GW Nursery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honey, I’m actually a lawyer, you know, the kind of person you’d hire to sue GW for all the awful crap they inflicted on you. Except you’d have no case.

Don't get smug. This is DCUM. We're all lawyers.

Yeah, so why are all these rich lawyers bitching about how wronged they were by an excellent hospital?! Once again, the entitlement is repulsive.

So rich women should hire outside medical professionals to ensure they and their babies actually receive appropriate medical care during recovery, got it. Very Malawi.

It is absurd, truly absurd, to claim that the care provided at GW before it brought back the nursery was not “appropriate.” If you’re a lawyer yourself, I weep for your clients. It’s gross that the very privileged women on this thread are framing their demands in such grossly disproportionate terms.

Wait you feel sorry for my clients (who are all multinational corporations, but anyway) because I think both baby and mother are patients and should be treated as such? That's such a crazy leap. What on earth does that have to do with my clients? I can't competently argue a MTD because I think hospitals should treat patients like patients?

Your logic and reading skills have jumped the shark. But now that you’re not actually arguing with me about the appropriateness of GW’s care, I’ll move on with my life.

Hi - NP here and I have to ask: what the hell is wrong with you that you are spending so much time and energy attacking women on an expectant mom board? You're clearly the same nasty poster from the Georgetown thread and are obviously invested in just being a horrible person.

Can't be that good of a lawyer if business is so slow that you have all this downtime to be posting here so consistently and viciously. Maybe focus on building your book of business instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was awake 50 hours straight (full workday, then long labor) and then given my baby to care for the first night at GW. I was delirious and could have easily been one of the moms who dropped their baby. I could hardly walk or see straight to get up for feeds I was so tired and nurses never offered to take her so I could rest. It’s about time they brought back the nursery, but shame on them for having ever gotten rid of it in the first place.

+1. Similar experience. It was a lawsuit waiting to happen. I would have absolutely sued if I had hurt my baby given GW was forcing me to take care of it by myself when I'd just had surgery and had been awake for days. Oh and I was on opioids. I remember feeling dizzy multiple times when I stood up to get my baby to breastfeed and could have easily fallen with the baby in my arms. Giving a post csection mom strong pain pills and then leaving and closing the door to the room while the baby is across the room and the csection mom has to painfully make it over to the baby is criminal.

Geez, people. Where are your partners, doulas, friends? I’m glad the nursery is an option now, but I think people shouldn’t be putting 100% of the responsibility for newborn care on the hospital.

I know I did all the work and went through all the labor, but my DH was awake the entire time with me. He was stressed during the labor too and running around getting me ice chips and massaging me. We both worked a full 9 hour day, then went to the hospital for our induction, then were up for 34 hours in labor. It was at least 42 hours until either of us got an ounce of sleep. My story is super common. DH was too tired to hold the baby and so was I. When I delivered, I had medical complications so they didn't let family members in the room, so it was just DH trying to soothe the baby. Also, room was too small for a team of grandparents to come in and I needed sleep. Grandparents holding my baby would have hindered sleep. Why should I have to hire a doula to hold my baby for me? Why aren't nurses there to assist? My delivery was 29k! Surely that should have had some nurse support included.

A couple of options: Let the baby cry. Your husband drinks a Red Bull or two and mans up.

Well the baby did cry (in DH's arms) and the nurses came in and yelled at us at 3am and told us I needed to breastfeed more. I didn't have milk yet.

I know this ship has sailed, but keeping the baby on the breast is HOW you get the milk to come in. With my first I also got a stern 3am lecture from a LC. The reason I was told at 3am was because my baby was born at 2:40am and it was part of the 24 hr check.

No, actually that is not true. Up to 15% of women have delayed lactogenesis and no amount of keeping the baby to the breast in the first few days will change that. it MAY well exhaust the mother and the baby, however, leading to more problems down the line.

[Anonymous]

My postpartum care at GW was lousy. I was rounded on constantly by everyone and their mother so I could not sleep. I could hardly walk and see straight I was so tired and should not have been left overnight with my daughter, whom I was taking care of basically delirious and shaking. I had lost bowel control from pushing and had to clean up my own accidents while my baby screamed and I could not reach the call button when my husband had gone home for a bit. Techs, not nurses, handled most of my care. I cried several times from the trauma of my delivery in front of staff and midwives and was not oce offered psychological support or a social worker. I waited two days for a lactation consultant despite many requests to see her and she had come in on her sick day with an active cold when she helped me. I was discharged with active signs of postpartum preeclampsia returning despite reporting a headache and high BP to my nurse. Call me entitled but is not high quality post partum care. Not even close. And my insurance was billed close to 30 grand for this visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are deservedly angry when our insurers are being billed between 20 and 50 grand for a two or three day hospital stay where we are expected to bring husbands, family members, and doulas to provide nursing care for ourselves and our new babies. What are our insurers and us paying for exactly? Women and babies deserve better, but they will only happen when women collectively stop sniping at each other and saying things like husbands and families need to "man up" to help in the hospital and there is a cost benefit analysis on dropping babies and it's okay if the baby isn't seriously injured. We ALL deserve better.

What other hospital unit would you be in and not receive adequate nursing care and support and be expected to bring your own? It's utterly ridiculous. There is clearly some GW hospital administrator on this thread and some other self loathing women with too much of a "pick yourself up by the boot straps" mentality who feels that being vulnerable and needing support during a major medical and life event is an unforgivable weakness of character.

And to the PP who asked, one nurse to 5 mothers and babies for a total of ten patients is ridiculous! Have you ever taken care of 10 people at once? Of course postpartum mom's are dying in droves in the US. Their nurses aren't trained to recognize common complications of delivery and they have far to many patients to take care of. A ratio of 1 nurse to 3 women is what proposed RN ratios are calling for.

This stuff will never change unless we demand it.

This is an odd place to yell about this. GW has reopened the nursery and women are not dying in droves at GW, with or without a nursery.

Your ire seems misplaced.

Five babies were dropped this year. We have no idea how bad their injuries were.

...? You’re starting to sound like one of those crazy pro-lifers. THE BABEEEEZ!!! There’s a baby involved so let’s all lose our minds when discussing the necessity of a nursery for healthy newborns.

I think you need a coffee break, or something? Maybe a day off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My postpartum care at GW was lousy. I was rounded on constantly by everyone and their mother so I could not sleep. I could hardly walk and see straight I was so tired and should not have been left overnight with my daughter, whom I was taking care of basically delirious and shaking. I had lost bowel control from pushing and had to clean up my own accidents while my baby screamed and I could not reach the call button when my husband had gone home for a bit. Techs, not nurses, handled most of my care. I cried several times from the trauma of my delivery in front of staff and midwives and was not oce offered psychological support or a social worker. I waited two days for a lactation consultant despite many requests to see her and she had come in on her sick day with an active cold when she helped me. I was discharged with active signs of postpartum preeclampsia returning despite reporting a headache and high BP to my nurse. Call me entitled but is not high quality post partum care. Not even close. And my insurance was billed close to 30 grand for this visit.

I'm so sorry. I hope you wrote a letter to the hospital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honey, I’m actually a lawyer, you know, the kind of person you’d hire to sue GW for all the awful crap they inflicted on you. Except you’d have no case.

Don't get smug. This is DCUM. We're all lawyers.

Yeah, so why are all these rich lawyers bitching about how wronged they were by an excellent hospital?! Once again, the entitlement is repulsive.

So rich women should hire outside medical professionals to ensure they and their babies actually receive appropriate medical care during recovery, got it. Very Malawi.

It is absurd, truly absurd, to claim that the care provided at GW before it brought back the nursery was not “appropriate.” If you’re a lawyer yourself, I weep for your clients. It’s gross that the very privileged women on this thread are framing their demands in such grossly disproportionate terms.

Wait you feel sorry for my clients (who are all multinational corporations, but anyway) because I think both baby and mother are patients and should be treated as such? That's such a crazy leap. What on earth does that have to do with my clients? I can't competently argue a MTD because I think hospitals should treat patients like patients?

Your logic and reading skills have jumped the shark. But now that you’re not actually arguing with me about the appropriateness of GW’s care, I’ll move on with my life.

Honey, read this board. There are MANY stories about women who feel they themselves and their babies got poor-to-dangerous post-partum care at GW. And many more who will attest to it just being a needlessly crappy experience, which, as a consumer, is perfectly appropriate to complain about. And likely a huge reason why they brought back the nursery. Which will be a benefit for ALL moms giving birth at GW (including the many low income moms). On the flip side, everyone universally praises the quality of the NICU and L&D staff (midwives aside), so it's not like people are just unsatisfied. There's a very specific phenomenon that many women experienced at GW over the past 5 year, related to neglect of post-partum moms and babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are deservedly angry when our insurers are being billed between 20 and 50 grand for a two or three day hospital stay where we are expected to bring husbands, family members, and doulas to provide nursing care for ourselves and our new babies. What are our insurers and us paying for exactly? Women and babies deserve better, but they will only happen when women collectively stop sniping at each other and saying things like husbands and families need to "man up" to help in the hospital and there is a cost benefit analysis on dropping babies and it's okay if the baby isn't seriously injured. We ALL deserve better.

What other hospital unit would you be in and not receive adequate nursing care and support and be expected to bring your own? It's utterly ridiculous. There is clearly some GW hospital administrator on this thread and some other self loathing women with too much of a "pick yourself up by the boot straps" mentality who feels that being vulnerable and needing support during a major medical and life event is an unforgivable weakness of character.

And to the PP who asked, one nurse to 5 mothers and babies for a total of ten patients is ridiculous! Have you ever taken care of 10 people at once? Of course postpartum mom's are dying in droves in the US. Their nurses aren't trained to recognize common complications of delivery and they have far to many patients to take care of. A ratio of 1 nurse to 3 women is what proposed RN ratios are calling for.

This stuff will never change unless we demand it.

This is an odd place to yell about this. GW has reopened the nursery and women are not dying in droves at GW, with or without a nursery.

Your ire seems misplaced.

Another poster. You're wrong. The maternal death rate (which is often POST labor) in this country is horrible. Practices like those of GW are to blame.

No, GW is an excellent hospital and does not have a high maternal mortality rate. A hospital in DC was closed because of deaths -- that hospital was not GW.

The maternal mortality rate in this country is abysmal and alarming. Focus on it, not on GW.

we can walk and chew gum at the same time, you know. just because there exist bigger problems doesn't mean this is not an important problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honey, I’m actually a lawyer, you know, the kind of person you’d hire to sue GW for all the awful crap they inflicted on you. Except you’d have no case.

Don't get smug. This is DCUM. We're all lawyers.

Yeah, so why are all these rich lawyers bitching about how wronged they were by an excellent hospital?! Once again, the entitlement is repulsive.

So rich women should hire outside medical professionals to ensure they and their babies actually receive appropriate medical care during recovery, got it. Very Malawi.

+1
if birth cost $1000 then maybe. but for the money they are charging all hospitals should be able to afford nurseries and sufficient nursing staff.

for my first i didn't want to have my husband at birth and the nurses told me "we need him to help". what? it seems that hospitals are estimating their staffing needs based on the assumption that hundreds of thousands of free help hours will be available. and then they charge an equivalent of the some the world's most expensive hotels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are deservedly angry when our insurers are being billed between 20 and 50 grand for a two or three day hospital stay where we are expected to bring husbands, family members, and doulas to provide nursing care for ourselves and our new babies. What are our insurers and us paying for exactly? Women and babies deserve better, but they will only happen when women collectively stop sniping at each other and saying things like husbands and families need to "man up" to help in the hospital and there is a cost benefit analysis on dropping babies and it's okay if the baby isn't seriously injured. We ALL deserve better.

What other hospital unit would you be in and not receive adequate nursing care and support and be expected to bring your own? It's utterly ridiculous. There is clearly some GW hospital administrator on this thread and some other self loathing women with too much of a "pick yourself up by the boot straps" mentality who feels that being vulnerable and needing support during a major medical and life event is an unforgivable weakness of character.

And to the PP who asked, one nurse to 5 mothers and babies for a total of ten patients is ridiculous! Have you ever taken care of 10 people at once? Of course postpartum mom's are dying in droves in the US. Their nurses aren't trained to recognize common complications of delivery and they have far to many patients to take care of. A ratio of 1 nurse to 3 women is what proposed RN ratios are calling for.

This stuff will never change unless we demand it.

This is an odd place to yell about this. GW has reopened the nursery and women are not dying in droves at GW, with or without a nursery.

Your ire seems misplaced.

Another poster. You're wrong. The maternal death rate (which is often POST labor) in this country is horrible. Practices like those of GW are to blame.

No, GW is an excellent hospital and does not have a high maternal mortality rate. A hospital in DC was closed because of deaths -- that hospital was not GW.

The maternal mortality rate in this country is abysmal and alarming. Focus on it, not on GW.

we can walk and chew gum at the same time, you know. just because there exist bigger problems doesn't mean this is not an important problem.

But that's my point. The nursery has reopened. This problem has been addressed. The lack of a nursery at GW is not a problem anymore at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honey, I’m actually a lawyer, you know, the kind of person you’d hire to sue GW for all the awful crap they inflicted on you. Except you’d have no case.

Don't get smug. This is DCUM. We're all lawyers.

Yeah, so why are all these rich lawyers bitching about how wronged they were by an excellent hospital?! Once again, the entitlement is repulsive.

So rich women should hire outside medical professionals to ensure they and their babies actually receive appropriate medical care during recovery, got it. Very Malawi.

+1
if birth cost $1000 then maybe. but for the money they are charging all hospitals should be able to afford nurseries and sufficient nursing staff.

for my first i didn't want to have my husband at birth and the nurses told me "we need him to help". what? it seems that hospitals are estimating their staffing needs based on the assumption that hundreds of thousands of free help hours will be available. and then they charge an equivalent of the some the world's most expensive hotels.

Weird to build a model around the assumption that there are no single moms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are deservedly angry when our insurers are being billed between 20 and 50 grand for a two or three day hospital stay where we are expected to bring husbands, family members, and doulas to provide nursing care for ourselves and our new babies. What are our insurers and us paying for exactly? Women and babies deserve better, but they will only happen when women collectively stop sniping at each other and saying things like husbands and families need to "man up" to help in the hospital and there is a cost benefit analysis on dropping babies and it's okay if the baby isn't seriously injured. We ALL deserve better.

What other hospital unit would you be in and not receive adequate nursing care and support and be expected to bring your own? It's utterly ridiculous. There is clearly some GW hospital administrator on this thread and some other self loathing women with too much of a "pick yourself up by the boot straps" mentality who feels that being vulnerable and needing support during a major medical and life event is an unforgivable weakness of character.

And to the PP who asked, one nurse to 5 mothers and babies for a total of ten patients is ridiculous! Have you ever taken care of 10 people at once? Of course postpartum mom's are dying in droves in the US. Their nurses aren't trained to recognize common complications of delivery and they have far to many patients to take care of. A ratio of 1 nurse to 3 women is what proposed RN ratios are calling for.

This stuff will never change unless we demand it.

This is an odd place to yell about this. GW has reopened the nursery and women are not dying in droves at GW, with or without a nursery.

Your ire seems misplaced.

Another poster. You're wrong. The maternal death rate (which is often POST labor) in this country is horrible. Practices like those of GW are to blame.

No, GW is an excellent hospital and does not have a high maternal mortality rate. A hospital in DC was closed because of deaths -- that hospital was not GW.

The maternal mortality rate in this country is abysmal and alarming. Focus on it, not on GW.

we can walk and chew gum at the same time, you know. just because there exist bigger problems doesn't mean this is not an important problem.

But that's my point. The nursery has reopened. This problem has been addressed. The lack of a nursery at GW is not a problem anymore at all.

the problem is not only about a hospital not having a nursery, though that certainly is a crucial prerequisite. VHC had a nursery and still the same set of phenomena that I see here described happened to me - I was stuck in a room alone changinf newborn's diepars every two hours all night long after a very long labor and major tearing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But that's my point. The nursery has reopened. This problem has been addressed. The lack of a nursery at GW is not a problem anymore at all.

Has anyone even confirmed this is true? I am looking on their website and for media reports and I'm not seeing anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honey, I’m actually a lawyer, you know, the kind of person you’d hire to sue GW for all the awful crap they inflicted on you. Except you’d have no case.

Don't get smug. This is DCUM. We're all lawyers.

Yeah, so why are all these rich lawyers bitching about how wronged they were by an excellent hospital?! Once again, the entitlement is repulsive.

So rich women should hire outside medical professionals to ensure they and their babies actually receive appropriate medical care during recovery, got it. Very Malawi.

+1
if birth cost $1000 then maybe. but for the money they are charging all hospitals should be able to afford nurseries and sufficient nursing staff.

for my first i didn't want to have my husband at birth and the nurses told me "we need him to help". what? it seems that hospitals are estimating their staffing needs based on the assumption that hundreds of thousands of free help hours will be available. and then they charge an equivalent of the some the world's most expensive hotels.

Weird to build a model around the assumption that there are no single moms.

Single mothers have family and friends. What happened to, “It takes a village”? Hospitals are left carrying the weight because people apparently don’t have the support networks they used to. A bit similar to the predicament public schools find themselves in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honey, I’m actually a lawyer, you know, the kind of person you’d hire to sue GW for all the awful crap they inflicted on you. Except you’d have no case.

Don't get smug. This is DCUM. We're all lawyers.

Yeah, so why are all these rich lawyers bitching about how wronged they were by an excellent hospital?! Once again, the entitlement is repulsive.

So rich women should hire outside medical professionals to ensure they and their babies actually receive appropriate medical care during recovery, got it. Very Malawi.

+1
if birth cost $1000 then maybe. but for the money they are charging all hospitals should be able to afford nurseries and sufficient nursing staff.

for my first i didn't want to have my husband at birth and the nurses told me "we need him to help". what? it seems that hospitals are estimating their staffing needs based on the assumption that hundreds of thousands of free help hours will be available. and then they charge an equivalent of the some the world's most expensive hotels.

Weird to build a model around the assumption that there are no single moms.

Single mothers have family and friends. What happened to, “It takes a village”? Hospitals are left carrying the weight because people apparently don’t have the support networks they used to. A bit similar to the predicament public schools find themselves in.

As close as I am with my friends if they asked me to come stay in a hospital overnight with them I'd be very WTF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Honey, I’m actually a lawyer, you know, the kind of person you’d hire to sue GW for all the awful crap they inflicted on you. Except you’d have no case.

Don't get smug. This is DCUM. We're all lawyers.

Yeah, so why are all these rich lawyers bitching about how wronged they were by an excellent hospital?! Once again, the entitlement is repulsive.

So rich women should hire outside medical professionals to ensure they and their babies actually receive appropriate medical care during recovery, got it. Very Malawi.

+1
if birth cost $1000 then maybe. but for the money they are charging all hospitals should be able to afford nurseries and sufficient nursing staff.

for my first i didn't want to have my husband at birth and the nurses told me "we need him to help". what? it seems that hospitals are estimating their staffing needs based on the assumption that hundreds of thousands of free help hours will be available. and then they charge an equivalent of the some the world's most expensive hotels.

Weird to build a model around the assumption that there are no single moms.

Single mothers have family and friends. What happened to, “It takes a village”? Hospitals are left carrying the weight because people apparently don’t have the support networks they used to. A bit similar to the predicament public schools find themselves in.

No, PP. You are living on another planet. Mothers who deliver babies in hospitals are patients. Babies born in hospitals are patients. They both deserve quality medical and nursing care. It is the hospital's duty to provide it. Some women have easy deliveries and recoveries and do not need much medical care or support. Others do--there can be major medical issues that arise, which as a lawyer I'm sure you are well informed of. But to expect families, husbands, doulas, and others to provide medical and nursing support while someone is hospitalized and the insurer and patient is footing the bill (or the government) is completely and utterly ludicrous. Diapering, swaddling, soothing, feeding, and patient education for newborn care are tasks postpartum nurses are trained to do.