Washington Hospital Center: A Review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I recently delivered a vaginal birth at Washington Hospital Center (WHC). Here's my review:

Cons:
-Food isn't great
-There are a TON of residents. Many are first years. Some are great, others are a bit immature.
-Labor suites aren't great. Some broken lights, uncomfortable chairs, a few blood splats on the floor (from a previous patient). Outdated bathrooms.
-Mobile fetal monitoring was not available (out for recalibration, apparently)
-Postpartum rooms are like prisons. Small, cramped, steel doors, outdated, walls painted drab white and grey. I struggled not to bang into our infant in these tiny rooms with everyone coming in/out. I was desperate to get out of there, ASAP.
-Baby friendly to the point where you really can't use their nursery.
-It's a high volume labor and delivery practice so the nurses do not always explain things that you need to know. They seem to take it for granted that you "know" things about the care of your infant.
-After 8 PM or so, you have to use the Emergency Department to get into the hospital. WHC is major trauma center so this place is packed w/ a lot of activity at night. It was a bit scary to my husband, tbh.

Pros:
-It's a teaching hospital. So, everyone is explaining out what they are doing to everyone else. Nurses are explaining things to residents. Residents are explaining your case to the chief resident. The chief resident and residents are discussing your case with the attending, etc. More eyes on you = less likely someone makes a mistake. Also, more opportunities to advocate for yourself at key decision points.
-My attending was phenomenal. When in doubt, ask to see the attending. They will come (because they have to). My attending has been doing deliveries for 20+ years.
-No pressure for c-sections. Staff kept telling me their goal is a vaginal birth.
-I found out attendings at WHC work on shifts and they all work for Medstar. 24 hours twice a week, then off. They have no incentive to push you into a C-Section. There is someone else who takes over for them after the shift is done. A nurse told me that at places like Sibley, the physicians work for private practices where they all share the on-call time. Let's say you're on call, have to go to a delivery, and your kid's got a recital in a few hours, you're incentived to get the delivery done ASAP (re: c-section).
-Nurses in labor and delivery are really top notch. Attentive, knowledgeable, and great bedside manner. Never seen anything like it. Seriously.
-WHC is a labor and delivery machine. They have everything done to a t and they have seen most everything - babies whose mothers are on drugs, extreme premature babies, complex c-sections, etc. When things get bad, they know what to do. Me and my little girl were facing some serious issues during delivery and it was clear when things got bad for us, WHC staff knew exactly what to do.
-National Children's is right next door. If things REALLY get bad, they can easily transfer your infant to Children's. They also can call in consults very quickly.

WHC is nothing to call home about as an experience, but if things go bad, this is the place you want to be. My little girl is about turn 1 mo. now and is happy/healthy.

Thank you! I'm delivering there via the midwives and maybe I'm just dumb, but I've struggled to find good reviews of it and have only met maybe one other person who delivered there. Everyone else seems to be at Sibley or GW.

My big hangup about it all though is the baby-friendly status. If it weren't for the proximity/chance to use nitrous (I'm not holding out)/midwives that seemed more open to an epidural if necessary (versus GW), I'd absolutely go elsewhere. Could you elaborate more on the situation you found yourself in? And would anyone else be able to explain how their delivery went w/r/t baby-friendly at other hospitals? A friend of mine delivered somewhere else (can't remember where) and told me the worst part was being trapped in a room with the baby, so I've been telling myself it might not be much better elsewhere. But I've also told my husband to expect that we'll feel like we are being tortured.

Also, regarding the lack of mobile monitoring--this may be different for midwife patients (since part of their shtick is movement during labor), but did you try to decline continuous monitoring? Or was your situation not suitable for that?

While I am 100% in favor of people getting to use a nursery if they want to, I don’t totally understand all the backlash against rooming with the baby. I think I would have panicked if I couldn’t see her. But more importantly, I had to breastfeed anyway and they were constantly waking all of us for checks of various kinds. So what would be the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I recently delivered a vaginal birth at Washington Hospital Center (WHC). Here's my review:

Cons:
-Food isn't great
-There are a TON of residents. Many are first years. Some are great, others are a bit immature.
-Labor suites aren't great. Some broken lights, uncomfortable chairs, a few blood splats on the floor (from a previous patient). Outdated bathrooms.
-Mobile fetal monitoring was not available (out for recalibration, apparently)
-Postpartum rooms are like prisons. Small, cramped, steel doors, outdated, walls painted drab white and grey. I struggled not to bang into our infant in these tiny rooms with everyone coming in/out. I was desperate to get out of there, ASAP.
-Baby friendly to the point where you really can't use their nursery.
-It's a high volume labor and delivery practice so the nurses do not always explain things that you need to know. They seem to take it for granted that you "know" things about the care of your infant.
-After 8 PM or so, you have to use the Emergency Department to get into the hospital. WHC is major trauma center so this place is packed w/ a lot of activity at night. It was a bit scary to my husband, tbh.

Pros:
-It's a teaching hospital. So, everyone is explaining out what they are doing to everyone else. Nurses are explaining things to residents. Residents are explaining your case to the chief resident. The chief resident and residents are discussing your case with the attending, etc. More eyes on you = less likely someone makes a mistake. Also, more opportunities to advocate for yourself at key decision points.
-My attending was phenomenal. When in doubt, ask to see the attending. They will come (because they have to). My attending has been doing deliveries for 20+ years.
-No pressure for c-sections. Staff kept telling me their goal is a vaginal birth.
-I found out attendings at WHC work on shifts and they all work for Medstar. 24 hours twice a week, then off. They have no incentive to push you into a C-Section. There is someone else who takes over for them after the shift is done. A nurse told me that at places like Sibley, the physicians work for private practices where they all share the on-call time. Let's say you're on call, have to go to a delivery, and your kid's got a recital in a few hours, you're incentived to get the delivery done ASAP (re: c-section).
-Nurses in labor and delivery are really top notch. Attentive, knowledgeable, and great bedside manner. Never seen anything like it. Seriously.
-WHC is a labor and delivery machine. They have everything done to a t and they have seen most everything - babies whose mothers are on drugs, extreme premature babies, complex c-sections, etc. When things get bad, they know what to do. Me and my little girl were facing some serious issues during delivery and it was clear when things got bad for us, WHC staff knew exactly what to do.
-National Children's is right next door. If things REALLY get bad, they can easily transfer your infant to Children's. They also can call in consults very quickly.

WHC is nothing to call home about as an experience, but if things go bad, this is the place you want to be. My little girl is about turn 1 mo. now and is happy/healthy.

Thank you! I'm delivering there via the midwives and maybe I'm just dumb, but I've struggled to find good reviews of it and have only met maybe one other person who delivered there. Everyone else seems to be at Sibley or GW.

My big hangup about it all though is the baby-friendly status. If it weren't for the proximity/chance to use nitrous (I'm not holding out)/midwives that seemed more open to an epidural if necessary (versus GW), I'd absolutely go elsewhere. Could you elaborate more on the situation you found yourself in? And would anyone else be able to explain how their delivery went w/r/t baby-friendly at other hospitals? A friend of mine delivered somewhere else (can't remember where) and told me the worst part was being trapped in a room with the baby, so I've been telling myself it might not be much better elsewhere. But I've also told my husband to expect that we'll feel like we are being tortured.

Also, regarding the lack of mobile monitoring--this may be different for midwife patients (since part of their shtick is movement during labor), but did you try to decline continuous monitoring? Or was your situation not suitable for that?

While I am 100% in favor of people getting to use a nursery if they want to, I don’t totally understand all the backlash against rooming with the baby. I think I would have panicked if I couldn’t see her. But more importantly, I had to breastfeed anyway and they were constantly waking all of us for checks of various kinds. So what would be the difference?

I think for most people it’s about having the option. I’m pro rooming in but I had my first two at a hospital where they encouraged nursery use for very short stints and would bring the baby back in to nurse. I used the nursery once each time at the nurses’ urging for like 90 minutes, maybe a bit longer? With my babies I’ve been anxious to watch them but I (especially the first time) also felt too anxious to sleep if I felt like they weren’t being watched. I weirdly felt better just thinking there was someone awake paying a little bit of attention. Not everyone is this way I’m sure.

But yeah I could be wrong but I think people are objecting to forced 100% rooming in.