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Houston Babies
The Woman's Hospital or St. Luke's TMC for delivery?
Hi All. I am new to the boards and currently 20 weeks along with our first. My OB has privileges at both The Woman's Hospital and St. Luke's in the TX med center. I don't know much about either but I am trying to decide which to deliver at, so any recommendations/experiences you have had would be greatly appreciated! TIA!
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Re: The Woman's Hospital or St. Luke's TMC for delivery?
Can you give me some ideas as to why you did not have a good experience at TWH? Thanks for your input!
I'm also delivering our first at Woman's. My ob/gyn has been my doctor for 10 years and I've never had a bad expereience with the hospital. I had outpatient surgery there and my sister also delivered there. I was with her beginning to end and never had a bad expereience. The staff is very nice and very accommodating to your needs.
Good luck!
My L&D nurse was completely incompetent. Every time she measured me, she told me I was progressing -- first I was 2 cm, then 3 cm, then 3-4 cm. When the on-call doc came in to check on me, it turned out that I was still only 2 cm (after having labored for 10 hours), DD was in distress, I was losing a ton of blood, and was on the verge of a placental abruption. I had to be rushed to the OR for an emergency c-section. My placenta did in fact completely separate from the wall of my uterus while they were doing the section. If the doc hadn't come in when he did to check on me, and that had happened while I was still in the labor room, things would have gotten very ugly for both DD and I.
Post-partum wasn't a lot better -- DD was having trouble latching and it took 2.5 days (yes, DAYS) to get a lactation consultant to come see me. We could never get a nurse in the room either. DH constantly had to go out to the nurse's station and break up their (very loud, round-the-clock) social hour if I needed something.
I did not have a good experience at Womans and did not deliver my second there.
My biggest complaint was their mandatory observation period for newborns of 4 hours (which turned out to be 5 hours in my case - and not for health related reasons). But I've heard that they have changed this policy (my DD is 4yo), perhaps someone can confirm that.
They also have a much higher c/s rate than other hospitals (see state data here), hovering at 30%, while St Lukes and Memorial Hermann are just under 20%, around average for the state. The stats say they are adjusted for risk, meaning that the excuse that they just see more high risk patients is not a valid reason for their high c/s rates.
Ditto the above. I had a scheduled c-section. The OR nurses were wonderful, but once we got to the room after recovery, my nurses seemed rather incompetent. Lots of finger-pointing at other nurses, and they just in general seemed unprofessional (there was one exception, and I appreciated that particular nurse quite a bit).
We had been waiting to be discharged for 12 hours (my OB's fault, not the hospital's), and when we were ready, the nurse said there were no wheelchairs, and I would have to wait until one became available. There were at least four wheelchairs sitting at the nearest nurse's station, and my mom was able to grab one in about 30 seconds.
I switched OBs and hospitals for my second baby. I delivered at St. Luke's and had absolutely no complaints. The nurses were much more professional and caring.
We had an absolutely rotten experience with St Lukes/TCH and won't ever deliver there again. Recovery and postpartum were bad. Like urban-legend bad. The pediatric nurse pushed formula hard during recovery. Our first PP nurse was interventionist and anti-BF.
Our healthy baby was taken to the NICU without our consent, tube fed, and spinal-tapped. By the time we could get a supervisor in my room on Monday morning, TCH had put her on their "standard" meningitis quarantine and everyone's hands were tied.
It got very ugly. And then they apologized. A lot.
I had a mixed experience with St Lukes/TCH. I had a scheduled c-section. Nurses at St Lukes were creat. I had no trouble before, during or after.
DD had a complication -- she aspirated fluid so was having trouble maintaining her O2 stats -- so had to go to the NICU at TCH.
I was NOT happy with one of the nurses we had in the NICU because she was so schedule bound.. We'd made an effort to come down during feeding time, and she was sooooo impatient with me trying to figure out what to do and kept pushing formula at me and getting upset because I'd messed up the schedule. DD ended up with a borderline glucose blood draw so TCH kept her another day, even though the nurses kept telling DH they had no idea why she was still in the NICU since she was clearly the healthiest one there. I sort of wonder if that happened because of the schedule boundness. Most of the nurses we had were much better but that first one sort of ruined my experience with it.
Once we had her back in the room at St Luke's all was good.
I do appreciate the caution, but at the same time it felt a little too rigid as well, given our circumstance. They put her in the level III NICU.
we delivered at st. lukes and had a good experience. we'd definitely go back, especially after they open the new hospital with tch. not sure when it opens but it will be really nice. st lukes was a little old (like old tvs, furniture and such) just bc they wont be there much longer, they arent updating. i went drug-free (except for the pitocin for my induction) and, though the doctors and nurses definitely sat down with me and said 'are you sure?', i didnt really feel pressure to get an epidural. oh, they also didnt have the right size needles in the room to numb me for my episiotomy so they tried what they had and that was a little painful, but short-lived (squeezing out a baby trumped that, haha); i wouldnt not deliver there again bc of something minor like that. after she was born, dd was in the room with us almost every minute we were there. they had to run her to the nursery when she started choking on residual amniotic fluid, but it wasn't for very long, maybe 30 minutes, and dh went with her. while he was in there, he learned how to suction her and bathe her and all that.
i'll also say that i have several friends that delivered at womans and had good experiences.
I delivered at Women's and would recommend them. I was transferred there after going into pre-term labor. I spent 2 weeks in L&D and had awesome and caring nurses the entire time. The NICU (which hopefully you will not need) is amazing and I know the care that my son and I received is why he survived and has done so well.
As for the high c/s rate, they see alot of high-risk pregnancies so they are going to have a higher incident of csections. I also think that is more about each doctor than the hospital.
I delivered at The Woman's Hospital, but my delivery experience was horrible. I had complications and had to go to antepartum for a week about mid way through my pregnancy. The nurses were amazing in that unit...very attentive and helpful.
The delivery was a completely different story. My DD was born at 4:44 pm. They didn't have a lactation specialist there 24 hrs/day. I requested that I see one the next day and made the request in when the nurses came in that morning about 6. The lactation specialist didn't get to my room until 11 am and by I asked for a breastpump that was brought back while DD was in the nursery seeing her doctor. I was told she would come back in a few minutes. That few minutes lasted until I called for her a whole 2 hours + later. She didn't even assemble the breast pump...just dropped it off and left.
The nurse techs didn't give me new sheets daily even though the ones that were on my bed were dirty. One of them even expected me to stop feeding DD (I was nursing her) to get up so that she could change the sheets. I was too done after that. My nurses on my last 2 nights and the early day shift were great...always checking on me, etc.
The other problem that I had was with the billing department. They gave my insurance company the rate for a shared room, but told them that I was in a private room even though I did not request one. In fact, all the hospital has is private rooms. My DD was born in November and they are still investigating the claim. It's ridiculous! Overall, I would not deliver there again nor would I recommend the hospital to anyone else.
I recommend Womens. I delivered there in March 2011. I was there for a month on bed rest and the nurses were wonderful. My delivery was a breeze (c/s) and everybody was so nice and helpful. The baby's nurses did an awesome job too.
If there is a major problem with the baby, its only takes1 minute to get the baby to childrens hospital next door. They will take them via helicopter.
Plus the food was delicious. They have a big menu.
The reason they have so many c/s is because they are the best hospital for high risk pregnancies.
There is not a mandatory 4 hr observation anymore. They let the baby room in with the mother if you want too.
They also have a new cardiac unit where they can perform all the special tests needed if your baby has any issues. They found a heart murmur in my son and that day the cardiac specialist was on his way to the rodeo with his family and left them to come to the hospital to check out my son! I guess before one had to wait days to get all the tests performed and had to go somewhere else to get the tests.
As far as lactation consultants....I found the baby's nurses to be very helpful and did a better job of teaching me about breastfeeding than the lactation specialists.
My kid is 17 months old and we've only *just* now settled our billing issues with StL - I just got back the very last $20 (of nearly 5K) that they owed us for shoddy billing. I wish we could have charged them interest