Reply to Any recent labor and delivery experience at Sibley?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am one of the PPs who delivered at Sibley.  I think the natural birth/doula community has issues with Sibley which they could tell you more about.  My doula attended a birth right after mine at Sibley that she said did not go well, and she generally feels there is a culture of not respecting laboring women who want unmedicated births there.  Not in terms of forcing women to have epidurals (plenty of women will tell you they had unmedicated births at Sibley with no issues), but it's true that despite having this beautiful new building they do not have birthing tubs or nitrous oxide (most hospitals don't).  I also hear they are not huge fans of doulas, though I did not personally witness this (as far as I could tell my doula was not prevented from attending or doing her work during my labor).

L&D was ok for me.  No major complications so could not speak to that.  I did not love the Kaiser OB who happened to be on-call or my L&D nurse.  I was glad I had a doula just to have a friendly face in the room since I was pretty miserable (the epidural did not work - not anyone's fault as far as I could tell).

Beyond that though the postpartum care was excellent.  I got two visits from lactation staff (this was on the weekend) that really helped with breastfeeding, and felt very supported in sending baby to the nursery overnight so I could get rest (they brought her back for feedings).  No hospital is perfect but personally assuming it's not a high risk pregnancy I'll take Sibley over a Baby-Friendly hospital any day.[/quote]

Speaking as a former doula, yeah, I found Sibley challenging. Part of this is the hospital, part is the OBs who deliver there. A spontaneous, completely unmedicated birth with zero augmentation is unusual there. The nurses aren't used to it. Women who want to move around a lot, find relief in the shower, don't want to be hooked up to monitors the whole time are going against the norms. By and large, the OBs would prefer you get an epi and stay in bed, keep things moving along with pitocin, and deliver on your back. And there are some docs who deliver at Sibley who LOATHE even the idea of doulas supporting one of their patients.

Do people have spontaneous unmedicated births at Sibley? Yes. Are they the norm? Absolutely not.[/quote]

Are spontaneous unmedicated births the norm at any major hospital?[/quote]

They are more common at some other hospitals. The majority of births? No, not any hospital in the DC area. But some hospitals are more on board with facilitating them if that is what the woman wants in a low-risk situation.[/quote]

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