lurker with a question... NICU vs SCN

samakasrc

I don't post here often, but I do lurk and learn!   Question for you ladies.

I am 35 weeks 3 days today.  I've been battling prodromal labor for the last 3 days, I realize this could go on forever and I hope it goes on for at least 2 more weeks! 

Here's my question though:  I'm torn between 2 hospitals.  One (that is 30 minutes away and much much further for my family) has a level III NICU and wonderful reviews.  My number 1 choice hospital (7 minutes away) Is a wonderful hospital where I delivered both my previous babies, but only has a Special Care Nursery (Level II ?) 

My OB says if I go into labor after 36 weeks I should be fine to deliver at the closer hospital because they should be able to handle any issues the babies may have after that point. 

My pregnancy has been mostly uneventful with no BP issues, GD or anything else. My fear is the possibility of having to have a baby or 2 transferred to a different hospital from me if there is something more servere/wrong.

What do you ladies think? What would you do? Or what is your experience?

Thank you so much for any insight!

wille2b

we had our twins at 33 weeks and our hospital only had a special care nursery and they did fanstastic with our babies, at 36 weeks i wouldnt be tooooo worried about a nicu. i would stick with the hospital you know and love. in our case at least, the scn was able to do everything that the nicu could do they just didnt want to be keeping babies on a "long term" basis.

p.s. can i ask which two hospitals your looking at(im from the TC too)

samakasrc

We're looking at either Woodwinds or St Johns (Both are Healtheast hospitals).  My preference would be Woodwinds, but with St Johns having the level III Nicu its certainly been on our minds!

Thank you for the input!  I don't see much from mommas who only had their babies in SCN instead of NICU so I wondered if they were just referring to them as the same thing?

PurrCrasher

Congrats on making it so far without any issues, I hope it stays that way! I think that a lot of MoMs use the terms SCN and NICU interchangeably. My understanding is that the biggest difference is that SCN's are only able to take babies after 32 weeks gestation. The hospital I work at and delivered at only has a SCN (level II) and they were magnificient after my babies had significant and unexpected complications during my c-section at 36w6d (I had a placental abruption they didn't know about). Without their amazing intervention all three of us could have died. Obviously my case is VERY rare but I tell you my story only to point out that even though they were not a level III they were more than capable of handing a critical situation with the three of us and if I were to find myself in the same situation again I wouldn't do anything differently. I see no reason you should expect any complications at all but in the odd event that you do I feel as though you would be in good hands with a SCN only. Obviously you should do whatever you feel is right. Good luck!

raraavis28

At 35 wks 4 days I delivered at a hospital that just had a scn, though my mfm had said that if i delivered earlier than 32 wks I'd have to deliver at a hospital w/ a nicu....level III...which was about half an hour away. My OB said that the main difference between the two is that a NICU provides ventilators for over 24 hrs and SCN can only provide them up to 24 hrs so if there was a serious complication, one or both babies would need to be transferred to the higher level nursery.

Since I did not have any complications and delivered well after 32 wks I decided to deliver at the hospital w/ the scn....where my ob that I love delivers. Everything went great...my boys were in the scn for 4 days but mostly for eating issues and monitoring. The staff was great and my LOs received great care.

That's my experience; gl w/ your decision!

caden

At 35w3d I think I would probably just risk it and deliver at the hospital with a SCN/level 2. My boys were born at 35w1d and didn't need any SCN time. I had the steroid shots though so maybe that made a difference.

mrsjami

My OB told me as long as I made it past 28 weeks I could deliver at my hospital with level 2.

yinyang124

I think the SCN would be fine as you are almost at 36w. GL!

Mrs. Alice

I would feel pretty comfortable delivering at level II SCN at 35-36 weeks.  I think one of the things major things that differentiates a level II is that they can't intubate.  The chances that at late term preemie would need to intubation are pretty low.

samakasrc

Sorry to be just getting back! Busy Busy Busy!  Thank you all for the input!  I feel much better now and think I'll be going to my first choice hospital. Confident knowing that they should be able to handle our babies just fine   Thank you so much!

erinruns

From what I remember, level III means they can handle babies who need ventilators.  At 36 weeks, it's highly unlikely your babies would need that much help breathing, so a SCN should be fine.