Where did you give birth?
I'm looking for reviews of hospitals, specifically hospitals where people have positive birth experiences. How were the nurses? How was your experience in general?
What I want to do after that is call those hospitals and find out if there are any midwives who deliver there. I'm shocked at how few midwives I'm able to find who deliver in hospitals (and yes, I have an appointment with ronni rothman.)
huge thanks in advance.
Re: North and North West of Philly mommas
How north and northwest? I delivered in Lankenau and I really had a great experience. All but one nurse was terrific. I doubt that they allow midwife deliveries but am not sure.
I think there is a birthing center across from Bryn Mawr that may allow midwives.
I also delivered at Pennsylvania Hospital and went to Penn OBGYN and Midwifery care, both in Center City and had a great experience with them.
Unfortunately I had to be induced at 38w4d and didn't get the opportunity to use their birthing center (located across the street from the hospital), but I looooved the hospital itself. The staff was wonderful, the nurses were AMAZING (could not have done it without Shawn, she was awesome), the whole place is clean as a whistle and probably as comfortable as can be in those circumstances.
The only thing you might want to consider, is that if you're looking to have the same midwife with you throughout your pregnancy and birth, you're not going to get it at Penn. I ended up seeing Vicky the most (by far) than all of the other MWs at my appointments, but she wasn't on rotation in any of the 24 hours I was in active labor, so I birthed with Elka (which was a blessing, in retrospect).
So I can't really speak for the whole "natural birth" aspect because I ended up with an Epi/Pitocin 12 hours into my induction IN the hospital, but as for my one-on-one experience with the Midwives, I can't say enough about them
I've also heard that the Bryn Mawr Birthing Center is great, but I chose to use Penn as it was more local and convenient for me (I lived in N. Libs at the time, but live in Manayunk now).