INova Alexandria v. INova Fairfax

[pvarho]

I'm due in early August and relocating to the DC/VA area, trying to identify a dr and hospital. Right now I'm choosing between Physicians and Midwives, delivering at INova Alexandria and Dr. Janice Emery, delivering at INova Fairfax. I'm really torn and would love any insight or thoughts on either dr/practice or in particular hospital. I have a strong preference for a natural birth. Many thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

I had a natural birth with a midwife from Physicians & Midwives and delivered at INOVA Alexandria. I was very pleased with the hospital and if you do a search on the board here you should see some consistently positve reviews. It is a pretty quiet, low-key place which I think can be helpful for a natural birth. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Fairfax is huge - very high tech and highly thought of but it is definitely a big hospital. Alexandria is a much smaller 'community' feel but I don't think they compromise on the care. Just depends on what kind of atmosphere you prefer...

[Anonymous]

I delivered my first to DCs at Fairfax. I won't be going back. The hospital is indeed very reputable, but they also deliver too many babies each day. This makes for a shortage of L&D rooms. For my second DD, we waited in triage and I was writhing in pain (couldn't get my epidural) but there was simply no room available to me. It was awful to be going through active/transitional labor while separated by only a curtain from 3-4 other women in labor. I will never do that again, especially since I do not have high risk pregnancies. I didn't find the nurses to be very friendly either, quite frankly. Also, if you are looking for a "natural" birth - I dont' think Fairfax is for you. My doctor really didn't show up until I was almost ready to push - and before that, you are given very little choice by the nurses. Again, because bedspace is so needed, they are eager to get you out soon! So they have no incentive to let you labor "naturally" - they will kick you with pitocin to speed up the labor and inject meds right and left.

This was just my experience. I don't know about Alexandria, though. Can only comment on my own experience at Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

I spent quite a few hours trying to decide between a doctor that delivered at Fair Oaks and one that delivered at Fairfax. I chose Fairfax because they had the highest level NICU. While my pregnancy isn't high risk, I could not even think about something going wrong and my baby being in one hospital, while I was in another. (The baby would be life-flighted to Fairfax, if he/she developed problems at FO)

It looks like Alexandria has the same level NICU as Fairfax now. I do not know if they have equally good reputations-- that will require further research. While good labor and delivery rooms are nice, what is most important to me is how my baby will be treated in the worst case scenario. I consider an excellent NICU to be insurance, I hope I will never need it, but it gives me great peace of mind to know it is there.

[Anonymous]

I'm with Physicians & Midwives and love them. You can be as low or as high tech as you want and they are very supportive of natural birth.

[Anonymous]

I'd go with Alexandria. I did my childbirth class there, and got a really good vibe from the nurse and how they treat laboring moms. I didn't get the impression they push drugs or any particular laboring style, and they do have a high level NICU. They mentioned that Fairfax delivers something like 40,000 babies a year - I just can't imagine getting personalized care with numbers like that.

Speaking for Inova Alexandria in general, I've been there for various emergency situations and have always been treated very well - kind and knowledgeable staff. My mom also went there for her heart attack, and the hospital was just totally awesome all around.

[Anonymous]

For my first pregnancy I went to the practice (was about 5 doctors at the time) were Dr. Janice Emery practiced. I LOVED the other doctors and really hated Dr Janice Emery. She is rude and a cold fish. I also delivered at Fairfax Hospital for that pregnancy. It is a very busy hospital and they discharged me a day early compared to Georgetown, where I had my susequent deliveries.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add that Dr Emery does not use anesthesia when circumcisizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I delivered my first to DCs at Fairfax. I won't be going back. The hospital is indeed very reputable, but they also deliver too many babies each day. This makes for a shortage of L&D rooms. For my second DD, we waited in triage and I was writhing in pain (couldn't get my epidural) but there was simply no room available to me. It was awful to be going through active/transitional labor while separated by only a curtain from 3-4 other women in labor. I will never do that again, especially since I do not have high risk pregnancies. I didn't find the nurses to be very friendly either, quite frankly. Also, if you are looking for a "natural" birth - I dont' think Fairfax is for you. My doctor really didn't show up until I was almost ready to push - and before that, you are given very little choice by the nurses. Again, because bedspace is so needed, they are eager to get you out soon! So they have no incentive to let you labor "naturally" - they will kick you with pitocin to speed up the labor and inject meds right and left.

This was just my experience. I don't know about Alexandria, though. Can only comment on my own experience at Fairfax.

I had an almost identical experience at Fairfax. Even so, I chose Fairfax again because I had a high-risk pregnancy and Fairfax has a high-level (Level III?) NICU and delivers so many babies that it has experience with just about everything. I had a doula accompany me, which made a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

I just delivered in march with p&m and LOVED them. I had a natural birth and my midwife and l&d nurse were amazing.
The hospital was wonderful and the nursery floor was great too .

I had read too many bad experiences about Fairfax. On tbd other hand if I was high risk I kay havegond with fairax

[Anonymous]

I delivered at Fairfax and thought it was fine. My expectations were low, to be honest, and I was perfectly happy with the experience. They're a baby factory and i was ok with that because I figured that whatever happened, they'd seen it 100 times before. Apparently I delivered in a bit of a baby boom. All the normal labor/delivery rooms were full, so we were in what they called "the outback" which was a cluster of 4 rooms on a different floor. It was fine; I thought the nurses were great - and responsive. The only downside was that at one point my epidural stopped working and it took awhile to get a doctor to come in due to a Kaiser shift change, but that was probably a Kaiser issue. And the heart-rate and fetal monitors also showed the readings from the surrounding rooms. Can I tell you how annoying it was to watch other moms' labors progressing when mine was stalled? (my labor lasted 26 hours, several moms "beat" me!)

other than that, i thought fairfax was good. I liked their lactation consultants a lot. we did leave the hospital hours before we needed to, because we felt like it was kind of noisy on the ward and it was hard to have any privacy (even in our private room) with people coming into the room pretty often. That might be normal, though.

[Anonymous]

I recently switched out of P&M. I haven't delivered yet but I started two pregnancies with them. I had good experiences with all the midwives I encountered. Very personable, reassuring and knowledgeable. Including the advice nurse who always responded promptly. And they all seemed comfortable with testing, medicated birth if wanted etc. However, I found that out of the 4 dr. encounters I had, I was only comfortable with one. And I hadn't heard anything either about the rest of the group. One dr. who I consulted with during a missed miscarriage left me more traumatized then when I went in. I just didn't want to take the chance of having to have that one deliver (if you end up needing a dr. for an unscheduled delivery, it is whomever in the group is at the hospital that day). That plus I always had to wait on average 45 minutes past my appointment time to be seen. By the way, I had a D&C at Inova Alexandria and although it seemed a little chaotic upon check-in I thought the staff was great throughout the hospital (although we had to be vigilant about the billing by the hospital).

[Anonymous]

I'm currently pregnant and at P&M. I love it so far. I've enjoyed meeting 2 of the docs and 3 of the midwives so far, and I look forward to meeting the rest prior to delivery.

I haven't given birth at IAH (obviously), but I have spent time in their ER and have always (well, both times) received great care from them. If that reflects at all on the L&D wing, then I'm sure it'll be a good experience. And you can't beat the highly rated NICU.

[Anonymous]

I just took a maternity tour at Alexandria, which you can call and sign up for (if you are able to after relocating and before baby is born). I imagine Fairfax would also have a tour you can take.

I don't have any personal experience with either hospital, but Alexandria seemed small (I think they deliver 3200 babies a year, whereas Fairfax delivers 12,000+), quiet, very respectful of personal preferences (natural birth, placing baby on mom right after birth, respecting a birth plan, etc . . .) and they are proactive about rooming in and minimizing baby's time in the nursery.

Good luck!