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Experience with delivery and post care at United Hospital
What was your experience in regards to the delivery care and the after care at United Hospital?
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Re: Experience with delivery and post care at United Hospital
Not sure when you are due ....but I am two weeks away from being able to give you my opinion/perspective.
When I was looking (I was contemplating Woodwinds, St. Joe's and United), truth be told, I found positive and negatives for each one.
I can tell you that if you are looking at all at the possibility of water birth (I initially was), United does not offer birthing tubs. I ended up loving the dr I was with so much, that I opted to stay with her (she only delivers at United). The only other thing I have heard is that United tends to have higher c-section rates than other area hospitals. However, I have been very specific with my dr and in my birth plan about the desire for vaginal birth - csection as the last possible option.
I had my little girl there this fall and had a great experience. We are def. going back there next time. I had an awesome L&D nurse. Ended up not having my OB for delivery due to a schedule change even though I was induced but the Dr. who did my delivery was really nice.
I was induced at 41 weeks. When they broke my water, I was so thankful we were at United, because there was meconium in the fluid. I wasn't surprised since I knew I was 41 weeks. So then the NICU was at my delivery to check out DD right away. She ended up not having any issues from it, but I was so thankful they were right there. The second the doc delivered her, she was immediately passed to the NICU nurses so she wouldn't aspirate any of the mec.
Postpartum the nurses were really nice. I had one or two that I didn't care for as much but they weren't terrible or anything. They were all really helpful with bf support though, and not in a pushy way. They asked if I wanted help and I did. I asked every nurse for help and also saw the lactation consultants before leaving the hospital (including two f/u visits with the lcs) and it was hugely helpful in being successful at nursing DD. She was pretty putzy and they really helped me learn to get her to latch, etc.
So yeah, great experience.
I will add though, that I didn't care much about having a bigger room or anything fancy like the new hospitals have. It wasn't that important to me and honestly, there wasn't much time to care about it either. DH liked being in St. Paul b/c he made a stop at Cossetta's for lunch the day after DD was born.
BFP #2, 12/12/11, m/c 12/25/11
BFP #3, 3/09/12, CP 3/10/12
BFP #4, 7/22/12, DD#2 born 4/2013
Well, my labor and delivery was pretty terrible. But overall, I thought United was good.
The nurses were really wonderful. One of the nurses I had during my long labor even stayed after her shift to be in the OR with me during my c/s.
After delivery was really good. They have a great nursing store there and the LC that I saw was really nice. The food is good. The cable sucked.
They do have a very high c/s rate. That could be attributed to the fact that they are right next to Childrens and have an amazing NICU, so high risk patients are probably seen there a lot more.
This is my understanding of why the c/s rate is so high. I am pretty sure that I even saw it in some materials when I was there.
I had a great experience at United and will never, ever go to another hospital again. Everyone was great there and all of the nurses actually listened to me and asked me what I wanted/needed.
I was also there last year for 10 days for my autoimmune disease and once again they were all great. I was actually a little sad to go home at the end of that because I had gotten to know so many of them.
Overall I would rank them as very good - I was confident my baby and I were getting the care we needed at all times. When it came to picking a hospital it was a no-brainer, the fact that Childrens is connected sealed the deal. I wasn't high risk(until the 2 months when my BP sky-rocketed), but I wanted the best care available in case anything did go wrong. I was induced 3 weeks early due to my BP and went through 12 hours of labor before they decided on a C/S - baby was stuck and my body just isn't made for natural delivery; too bad they couldn't have figured that out 12 hours before.
My big complaint is that I was in the hospital for 6 days due to my BP getting worse after delivery, and it was frustrating that every Dr/Nurse had a different opinion of when I would be getting released, what meds I should be on, dosage, etc. Some Nurses were better than others and the same went for the Drs, but that's to be expected in every hospital. Another drawback is that their rooms are VERY small, we were lucky that we got the biggest room on the floor - after 6 days of me, baby and DH staying along with visitors there is no way I would've survived in one of the tiny rooms they have.
I would recommend and if we weren't "one and done" I would choose to deliver there again.