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Chester County or Christiana Hospital for Maternity???

jasnatjasnat
in Philadelphia Babies

I am having a very hard time deciding which hospital to deliver my next child - due in November. I delivered my 2 1/2 yr old son at Christiana and had a good experience except that it seems that all OBGYN practices at Christiana have on-call coverage with other practices. For me it ended up resulting in a 66 hour labor with my first because I later learned that doctors typically won't induce patients not from their practice even when, in my case, I desperately needed it. Also, the practice I'm considering at Christiana has a midwife in the delivery rotation that has been delivering babies for all of 3 months - I guess it will be 9 months by the time I'm due. I'm not very comfortable with the thought of a relatively inexperienced midwife possibly being the only person there for my delivery.  The Delaware Maternal Fetal Medicine also stopped taking my insurance as of March 1st :(

I found a great practice at Chester County Hospital that is large enough that they deliver all of their own babies but the hospital is further away (45 mins vs 25 mins for Christiana) and I recently learned you have to share a room 50% of the time. This may sound silly but the thought of sharing a bathroom after childbirth grosses me out a bit ;-)

Both hospitals have Level 3 NICUs and Chester County has CHOP pediatricians on staff. Christiana delivers tons of babies and is known as a great hospital. I don't know what to do - any advice or sharing of your own experiences would be greatly appreciated! TIA

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Re: Chester County or Christiana Hospital for Maternity???

  • lauren soontobe speakmanlauren soontobe speakman

    Hello, Congratulations on your coming baby!  I recently delivered at The Chester County Hospital and had a great experience.  I am a patient of Associates for Women's Medicine where there are 4 physicians that deliver and there is always one in the Hospital on call, so I was sure that one of them would deliver me.  Also, I was pleased to find out that there is anesthesia in house 24/7 as well so I didn't have to wait long for an epidural either. 

    As far as the room sharing goes, it kind of stinks to share a room, but they do fill each room before filling them with a roommate.  I was there for four days after a cesection and only had a roommate for the secomd half of the last night that I was there, which was nice because my husband could be there with me. 

    I can't really speak to Christiana's reputation, but I can sure recommend The Chester County Hospital and their practices.   They also have another practice- Chester County Ob/Gyn, which is who you may have already looked into. 

    As far as the NICU, the physicians are all CHOP neonatologists and are in house 24/7, which I found comforting as well. 

    Good luck with your search and hope that you have a happy pregnancy and delivery.

     

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  • YorkieFanYorkieFan member
    I delivered both of my DDs at Chester County Hospital and had a wonderful experience both times. However, my OB/GYN has her own practice. Dr. Bellaire is located in Main Street at Exton and she is awesome! She is the only doctor I saw through both of my pregnancies and she delivered both of my babies. She is almost always on call to deliver her own patients' babies. If for some reason she wasn't available, she is covered by the doctors from Chester County OB/GYN at the hospital. When I was close to my due date with DD#2, my doctor was going to be out of town from Friday night into Saturday and she told me that Friday morning at my appt. That if I started having contractions to call her right away, have a glass of wine to slow the contractions and she would be on her way back right away to deliver my baby! Needless to say, I didn't have my DD until that Monday, but she always told me that she would be there to deliver my babies. I think she told me at one point that she delivers like 95% of her patients' babies! She knew me, I knew her and it just made the whole experience much more relaxed! I also had the same L&D nurse for both girls which was awesome! The only thing that bothered me a smidge was having to share a room in maternity, but you're not there very long so it wasn't that big of a deal! Good luck to you!!
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  • kmccallumkmccallum
    Would you consider the Birth Center in Wilmington?  I used Bryn Mawr birth center the first time around but have moved to Chester county and am planning the Wilmington Birth Center next time.  I hear fantastic things about it.
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