

This is interesting because usually comments about GW on here are so positive. It makes me feel even more glad about my recent decision to transfer my care to someone at SGAH mid-pregnancy, even though that decision is not based on the teaching hospital aspect (which I thought I would like). Thanks for sharing.