st. joes or northwestern???? help!

atahlier

hi - we are delivering via c-section beginning of october (i have placenta previa so a c-section is a must) and i had planned on delivering at prentice. my doctor delivers at both st. joes and prentice, and is recommending st. joes for multiple reasons (high percentage of RN's/interns at NWestern, the chance that i could get 'bumped' at northwestern, more personal care at st. joes?). does anyone have any c-section experiences at either hospital? or with scheduling at prentice? PLEASE HELP i am hoping to schedule our delivery next week!

demmie326

As 42 weeks approached my doc wanted to set an induction date and had great difficulty setting one due to all of the elective inductions and c-sections performed at Prentice. Thankfully LO decided to arrive prior to my induction.

With that being said I had a wonderful experience at Prentice. We had a scare durring labor and within three minutes of the nurse's page there were more specialists than I knew what to do with who had responded to the call. Northwestern has a staff full of experts which the main reason we selected Prentice other than my doc delivering there. As for your concern about interns, the only interns that we saw came in with the pediatrician to exam the baby. They were really nice and thanked us for allowing them to observe LO.

In the end you need to chose the hospital that you will feel comfortable with. Feeling comfortable is so important when it comes to delivering a baby. There were other hospitals that were closer to home but we went with Prentice and have no regrets. Best wishes!

SuzieBrowne2B

I don't have c-section experience, but Prentice has a level 3 NICU if the baby were to need any special care.  I'm delivering at Prentice for that reason.  I'd hate to have something go wrong and have to have the baby go in an ambulance to another hospital.

ASUsundevil97

I delivered in May at Prentice, although not a C section, and just loved the facility. I will say that it does get very crowded these days, now that they opened the new building.  I tried to schedule an induction and wasn't allowed because they were already full.  Fortunately, I went into labor anyway and ended up there a day before the day I wanted to be induced.  Because they were so busy, I ended up in an overflow room, but it was sooooo nice.

atahlier

thank you for your feedback. we toured prentice, and it is kind of hard not to be pleased with the facilities. i know that everyone's experience will be different, and am confident that both hospitals would be just fine. i do love the quantity of specialists and the level III nicu at prentice. i have yet to find someone who has delivered at st. joes. thank you again!

lpjohnson13

Besides being a beautiful new facility, the most important thing about Prentice/Northwestern Memorial is that they deliver more babies than any other hospital in the Chicagoland area. They have seen EVERYTHING there and the care is excellentI delivered my first there and my second at Good Samaritan in Downers Grove, and I switched only because we had moved to the burbs. I would have gone back to Prentice for our second if I wasn't too chicken about potentially being in labor during rush hour   Prentice is great and by the way, I had a great experience with the nurses there.

rkg4

Hi, I actually delivered at St Joe's in August. My ob delivers at both, NW and St Joes but she had recommended St Joe's for me because I have a lot of back issues and I didn't want to have a resident doing my epidural. Since NW is a teaching hospital, there are a ton of residents, I didn't have any for my delivery. Also, I was induced so it came down to me picking St Joe's at the end because I didn't want a resident for my epidural and NW had a 2 week waiting list for inductions and I was already over my due date so I couldn't wait any longer. My son needed some help breathing when he first came out and we were very happy with the special care nursery there and all of the staff-they were so sweet to him and took such good care of him. I would just go wherever you feel most comfortable, but in my opinion you'll receive great care at either hospital. Oh and also, St Joe's doesn't make you pay for parking! NW does.