Best hospital to deliver in Manhattan

CalalillyWine

Hello, I'm planning to get pregnant within the next few months and thought to join this board and discover what pregnancy and mommyhood is all about!  First off, I am the biggest wimp and extremely afraid of this whole process, well mostly just the delivery.  I have a few medical/psychiatric issues and will need a team (doctor/midwife, dula, etc) and hospital setting that will be ultra patient and take their time with my wimpiness.  I'll browse around at all these great posts and start the education process, but I thought to begin with this question: which hospital in Manhattan, preferably upper west side, do you recommend?  The next step is to pick an equally unrushed ob/gyn affiliated there.  I love being a resident of NYC and enjoy its super-efficient ways, however, I'm a little (very!) afraid of applying that to this part of my body.

 Thanks so much for your recommendations!!!

CalalillyWine

Just came upon this site's hospital guide (https://images.thenestbaby.com/tools/pdfs/newyork_HospitalGuide.pdf) and decided on St Lukes Roosevelt for now (https://www.nywomenshealth.com/).  Also booked an appointment with Dr Jeffrey Yu who is affiliated there - https://www.asterobgyn.com/doctor_yu.html.

 Any thoughts on these?  Thanks again!

 

Nygirl76

I delivered my first child at St. Luke's/Roosevelt in 2008.  I planned on giving birth in the birthing center, but it was full when I went into labor.  I still had a natural labor and delivery on the regular delivery floor, but the nursing care was not good.  The nurse assigned to my delivery was out of it.  When my child was born (with breathing difficulties) she didn't even know what time the child was born when the NICU team was asking her.

The care I received in the postpartum floor was abominable.  My baby ended up in NICU so I asked for a pump to start pumping breastmilk.  I returned from NICU on the first day I gave birth to a pump in my room.  When I asked for a nurse to show me how to use it, I was told that they were too busy.

I had to clean up my own blood in the bathroom because no one ever came by. and was roomed with a woman who was still pregnant and had visitors all hours of the day and spoke loudly on her cell phone ALL NIGHT.  Then, at about 4 am when she finally decided to stop yelling into her phone, the doctors and nurses would come in to our room to check on her and turn on ALL the LIGHTS!  So I got no sleep.

On the other hand, my baby got amazing care in the NICU.  Those nurses were top notch.  I am so grateful to them.

 

Needless to say, this time around, I'm not returning there.  I am going to give NY Presbyterian a try.  I figure it can't be much worse than what I experienced.

CalalillyWine

Wow, that sounds dreadful!!  Cleaning up your own blood?!!  St. Luke's/Roosevelt ranked very high on other boards and also on The Bump's comparison chart.  I wonder if your experience was typical or a bad streak.  I'm glad your baby received good care and is doing well now! 

As I wrote initially, I have so many fears about delivery and stories like these don't help.  Do you have any advice for preparing for childbirth and having very low pain tolerance?  You mentioned doing it naturally...  Do you recommend a midwife or doula?

Thanks so much for your insight!

Nygirl76

Well, I am no means an expert.  But having been through my experience of childbirth, I did a couple of things that I think helped. 

 I took a childbirth class at Realbirth, which no longer exists.  That helped me to hear from an expert aside from what I read in books.  I also did yoga fairly regularly.  In addition we hired a doula since we thought we could use the support during delivery. (Turns out my doula was with another woman in labor when I went into labor, so she showed up 5 minutes before I started pushing!  Ha- guess I didn't have the best luck!)  I used midwives too, which now with my second baby, I am using an OB as I feel that there may have been some things that they missed during the end of my pregnancy. 

If you have a low pain tolerance, what is wrong with an epidural?  I wouldn't rule it out, I figured I'd tried to go without drugs, but if I needed them, I would have used them.  I think it's good to go in with an open mind because one never knows how labor and delivery will be for you!

One last thing,  something I learned through it all is that pain is a response to fear, so if you can eliminate the fear and focus calmly, it is possible to reduce the experience of pain.  There are tons of ways to do this, just has to be right for the individual.

(And as for my experience, I don't know if it was just a freak thing or happens regularly.  Supposedly at the time there was a baby boom, so the hospital was packed.  But I still don't think that excuses the lack of care I received.  Hoping that NY Presbyterian is a bit better than that this time around.)

xandb

My regular OB practice wasn't affiliated with a hospital, so when they confirmed I was pregnant I went to look for both the hospital and a new practitioner. I chose Roosevelt because I wanted to try a natural childbirth in the low-stress environment of a birthing center, while stil (first-time jitters!) having all possible hospital care in case of emergencies. They're the only combination like that in the City that I know of. The practice I chose, a doctor and two midwives, was friendly to the natural way but not fanatic about it. Since I had no complications, I pretty much only saw the midwives, who were amazing. They were so much better than your average medico at making me comfortable, putting me at ease with what was happening and with the big day.

In the end, I had to deliver in the regular L&D floor because of blood pressure, but still had my midwives seeing me through it. I was very happy with their care. The only problem is I was unlucky enough to be part of a baby boom - Tamara had to deliver three other babies while I waited in Triage. Once I was the only one still laboring, I really did get very good care.

The nurses on L&D were very sweet and friendly and supportive, though one seemed to be a newbie. They were on board with helping baby learn to nurse before they weighed and measured him, too - which is really important for baby's health. Recovery nurses were a little overbearing and confusing - they're so used to it all, but for me it was the first time, and I would have liked a little more help adjusting. But they were still positive, nice people. I had a shared recovery room, which means you're bound to deal with the other person's noises and visitors, but I can't complain - no one was obnoxious about it. My absolute favorite part - hopefully this will help set you at ease with this hospital - was the anesthesiology team. I ended up getting an epidural because I needed to regain some strength for the final stretch after a long labor, and they were simply amazing - courteous, professional, clean and quick, so very supportive. The epidural was one of my biggest fears before, and I wish I could put into words the total relief that I felt with the team and the process - and the copletely painless experience of the actual birth afterwards.

Sorry this is so long but I hope it helps. I imagine there's good and bad days at every hospital, but if I'm still in the area when it's time for baby#2, I won't hesitate to go back to St. Luke's-Roosevelt and my wonderful midwives Tamara and Sabine.