Reply to c-section -- Sibley or GW?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Shady Grove Hospital is also a great option. Same NICU level as GW, not a teaching hospital, all new maternity ward. I really enjoyed my c section there. Live in upper NW DC but found the drive out to SG much easier than getting to GW (where I was in the beginning of my pregnancy).[/quote]

[b]A recent change in NICU designations means that GWU and Shady Grove are technically both III(b) NICUs. However, if my child was sick, I would go to GWU. No question. [/b]Honestly, if I went into pre-term labor before 30 weeks, I would go to GWU and take my chances, even though my own doctor is at Sibley and it would mean another OB (probably a resident) delivering.

But what are the odds of you having a pre-term infant? And are you so high risk that you need the MFMs at GWU? Also, how much does the teaching hospital thing matter to you? Do you know what being at a teaching hospital means? [/quote]

Can you elaborate? What is the difference?[/quote]

NICUs are given "levels" based of the care they are able to provide, with higher levels indicating that they can provide the most care for the neediest infants (i.e. those born 28 weeks or earlier). It is determined by the different types of equipment they have, plus specialized staff, plus being connected to a larger medical center that can provide complex surgeries to neonates on site. To me, reputation and surgical ability are what distinguish GWU over SG.

It used to be that NICUs were levels I through V. GWU was a IV. Then they got rid of levels IV and V, and reclassified different levels of III instead, so now you have IIIa, IIIb and IIIc. SG and GWU are now both IIIb. In DC, the only higher level NICU is Children's, which is Level IIIc and part of the GWU teaching network. Of course, you can't deliver at Children's for obvious reasons. LO has to be transferred there.

But again, these are super specialized services that most of us will never need, so it's probably not worth planning your delivery around NICU level unless you are extremely high risk, in which I'd think you want to be with the MFM specialists at GWU anyway.

Signed, 
Mom whose own OB delivers at Sibley[/quote]

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