do GW, Sibley, Georgetown room-in babies 24/7 with their moms?

[Anonymous]

Do these DC area hospitals (and others) all room the newborn babies with their moms for the entire stay or do they have designated nurseries?

I'm curious because with my first delivery (twins) I delivered at a small Catholic hospital (elsewhere) and they still had a designated nursery where I could send the babies for nighttime feedings by the nurses. I think this practice is somewhat out of vogue in newer hospitals.
It was really nice because I got a long block of sleep each of the 3 nights I was there. I pumped collostrum during the day and the nurses fed the babies at night.
When I got home the real madness began.

[Anonymous]

When I delivered at Sibley, they had a nursery, which was great because I was able to sleep at night. I would nurse my baby at 6 am and keep him with me during the day. At the time, G'town had babies staying in the room with their mother, but I don't know what they do now.

[Anonymous]

I know from personal experience that both Georgetown and Sibley will let you have the babies go to the nursery at night for a few hours. I let my babies go for 3 or so hours and they brought them back to me to nurse when they woke up.

I haven't delivered at GW so I can't comment !

[Anonymous]

I delivered at GW and you have your choice of sending the baby to the nursery or rooming in. I am all for the nursery - the nurses will bring the baby to you to nurse during the night.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I delivered at GW recently and they were more than happy for the baby to room in or stay in the nursery, and if they are in the nursery, you can go get them at any time or call and ask them to bring the baby to you (which they will do promptly).

[Anonymous]

I delivered at Georgetown 1.5 years ago. At the time, they had a nursery, but night-time only.

[Anonymous]

I delivered in sibley 4 months ago. They have a nursery and it was my choice when to send the baby there. I used to keep her with me all the time except at night - i couldn't sleep with her in the room cause kept checking if she is breathing, that she is not choking, etc.... The nurses brought her to me to feed however, and used to take her back. I didn't check if they would feed her at night - I was fine with waking up to feed.

[Anonymous]

Interesting - I delivered at GW a couple of years ago, wanted to have DC in my room, but they insisted that if I were to go to sleep, DC had to go back to the nursery.

Maybe I just got crappy post-partem nurses, which is what I always suspected (as opposed to the L&D nurses, who were very good).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting - I delivered at GW a couple of years ago, wanted to have DC in my room, but they insisted that if I were to go to sleep, DC had to go back to the nursery.

Maybe I just got crappy post-partem nurses, which is what I always suspected (as opposed to the L&D nurses, who were very good).

My friend works at GW (in the NICU, but is familiar with their policies). Baby is allowed to room in 24/7. I am delivering at Sibley. According to my OB and the Sibley.org website, Sibley's policy is also to allow 24/7 rooming in. I would be shocked to hear of any hospital around here doesn't allow rooming in.

[Anonymous]

At Sibley, the baby stays with you 24/7, unless you tell them otherwise. They will come in to take them to the nursery for daily weigh-ins and checkups, but they always bring your baby back to you immediately afterwards. The postpartum nurses (after both deliveries) volunteered to take the babies to the nursery overnight so my husband and I could sleep. We opted out and kept the babies in the room with us. Either way, they generally will respect your wishes.

[Anonymous]

At Georgetown, the nursery is open from either 11 pm- 6 am or 12- 6 am. I sent my DD every night for the whole time. I nursed but she got one bottle of formula each night. Worked out great.

[Anonymous]

I just delivered at Sibley. The standard is that the baby rooms in with you 24/7 with frequent visits from the nurses. However, you can REQUEST that the baby go to the nursery if you would like. We never did, but others encourage it to get some sleep.

[Anonymous]

I delivered at Sibley almost 2 years ago and I had a completely different experience. When I asked the day nurse about the nursery, she specifically said we couldn't send dd there at night and that Sibley was a "room in" facility. I asked the night nurse about this and she said it wasn't true -- but, when I would try to send dd at night, they would always bring her back in 30-45 mins and say she was crying and hungry (I was bf), which was ridiculous, as I had just fed her. They just didn't want to deal with it. Hopefully things have changed since then.

[Anonymous]

I delivered at Sibley last summer. We kept the baby with us the first night by the second we just wanted to sleep so we send him to the nursery. They brought him to me once to feed other than that he stayed there until morning. It was great, one caution is that they still needed to check me every few hours for various things so it wasn't like it was totally uninterrupted sleep.

[Anonymous]

I delivered at Sibley 3 months ago, and our nurse suggested we have the baby go to the nursery at night so we could get some sleep. We followed her advice! They still brought the baby in every few hours to feed, and like a PP poster said, other people would come in every so often to check this or that, so it wasn't completely unbroken sleep. But I did appreciate the ability to 100% completely relax and sleep for a couple of hours here and there while I was in the hospital. Once we got home, that certainly changed!