Anna Jacques Hospital

christinelovesjesse

Anyone delivered here? We are expecting our first in September and have found some great reviews on a midwife at Women's Health Care in Newburyport. Her name is Lisa Walsh and she delivers at Anna Jacques. Just looking for any advice or opinions. Thanks so much! 

shesween

Hi,

I haven't delivered here but my sister went to the Women's Health in Haverhill and had a c-section done at AJ. She said in retrospect she probably would have gone with an OB but that was just for her case and her personality. A lot of times the mid-wives she saw were overly cautious and made her paranoid. When an OB reviewed her case which had her on 100% bed rest for 6 weeks (she had issue with liver enzyme) the OB would say she was being restricted too much and disagreed with midwives. Said she could get out of bed more than midwives were allowing etc. The staff was really good though during and after c-section. I was with her the day of her c-section and subsequent days after. Her recovery was pretty good considering, no complications. The nurses were very helpful especially with new infant care, breast feeding help etc for the new parents. She said it's a very good community hospital. Overall she liked it and she would go back for another baby.

christiney06

I'll be honest, i've heard a lot of not so great things about that hospital.  it's so small and while some may like the intimate atmosphere I would never feel comfortable giving birth someplace w/out a great special care nursery (NICU). i've had both my kids at Beverly Hospital and can't say enough good things about all their staff. 

Beles

I had my daughter there and am going in tomorrow to hopefully have daughter #2! I love it. 

I chose it because I love the whole philosophy- its a birth center, not a hospital so many traditions of a hospital they just don't automatically do- like no IV, no constant monitoring, no unnecessary csections... Much more laid back experience.

Lisa is _amazing_, but when you see the midwives, you see who is on. You can request appointments with her or another, but they want you to meet them all because when you go into labor, you get who is on call that day. When I had my daughter, it was the only midwife that I didn't particularly love on (of course) but she was still great during the delivery.

I also like that the have the doctors and everything as a just in case. I ended up with a complication in this pregnancy and decided to switch to the doctors instead of the midwives and it was an easy transition. 

The real deciding factor though are the smaller details- the nurses in the birth center are out of this world and will be your best friend. So much of birth is really in their hands anyhow. The rooms are comfortable and they really want to make you comfy. The food is actually pretty good too

 I live an hour from the hospital and have had to go in twice a week for 4 weeks for testing due to the complication, and I never considered switching to a more convenient location. I strongly recommend AJ.