Delivering at Hinsdale?

annick1008

Hi, what did you think of Hinsdale Hospital?  I am excited to go on a tour.  Also, did you take any classes?

LAS710

I delivered at Hinsdale and was very happy with the experience.  The nurses were great and I love my doctor, Dr. Payne.  One of the main reasons we chose Hinsdale was that they have a top-rated neo-natology unit there and that gave us some peace of mind, should there be any complications with the baby.  Luckily there were no problems.  I am pregnant again and will be delivering there again in January '09.

They were redoing the labor and delivery wing when I delivered (January '07) so it may be nicer now.  The hospital is old, therefore the rooms tend to be smaller and there's not a lot of room for visitors.  They don't have a lot of private rooms and I was concerned that I could end up sharing a room with someone post-partum.  That was a possibility, but luckily it did not happen because they were not terribly busy.  I ended up in a double room which was great because my husband stayed the first night with me and visitors had some room to move around.

If you intend to breastfeed and make that known to the nurses, beware -- they will interrupt your sleep every two hours to try and get the baby to nurse.  This was pretty annoying at 2:00am and 4:00am following delivery.  But they mean well, I guess : )  You will have the option of having the baby stay with you in the room or in the nursery.  We opted for having the baby in the nursery and having the nurses bring her in regularly for feeding. holding, etc.

Their lactation consultants are good... make sure you ask for them to come help you specifically if you have any issues with breast feeding.  Once you leave the hospital, you can still call them, but hands-on assistance was very helpful for this first-time mom.

We did take the labor/childbirth class there.  It was fine... but we felt kind of silly doing some of the exercises.  It was good preparation though and I would recommend taking it.  It helps explain the different kinds of pain medications that can be chosen (epidural, pitocin, etc.) and what their effects are.  I understand that some of the teachers are very pro-natural birth and will try and sway you away from pain-relieving medication, but our instructor was pretty neutral. 

Not sure where you live in, but if you are looking for a good pediatrician, we love ours... Drs. Ayuste in Downers Grove.  There are two doctors in the practice (Ofelia -- the mom and a neonatologist and Cathleen, her daughter).  They are wonderful and both have privledges at Hinsdale.  Our daughter was seen by Ofelia at the hospital at birth and still sees her and Cathleen regularly.

Hope that helps!
Lisa 

Jennifer Kunes

I have Dr. Payne too! He is the reason we are finally pregnant. We haven't decided on Lagrange or Hinsdale yet. We want to take the tours, but thanks for the advice on Hinsdale. It's our front runner now, because of the online tours.