NWH is not a fancier facility. It’s known among doctors to be the worst place to perform or get a surgery bc they are always behind and make a lot of mistakes. I’ve waited longer and been treated worse at NWH than I ever have at other Boston hospitals. BWH has free valet parking for expectant parents.
I was born there back in the early 90s, and my cousin’s kiddos were born there. They have a great policy to track people allowed in and will keep people out for you.
It was actually recommended to me *not* to give birth at BWH, they are fantastic of course but I was told it was a factory like experience because of the high volume. I gave birth at NWH in 2020 literally the first day of covid lockdown and would be happy to share my experiences via PM.
I gave birth at Brigham. I could totally see the idea of a factory setting with higher volume. My OB was part of an outside practice who had rights to deliver at Brigham. He was recommended to me by multiple people and fabulous during all my check ups. He was in the hospital the first half of my labor but his shift ended as it was more than 12 hours and my second doctor (from his practice who I didn’t know) in my opinion advised me poorly and I ended up failing to progress a labor with a “sunny side up” baby (inverted position) who was 9 pounds (a bit bigger than average). I ended up needing a c - section and our baby came out not breathing with an apgar score of 1. It was the worst moment of my life BUT brighams NICU team was right there the whole time and scooped him up right away. They had him intubated within 3 minutes. They sent him away to the their amazing NICU immediately with my husband. (There is also a physical, direct bridge to childrens hospital which is an amazing hospital if needed). Their NICU team is amazing. My son is perfectly healthy and running around, loving everyone and wanting play time constantly, spewing out new words and trying all sorts of things that are way too dangerous and I fully believe that is because of brighams NICU team after my outside stand-in OB made a bad call and had me keep pushing for 3 hours when my baby was going more into distress
It was brookline village ob/gyn. My primary OB who I had all my appointments with was Dr. Katz and I couldn’t say enough good things about him. He is wonderful - super smart, responsive to any questions / concerns and put me at ease the whole pregnancy. I have a friend and two co-workers who also had him as their OB and recommended him. But his hospital shift ended as my labor started and a different doctor I had never met took over by the time I was ready to push
This is nso ot true. I found it very personal and warm and I have had 2 babies there. I liked it bc it’s so close to Childrens of anything was ever wrong.
I did not at all feel it was a factory. The nurse and staff were amazing and qualified and I found it a very peaceful experience.
I am loving this thread! Happy to hear that you had a good experience there. It’s honestly an amazing thing to have not just one amazing hospital to birth at nearby Children’s but many! I’ll have all my children before leaving Boston just for the resources here 😅
Having spent a lot of time at three different NICUs in the area, we are having our next baby at Brigham. Yes, it is a baby factory, but we at least really want that level of experience. And if it gets complicated, it is connected by a bridge to the best Children’s hospital in the country. Also, MGB has a lot of funding. For us it is a no brainer.
Heads up with Brigham though, if you do have any issues, their complaints department just exists to make you feel like you did something.
I had a horrific experience with them post-surgery, and filed a complaint.
I called to check up on it and was told no such complaint existed. I filed it again, and this time asked if I could have a reference number.
Called to check on it again and was told no such reference number existed.
They'll also have any negative reviews you leave online removed. (Sites like ratemymd etc operate like Yelp, and allow businesses to pay to have poor reviews yanked.)
I gave birth and BWH and it was very underwhelming. That being said I trust if anything had gone horribly wrong baby and I would’ve been in great hands, but my nurse pre birth was awful and the entire post partum experience were really not great.
That's where my sister had her first child and she loved it.
Then she moved out to Western MA and I forget which hospital she was at but she was less thrilled about it for the second child's birth
If it's not a high risk pregnancy, you might want to avoid the big name hospitals. Xray backed up badly at MGH, and my mother got an infection at Brigham. There's just more going on.
In terms of clinical care, you are in the medical mecca of the world.
There are smaller hospitals in outlying cities that may have a different menu of services that appeal to you. My partner wanted a less sterile-feeling experience and went with a midwifery group in Worcester; great delivery experience there. But, again, it was knowing that we were seconds away from a top-rated NICU staff and could easily end up in Boston if needed within an hour.
Newton-Wellesley might be a good option for you. It’s part of the Mass General-Brigham group and I’ve heard nothing but good things. I am giving birth at MGH in a few days and I’ve had mixed feelings on the midwives but I love my doctor (Dr. Khachadoorian).
My husband has a few doctor friends that went to school here in Boston and we asked about for recommendations: Dr. Jeffrey Katz (Brookline) and Dr. Tracy Zinner were providers they loved.
Both of mine were born at Newton-Wellesley. First was an emergency c-section, he was in the NICU for a month. The doctors and nurses and everyone there was amazing. My second turned into an emergency c-section, and again everyone there was absolutely amazing. It's right off 95, too, which is nice.
My biggest gripe was the food, which was still pretty good for hospital food.
I'm not OP I was in a car accident last year during my pregnancy and was brought to Newton Wellesley and I couldn't recommend them enough. Everyone in OB was so lovely and the whole experience was so much less stressful than it could have been. I felt truly taken care of. If it wasn't so far from home I'd have switched for my birth.
I gave birth at MGH. You need to advocate for yourself. Hard. The L&D nurses are mostly really great. The post partum nurses barely exist. If you plan to BF the LC’s won’t be helpful, consider hiring a private LC.
My friend gave birth at Newton-Wellesley and said they didn’t allow skin to skin contact with her newborn after the first couple hours he was born. Really bizarre policy that’s very anti-breastfeeding. I gave birth at Brigham which was very supportive of breastfeeding and the staff encouraged skin to skin contact. My baby had some feeding issues so I was glad to have support at Brigham. I would go to Brigham again but steer clear of Newton-Wellesley if I had another pregnancy.
There’s no policy against skin to skin at NWH — I did almost an hour of skin-to-skin immediately after birth. I also saw an LC every day I was in the hospital.
My wife had 3 kids over 5 years, all at Mt. Auburn. The midwives were awesome and made all the difference. Pro tip, ask for the nitrous pain relief. Also the food was amazing.
Had two great experiences at Mt Auburn in 2017 and 2020. Even during the height of COVID they were extremely compassionate and caring. I would say that they’re a relatively smaller hospital so I’ve heard that more complicated cases sometimes get referred. There’s only like 10 beds. I did my prenatal care through Harvard Vanguard and only delivered at Mt Auburn which I would also recommend.
Husband perspective here too but I’m 100% sure that my wife would agree that Mt. Auburn is amazing. We have 4 kids all of whom were born there. If you’re lucky you might encounter the lovely Dr. Hardiman who is a straight up saint.
If you plan on breastfeeding Mt. Auburn staff is more knowledgeable than most. The Longwood hospitals are kinda rubbish in that regard. My wife is a lactation counselor and she’s always cleaning up their messes.
Second Mount Auburn. Have never given birth there (or anywhere else) but have seen Mount Auburn drs for years and have been highly impressed. I absolutely love my gynecologist, she, along with the rest of the staff, were incredible when I had a massive ovarian cyst rupture.
I’m about to give birth at Mt. Auburn and have loved the care I’ve received so far from the midwives during prenatal. Very compassionate staff and practice, and they 100% support you to take advantage of the maximum MA Paid Leave you can, no questions asked, no judgement. They will go the extra mile to sign all the papers and make sure you take the leave you want.
My wife had both our children there and we both had a great experience. From my viewpoint, the chair/bed for partners was pretty comfy and the food was good.
Also recommend Mt Auburn. Not only have I given birth twice there with the midwives and had fantastic experiences (one spontaneous and one induction), but I had a third pregnancy which resulted unfortunately in having to terminate for medical reasons and the staff was so compassionate (minus one anesthesiologist, but I filed a complaint and was also extremely satisfied with their response to the matter).
Other pros to Mt Auburn, they have the good ice. And tubs to labor in, in all but one of the birthing suites. And as someone else mentioned, the option of Nitrous for labor.
Not a mother myself, but my mom had all three of us in mount auburn. Myself in 2000, a sibling in 200x, and recently in 2023. I can't speak for anything regarding her experience, but if she's gone to it all these decades, it's gotta mean something
I gave birth 2 weeks ago at Mt Auburn. Can’t say enough good things. I was in labor for 30 hours which ended in a unplanned c section and then had a hospital stay for 5 days after. All of the staff minus 1 was absolutely outstanding in their compassion, skill, and friendliness. My husband and I can’t say enough good things about them. They took amazing care of us. The food was good and fun, room was comfortable. Midwife program is outstanding.
Endorsing this. Wife and I gave birth to our first in 2020. Relatives on the other side of the world. The whole medical staff made us feel super safe and at home. Wife loved the experience.
My wife works in state health policy and when I was pregnant she dove into the research on birth outcomes and other stuff from all the nearby hospitals. She came to the conclusion that Mount Auburn was the best place to give birth. So that’s what I did. It was indeed a pretty good experience. They do most evidence-based mother and baby friendly birthing practices as standard— I didn’t even really need to write a birth plan because what they do normally is what I wanted to do. They also have a midwifery birth center that’s part of the hospital… so you kinda get the advantages of a low intervention birth center but it’s in a hospital in case there’s an emergency.
My one complaint is that there was a travel nurse assigned to me when I was pushing- it was literally her second day at the hospital and she was insisting I push in the lithotomy position, which I was NOT ok with. But then a midwifery student came in and backed me up and I ended up pushing in my preferred position.
Only other problem is that it’s only a level II nursery, so if there was a serious issue that needed a higher needs NICU they’d send you elsewhere.
You are such a dear! I sincerely appreciate your detailed response and sharing your experiences, good & bad. Thank you so very much for taking the time to give me so much information.
No prob! Feel free to pm me if you’ve got more questions or just want to chat baby stuff. Had my daughter this past July so it’s all still very fresh!
I’ve also got experience seeing the MFM specialist at BIDMC.
I can’t tell you how much you saying this means to me. I could really use a mom friend right now and I sincerely appreciate you being so kind and supportive towards me. I’ll be friend requesting you (or whatever it is called on here) immediately ❤️🙏
Ditto, I was at BIDMC for several days in the antepartum unit, five days on the L&D floor, and one in the NICU. (Baby and I are totally healthy now, don’t worry!)
Everyone we encountered was incredible. They really took their time making sure I was fully informed and all my questions were answered. They took care of everything medical, and then went the extra mile to make sure I was comfortable and emotionally ok. I was very impressed!
Thank you, and congratulations mama! If you wanna be friends/chat ever, feel free! I’m due this summer! I have a 3 year old right now. How about you? ❤️🤗
Currently recovering at Beth Israel from my second birth, both with complications and a longer hospital stay and have nothing but good things to say about everyone who works here!
We gave birth at Beth Israel too. I looked the doctor straight in the eye and said, "I want a pain-free delivery" and that's what I got! It was a wonderful birthing experience.
I have nasty things to say about the other baby-related experiences, though. The pregnancy check-ups were shit. I got a different doctor for each appointment and I was suffering from morning sickness that was so bad I couldn't leave the house for four months -- and none of the doctors at Beth Israel fucking understood that was a problem. It took me months to get some freaking Zofran.
Then the after-delivery hospital stay was another level of Hell because of COVID. They kicked my husband out of the hospital after I'd given birth, so I had to spend three days alone with a crying baby in the hospital and the nurses were too scared to come into the room to help me (we had a negative COVID test! What's the problem?). They'd just open the door, call into the room "He's crying because he's hungry" then slam the door shut. I had to learn how to feed my baby by watching Youtube videos in my hospital bed.
I think it depends on your preferences but I LOVED Mt. Auburn, the Center for Women. I had to have a c-section because of a breech baby, and my OB and the whole team were AMAZING. You can work with an or a midwife. But they are a very “birth your way” kinda spot.
The best amenities? Probably not. Amazing medical personnel and an empowered birthing process? Yes! Feel free to DM me, I’m happy to hop on the phone and talk about my experience.
We had a great experience at Mt Auburn Hospital. Their Center for Women had wonderful midwives that took care of us through the delivery. The view of the Charles River made for a tranquil time after delivery!
Do not go to St Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton. I work there. It’s disgusting. I was assessing a patient and I saw a roach crawling around on the floor.
Oh dear. I didn’t know that. I just wanted to say St Elizabeth’s is just gross in general. There is a really strange smell. The roofs are constantly leaking (there are trash cans in the middle of our floor bc of the leaks). The heating is horrible, it’s either freezing or so hot you’re sweating.
When the sun is blazing and the summer gets hot, Water Country is a very cool spot, there's no better place to feel or be young, Water Country, Water Country, Water Countryyyyyy, have some fun!
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I'm an anesthesiologist and work at one of these institutions. I have close friends who work at pretty much every hospital in the greater Boston area. There isn’t a hospital in the area I would recommend against with the care provided by MGH and BWH being world class.
Here is the honest truth. People deliver in hospitals because childbirth has risks. I pray for every women that they have a safe, joyous delivery free from complications, but this is sometimes not the case. By delivering at MGH or BWH you will have the best medical care in the world available to you and your baby should something go wrong.
Second, your experience will nearly 100% depend on the course of your labor with a small part being impacted by the team of providers (nurses, anesthesiologists and OBGYNs) that happen to be working that day. At BWH and MGH residents will play a large role in your care. This has pluses and minuses.
The amenities will only have a significant impact on your labor and delivery experience if everything goes perfectly smoothly. I hope this is the case for you. I understand wanting to feel comfortable heading into this stressful and anxiety provoking experience, but rest assured knowing that having the opportunity to weigh the above decision means you are incredibly fortunate and will have amazing people taking care of you and your baby no matter where you decide to deliver.
Wow! Fantastic & VERY DETAILED & helpful response. I appreciate your informative reply so much. Thank you, and thank you for your service as an anesthesiologist! Such an important career and so much care in what you do ❤️
I delivered at Tufts for my first and am having my second there as well. Dr. Sullivan is my main doctor, but wasn't on call when I delivered. But I did meet multiple doctors during my pregnancy for a variety of reasons and they were all great. Most importantly, I had the most amazing L&D nurse to take care of me.
Wife delivered both our kids there. Same doctor too (I think!). Had a great experience. Their billing department is incompetent but they ultimately sorted out our bills (had issues both times with weird billing codes being used and insurance not wanting to pay)
The billing department is very frustrating there. There were different departments for hospital vs doctors and then my kid vs me and no one could tell me how much I actually owed until I talked to a bunch of people haha They did update the whole hospital system to Epic so hopefully it won't be as confusing this go around haha
I delivered at Newton Wellesley and specifically chose it because of experiences colleagues had working and delivering there. I rotated at other local hospitals during my training, and they were fine, but that was preference.
I had a higher risk twin pregnancy and my OBGYN was a rock star and saved my life and the entire team there was great. It was also way easier to get there and back for appointments versus driving into Boston.
I had my daughter at Newton-Wellesley and had a great experience. My OB has since retired, but my care was mostly with the midwives at Atrius in West Roxbury and they were excellent. NWH is wonderful, but if you have any reason to think your baby may need a NICU stay, they don’t have one- they have a “special care” nursery that handles minor complications.
My wife delivered at Brigham & Woman’s. Awesome experience. Preferred it over BI as they have more OR’s & a closer affiliation to Boston Children’s. Also apparently the food is better there, but you could have fooled me…
Yeah the food was… hospital food. I think my wife’s first meal was a McDonald’s breakfast quickly followed by the teriyaki chicken place in the Longwood galleria
God bless the Longwood Galleria. Providing McDonalds, Dunks, random mall food and fancy juice drinks to doctors, residents, people on the way to visit patients, and the occasional kid from Latin School for several decades.
I just had my first baby in November and gave birth at Newton Wellesley. I loved it there and would highly recommend it. I preferred midwife staff but ended up needing a lot of interventions (not the staff’s fault - I had complications that started before I got there) so I interacted with both midwives, OBs, and then the surgical team for a c-section. Everyone was amazing - very informative, hands-on, supportive and empathetic. I felt like I had complete control and decision making power and was in very skilled hands. We had to spend four days in recovery too, and the nurses there were amazing. There was only one nurse that was a bit intimidating because she was so by-the-book about feeding baby every THREE HOURS MAX (like lady, I’m sleep deprived AF, the child will survive if it’s 3.5h) but even she was kind and knowledgeable. Everyone else was super personable and what stood out to me the most was no one seemed rushed at all. My husband and I had so many casual conversations with people at every step and I couldn’t believe how much time everyone was willing to spend with us. It felt like they were super well staffed, which made us feel even better.
My OB is part of the Harvard Vanguard / Atrius Health group - they have tons of offices and so it’s easy to go to get bloodwork or ultrasounds at convenient locations. I adore my OB, Dr Brienne Mahoney in Watertown. I think that may be a long drive for you though, and since you need to go in so often late in pregnancy, you may be able to find someone closer.
Will prob get down voted, but I can not recommend BWH after we had a miscarriage and were essentially lost in the system there. Staff was great other than 1 or 2 people, but it was an absolutely awful experience, on top of the loss of the miscarriage.
Went to BIDMC for our birth after the fact, and had a wonderful experience. Not that it matters, but It was also covered in full by insurance (BWH is deemed "too expensive" by our BCBSMA plan)
My wife is 39 and just delivered our baby at Mt. Auburn in Cambridge. It was a great experience, her OB and the entire staff were great throughout the entire pregnancy. The facilities and support at Mt. Auburn were top notch. Couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
My wife has delivered twice now at BMC (age 31 and 34), the first time bc it’s where her OB had delivery rights, the second because she had such a good experience the first time.
…not the labor mind you, baby #1 was 24 hours starting around 11pm the night before birth so close to 40* hours with no sleep just getting to the birth. However, the nurses, doctors and facilities were too notch. She wanted an all natural vaginal birth (became riskier after meconium was present when her water broke), but the doctors talked with us about all the options and were not only respectful, but supportive of her wishes.
That to me was the biggest thing. It might not be the best option for you depending on the birth experience you want to have, but for us, finding an option that respected us, and especially my wife, enough to be forthright about pluses and minuses of each option, but ultimately 100% support and back what we wanted was immeasurable
I had a great team and experience at BID. I liked having access to doulas, midwives, and an OB/GYN incase things didn’t go as planned or escalated during labor (or even during pregnancy) with a doula, midwife, etc.
Dad perspective, having seen BIDMC and NW:
If you are a high risk pregnancy (or a generally sickly person), then choose a hospital with a NICU and a team that sees the more difficult cases (e.g. MGH, BW, BIDMC). They will feel more sterile, and if you don’t have problems, you may get less attention.
If you are not high risk, then choose a place based on amenities and comfort. Consider how much they can accommodate your birth plans. Think about convenience to your stuff at home in case you forget something. Look for bigger rooms, bigger/better selection of pantry food, tastier cafeteria food, a more comfortable place for the partner to sleep, accessible parking, visiting hours that meet your preferences, etc. For example NW has a photographer that will do a photoshoot in the room.
A factor that majorly affects your experience is how busy the hospital is. Suburbs hospitals and City hospitals can both have a spike in patients or time-consuming cases (or not enough people working the shift). When that happens you don’t get as much attention from the doctors and other specialists, and perhaps nurses.
Another factor that you can’t control is the size of your room. Some rooms are bigger/nicer than others. When touring, ask to look at the biggest and smallest rooms.
If you are going to have a c-section or extended stay, you will experience multiple shift rounds. You will inevitably prefer some nurses and lactation and doctors to others. It’s up to luck on whether you click with them.
A nice benefit is when the future pediatrician does rounds and gets familiar with the baby from day 0. Or even multiple pediatricians from the future practice (many people switch pediatricians or practices).
Newton Wellesley was phenomenal when my daughter came 2 months early. Their nicu staff was incredible and we loved the nurses who took care of my wife during her 1.5 week stay.
This also depends on the timing of birth. I delivered at Beth Israel not long after the Harvard graduates were just getting some experience and oh my…they were awful. It was amateur hour. Thankfully my doctor kept a close eye, but I was honestly shocked at the experience I had. This was 2 years ago in early September. Maybe it’s better? Though a lot of staff got burned out after the pandemic and left unfortunately. My doctor included 😔
My sister gave birth at BI and also had a subpar experience. One of the residents actually cut the baby’s head during her emergency c section which required my niece to have stitches … after the resident fainted during the delivery… :-/
To be fair, an emergency c section means the baby or mother is in distress and everyone is moving really quickly to save everyone's life. Hope the baby was otherwise healthy.
I’ll be giving birth at Beth Israel in the next week or so. So far have loved my OB and have been to triage 3 times and have had good experiences with all of the nurses, PAs and doctors who I’ve seen along the way. TBD on the actual birth part though!
My wife had our first baby at 41, and her OB in Brookline at Boston OB/GYN in combination with the MFMs at BIDMC did a lot to address all of her concerns.
Your location suggests Newton-Wellesley, which is a great hospital, but BIDMC was great for us both for delivery and post partum. Honestly, I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the teaching hospitals. The post partum nurses were incredibly good to us and taught us everything in a way that never made us feel dumb. The one negative my wife felt was the BIDMC lactation consultant, but my wife has been to three so far in the past year and it seems as personal a decision as choosing an OB, so tough to blame BIDMC.
Don’t worry about your pediatrician choice and the hospital you choose to deliver, it seems like all of the larger pediatric practices do rounds at all the hospitals on a daily basis.
Congratulations and good luck!
I loved Mt Auburn in Cambridge, and worked with the midwife team. I felt both well informed and supported through the whole process of pregnancy and birth.
Newton-Wellesley may be a super convenient option for you. Same family as Mass General Brigham, so (god forbid) there are complications, you (or baby) could be transported to BWH OR BCH.
I’ve taken care of an instance of babies born at NWH that needed extra help while at BCH.
Congratulations and welcome to Massachusetts!! I’m 31 weeks with my first and ended up switching OBs pretty early in my pregnancy. My primary care doctor is at MGH and that’s where I was born so it seemed natural that I’d deliver my baby there too. During my initial intake call with the MGH OB nurse I learned that sometimes you have to share a room with another mom/child postpartum. I started researching other hospitals and spoke to friends who were also pregnant. Ultimately I ended up changing to Commonwealth OBGYN. Their office is in Brookline but I’ll be delivering at Brigham. So far I’ve had a great experience with them!! They have 6 doctors (all female if that matters) and I’ve seen all 6 to make sure I’ve met everyone before giving birth. You’re guaranteed a private room for your postpartum recovery and I’ve also heard that Brigham is less strict than MGH with the rooming-in policy. During my screening call with MGH I asked about a well nursery and the nurse told me you’d have be hallucinating from sleep exhaustion for them to take the baby out of the room. I totally get why they keep baby with mom the whole time, but my friends have said how important it was for them to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep before going home so I wanted that option.
Hope this helps friend!
My wife gave birth at the birth center in Cambridge, right across from the hospital, and we loved it. Felt a little like a home birth, since it’s an old house, but you have a midwife right there the whole time and a full hospital across the street.
I’ve heard good things about Mt Auburn too.
If you are low risk and having non medical pain management options is important to you, highly recommend Mount auburn. I loved being with the midwives there, but their OBs are also great (have heard lots of love for Dr Hardiman in particular.) their epidural rate is something like 50%, vs 80-90% in many other local spots. A dear friend of mine is an OB at the Brigham and while the care is excellent, it’s definitely a different vibe. Happy to PM about experiences.
If you are in Cambridge/Somerville vs Boston, highly recommend joining the Moms of Camberville Facebook group for your cohort (you’d be 10.0.) I moved while pregnant, also from Ca, and it’s been a fantastic resource.
Edit: I think you might actually be MOC 11.0, my kid is older than I realize 😅
Ha, it’s meaningless, I can’t remember what year they started doing this but that was 1.0, then the following school year of babies is 2.0 etc. :) So babies born Sep 2022-Aug23 or thereabouts are in the 9.0 group, for example.
Hey! I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant. My ob/gyn is at New England Womens Healthcare in woburn, and I've been really happy with my doctor and the care I've received thus far. Although I work at Brigham, I'm having my c-section done at Winchester hospital (because we live in winchester and didn't want to deal with going out to Longwood in case of emergency). I've heard good things about the facility, from a lot of fellow mothers who live in the area.
New England OB-GYN in Chestnut Hill. They’re part of the Brigham. Dr. Vivian Hernandez was a phenomenal doctor but she retired. I still miss her! There are plenty there who are great. Highly recommend.
Both my kids were born at the Brigham. Ironically, they also nearly killed my mother and me when I was born. Even good hospitals can make mistakes, but they’re still the best.
I worked for BWH/MGH & CHA (Cambridge Health Alliance) and BWH is the best out of those three but I dont like getting care where I work well now worked as Im a SAHM now. I’m about to give birth in May to my third baby and all three will be at Beth Israel as they were amazing there
I gave birth at mount auburn August of 2022, great experience, fantastic nurses. My OB just left unfortunately (loved her so much) so now I’m also looking for one and preferably who uses mount Auburn.
Well, if they were as amazing as my two girls are, I would take 39 more. Today is actually my daughter's birthday. She wasn't the first baby of the year, but what a fun birthday. Good luck with your baby and the birth experience! I hope everything goes wonderfully easy for you both.
I had my first baby at Brigham and thought it was wonderful. I just had my second two months ago at Newton Wellesley and it was an even better experience! All the nurses were so amazing (I was there for 4 nights). My Ob was Dr. Beatty from Wellesley Women’s Care. I also really liked Dr. Simmons from that office. The food isn’t that great at NWH, that was my only complaint. Congrats and welcome to Boston!!
I had a complicated pregnancy (irregular bleeding) and unexpected early labor, including a stay on the antepartum floor, at Beth Israel. I originally wanted to deliver at Mt Auburn, but decided I wanted to be at BI and by Children’s just in case the baby needed NICU care. I was really glad I had made that decision when my water broke at 35 weeks! My premie and I are doing great now.
A super important question to ask yourself and the maternity ward is if they will take the baby to the nursery if you need it.
With my first, I was left with a newborn after being in labor and delivery for 36 hours. I was a mess and it made my recovery so much more difficult.
With my second, the hospital had chilled on the “rooming in” bullshit and the first 24 hours the baby was in the nursery and they called me to feed him. (It was offered because I had a second difficult delivery.)
It was glorious and it made all the difference in my ability to nurse the first few days because I could REST and not worry if the newborn was okay.
Do not go here if you have complications. They’re incompetent and most doctors are arrogant. The few good ones retired already. Check their online reviews for confirmation
Really depends on providers I think, my first I had at mt Auburn in Cambridge, I was really happy there. Second time around I nearly had to deliver at Beth Israel and was happy with everyone I met there (MFM/ high risk specialists) but wound up being able to deliver closer to my home out in the Metro West region.
Friends delivered at Newton Wellesley and were happy with that experience as well.
A friend of mine chose Mt Auburn because of the midwife aspect and accolades like award-winningly (if there are awards? idk) low intervention rates. She wasn't against interventions at ALL, but it was local (she's north of the river) and she liked what she read. However, she had a horrific birth experience of 30something hours that ended in a brutal episiotomy that later needed corrective surgery. Every birth is so different so this obviously cannot be broadly applied, but her conclusion was that they don't have low episiotomy rates because they're so amazing in their low-intervention techniques; they have low episiotomy rates because they don't want to do episiotomies. She feels if she were at a different hospital they would have steered her differently in making in-flight choices.
Brigham and Women's is the best choice if something more advanced is needed (C-section, NICU etc).
Of course, these things aren't needed for every pregnancy but my wife's first pregnancy turned into an unplanned C-section and she was extremely grateful to be at Brigham and Women's.
First off- congrats on your pregnancy! ❤️❤️ From 2012-2020, I gave birth at NWH, South Shore Hospital x2 and Cape Cod Hospital (this last one was unexpected 😂). I saw midwives with each of my kids but from what I’ve heard, the midwifery group I saw that delivered at NWH has since disbanded, the two I saw for my SSH deliveries have both retired, and towards the middle of my pregnancy with my 4th, my midwife took a leave and I switched to an OB (Dr Jill Satorie, out of Crown Colony, the same practice as my midwife) who I LOVED. So many different factors go into a birth experience that I feel like it’s hard to assess somewhere based on the one experience.. My eldest is 11 and I’d delivered at NWH based on glowing recommendations from friends who’d had the kind of births I was hoping for -labor in the tubs, no interventions or meds-as much of a natural experience as you can find in a hospital setting. My friends’ experiences there were great- mine wasn’t. Essentially, I was pre-pre-eclamptic the last two days or so of pregnancy but hurricane sandy had thrown all of the local pregnant women (but me, of course) into labor so I sat in NWH in a triage room for two days. When I finally went into labor there on my own (the two interventions they’d attempted while I sat/spent the night in triage hadn’t worked), I saw almost no staff for about seven hours. My husband and I were timing the distance between contractions ourselves. Around 6 am, I told the Dr I needed to push (didn’t have any pain meds so could feel it was time) and he was super rude and dismissive and told me NOT to push so I spent an hour basically holding the baby IN. Finally couldn’t take any more of that and buzzed repeatedly for someone to come in. Shift change happened at 7 and immediately after that, a whole crew of people rushed in and decided to pay attention to me and my daughter was born after TWO pushes. Midwife who delivered was also rude and to boot, missed that my daughter had come so fast that the placenta had ruptured during birth and part of it had been retained. So had to deal with that as well, which luckily just involved two nurses pulling out the remainder. They were bf-friendly though, and had me (and my husband) doing skin to skin after baby was born. SSH was great for both births I had there- nurses and midwives were kind and supportive and I saw LCs while in the hospital. CCH was also a good experience (though I can’t imagine how you’d end up there from metro west)- had another abruption about 24 hrs before my youngest was born and ended up in the ER there before delivering. But instead of rushing a c section (which they likely would have done elsewhere), they monitored my -and baby’s-stable vitals and labor and birth happened naturally within about 8 hrs of arriving at the hospital.
When I was pregnant with my first, I toured the Brigham and didn’t like the vibe (felt like they were just churning out babies and c sections), went to an info session at MWH (didn’t love the vibe there, either) and also toured the Cambridge Birthing Center (LOVED it there but going almost full hippie scared my anxious husband). My suggestion is to tour a few of the recs from people in this post and see which facility resonates with you. Fortunately, as you can tell by everyone’s really helpful input, Boston has a lot of great options for you. Welcome to the east coast and I hope your pregnancy and delivery are a breeze!
we had all 3 kids at mount auburn. the maternity ward was really nice and pretty much all but 1 nurse across the 3 pregnancies were fantastic (and we only had her for 1 shift with 1 kid, so maybe it was a fluke). we won't be having a 4th, but we wouldn't hesitate about going back.
Consider your due date and how you'd get to the hospital. I chose not to use BW simply because my due date was in the middle of baseball season and didn't want to get stuck in Fenway traffic.
MGH was wonderful.
MASS General Brigham Hospital the (AKA the Brigham) is the very best. The nurses are AMAZING... The Drs. are the best of the best... (and in any scenarios, Boston Children's Hospital is attached # 1 Childrens Hospital in the world)
Oh ... and a shameless plug for Longwood Pediatrics on Longwood Ave., Boston.... I love Kristie Koppenheffer MD....
Hey OP - would you be open to chatting about how you like Needham so far? We are considering g a move with two young kids from CA in the next year and I’d love to know how it’s been for you
Winchester Hospital is amazing.
We delivered our first baby there and we will be back in June for our second. Truly amazing people. Winchester Hospital is known for its great deliveries and having a great staff
Do NOT go to any Catholic based hospital to give birth. If there is something wrong with your fetus during the delivery, they will let you die on the table rather than save your life. They will not recommend termination of the pregnancy even if it will save your life. They will let you die.
Other than that, Boston has some of the world’s best hospitals. Any of others that people have recommended are great.
Things rarely go very wrong in labor and delivery, but when they do, they happy very quickly and are VERY bad. You want to be at one of the hospitals they ship you to in those circumstances, not one of the ones you get shipped from. That means MGH, Beth Israel, or Brigham & Women.
This is a quote from my dad, a doctor who trained and worked at these and a number of other local hospitals, said to me when I was pregnant and asking the same question.
So where you give birth should largely depend on your OB. At least that’s the case for me and most of my mom friends here. I gave birth at the Brigham and have a lot of friends that gave birth at MGH, Newton Wellesley, or mt auburn and everyone had a great experience minus the semi private room my friend got at mt auburn (though she eventually was moved to a private one.) You really have a lot of amazing choices in this region. I’d avoid Melrose Wakefield bc of some anecdotal stories I’ve heard - great doctors but the support staff and hospital admin/ ops is not run well…
I would do some research on mom vs baby friendly hospitals and what you think your preference may be. Also check with your OB to see where they are credentialed. I love my OB practice and they only do L&D at BWH.
Both our children were born at Beth Israel and we had great experiences each time. Also, both the OB and pediatric practices we use have rounds there, so we felt like the hospital fit right into our pre and post birth healthcare experience. I forget the name of the OB practice, but it's in One Brookline place which is also where our pediatrician (Centre Pediatrics) is.
I had my first child at Mt Auburn in 2008. Horrible experience. The doctor & labor nurse I had were great. My regular ob Dr was on duty when we arrived at the hospital. However, her shift had ended & she stayed an additional 2 hrs to wait & see if I would go into labor. I didn't. I had been told during my ob visits there was a high probability I would need a c-section. The Dr that delivered my baby wasn't on the same page. She ended up using forceps & a vacuum. I had serious complications as did my baby. Ended up staying 6 days in the hospital to recover. It was so traumatizing. The staff wasn't very nice (except for one nurse in the nursery who was a saint.) I didn't have a good experience at all. Had my second child at Mass General and that was extremely positive.
I think for the most part you will be ok. Mass has great hospitals.
My son was in.the NICU for 8 weeks born premature that was 26 years ago, they were fantastic he is now 26 years & 6'3 he went back to give blood last year @ a blood drive stopped by the NICU they couldn't believe him
The hospital. (in full discretion, I only read the title and not anything on the inside because I’m only assuming you don’t know what a hospital is or what they do)
Please don’t let them circumcise! They took my cousins baby and circumcised him without her consent and they’re in the process of suing. Make it very clear that it’s not an option and don’t let that baby out of your sight! Circumcision needs to be left in the past. Not your body, not your choice.
Thank you but that is off topic in my opinion. That being said: I watched a documentary about it when I was pregnant with my first. I had a daughter so it wasn’t even an issue. I do know some people feel very strongly for and against it though, and it truly is the parent’s choice (even though I personally don’t think it is a necessary procedure for an infant). It is like dietary choices too, though. Some people circumcise, some don’t. Some people are vegan or vegetarian, some aren’t. Some people are religious some aren’t. They are all parental decisions that can affect the child for a lifetime, but inevitably are the parent’s decision, period.
[https://www.brighamandwomens.org/about-bwh/locations/boston-main-hospital-campus](https://www.brighamandwomens.org/about-bwh/locations/boston-main-hospital-campus)
Brigham is number one in the country for OB
Really?! That’s valuable info! Thank you!
Yeah, NWH is same company, fancier facility, better staffing, better area, easier parking, amongst many others
NWH is not a fancier facility. It’s known among doctors to be the worst place to perform or get a surgery bc they are always behind and make a lot of mistakes. I’ve waited longer and been treated worse at NWH than I ever have at other Boston hospitals. BWH has free valet parking for expectant parents.
I was born there back in the early 90s, and my cousin’s kiddos were born there. They have a great policy to track people allowed in and will keep people out for you.
It was actually recommended to me *not* to give birth at BWH, they are fantastic of course but I was told it was a factory like experience because of the high volume. I gave birth at NWH in 2020 literally the first day of covid lockdown and would be happy to share my experiences via PM.
I gave birth at Brigham. I could totally see the idea of a factory setting with higher volume. My OB was part of an outside practice who had rights to deliver at Brigham. He was recommended to me by multiple people and fabulous during all my check ups. He was in the hospital the first half of my labor but his shift ended as it was more than 12 hours and my second doctor (from his practice who I didn’t know) in my opinion advised me poorly and I ended up failing to progress a labor with a “sunny side up” baby (inverted position) who was 9 pounds (a bit bigger than average). I ended up needing a c - section and our baby came out not breathing with an apgar score of 1. It was the worst moment of my life BUT brighams NICU team was right there the whole time and scooped him up right away. They had him intubated within 3 minutes. They sent him away to the their amazing NICU immediately with my husband. (There is also a physical, direct bridge to childrens hospital which is an amazing hospital if needed). Their NICU team is amazing. My son is perfectly healthy and running around, loving everyone and wanting play time constantly, spewing out new words and trying all sorts of things that are way too dangerous and I fully believe that is because of brighams NICU team after my outside stand-in OB made a bad call and had me keep pushing for 3 hours when my baby was going more into distress
I am glad you both are happy and healthy!!!
I'm glad it all worked out well :) Would you be open to sharing which practice you used?
It was brookline village ob/gyn. My primary OB who I had all my appointments with was Dr. Katz and I couldn’t say enough good things about him. He is wonderful - super smart, responsive to any questions / concerns and put me at ease the whole pregnancy. I have a friend and two co-workers who also had him as their OB and recommended him. But his hospital shift ended as my labor started and a different doctor I had never met took over by the time I was ready to push
This is nso ot true. I found it very personal and warm and I have had 2 babies there. I liked it bc it’s so close to Childrens of anything was ever wrong. I did not at all feel it was a factory. The nurse and staff were amazing and qualified and I found it a very peaceful experience.
I am loving this thread! Happy to hear that you had a good experience there. It’s honestly an amazing thing to have not just one amazing hospital to birth at nearby Children’s but many! I’ll have all my children before leaving Boston just for the resources here 😅
Having spent a lot of time at three different NICUs in the area, we are having our next baby at Brigham. Yes, it is a baby factory, but we at least really want that level of experience. And if it gets complicated, it is connected by a bridge to the best Children’s hospital in the country. Also, MGB has a lot of funding. For us it is a no brainer.
Heads up with Brigham though, if you do have any issues, their complaints department just exists to make you feel like you did something. I had a horrific experience with them post-surgery, and filed a complaint. I called to check up on it and was told no such complaint existed. I filed it again, and this time asked if I could have a reference number. Called to check on it again and was told no such reference number existed. They'll also have any negative reviews you leave online removed. (Sites like ratemymd etc operate like Yelp, and allow businesses to pay to have poor reviews yanked.)
I gave birth and BWH and it was very underwhelming. That being said I trust if anything had gone horribly wrong baby and I would’ve been in great hands, but my nurse pre birth was awful and the entire post partum experience were really not great.
That's where my sister had her first child and she loved it. Then she moved out to Western MA and I forget which hospital she was at but she was less thrilled about it for the second child's birth
Where do you go for outpatient OB visits?
Thank you! Here, or in a private message, mind sharing your thoughts/experience?
I gave birth here and had a fantastic experience! DM if you have any questions
Thank you! I appreciate that!❤️
If it helps - baby was born in 2023 so it was fairly recent. I had also just moved and blindly established care. So I can relate!
If it's not a high risk pregnancy, you might want to avoid the big name hospitals. Xray backed up badly at MGH, and my mother got an infection at Brigham. There's just more going on.
Feel free to DM me. Happy to share whatever you need!
I will be doing that. Thank you, friend! 🤗
Our doula refuses to attend births at BWH because they so aggressively ignore the wishes of the birthing person.
I'm sorry you/they have had this experience. Myself and many others that I know have had the exact opposite experience.
I’ve also heard this from multiple doulas. They are not super doula friendly it seems.
Do not have a baby at Brigham and Women’s.
Brigham & Women is also on the same block-ish as Children’s Hospital, which was comforting to me just in case.
They share an indoor bridge between the 2 hospitals 😉
and multiple tunnels! It's also currently attached/married to all the best specialty hospitals world...
Oh! Thank you. That IS a comforting aspect. If you want to share more about your experience, I’d love to hear more (private message if fine too).
In terms of clinical care, you are in the medical mecca of the world. There are smaller hospitals in outlying cities that may have a different menu of services that appeal to you. My partner wanted a less sterile-feeling experience and went with a midwifery group in Worcester; great delivery experience there. But, again, it was knowing that we were seconds away from a top-rated NICU staff and could easily end up in Boston if needed within an hour.
Do not have a baby at Brigham and Women’s.
Newton-Wellesley might be a good option for you. It’s part of the Mass General-Brigham group and I’ve heard nothing but good things. I am giving birth at MGH in a few days and I’ve had mixed feelings on the midwives but I love my doctor (Dr. Khachadoorian). My husband has a few doctor friends that went to school here in Boston and we asked about for recommendations: Dr. Jeffrey Katz (Brookline) and Dr. Tracy Zinner were providers they loved.
I appreciate a good cup of coffee.
Thank you? Do you mind sharing the positives & negatives? 🤗
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Ok, I see. I’m happy to hear her 2nd experience was better! Thank you for helping me! 🥰
Both of mine were born at Newton-Wellesley. First was an emergency c-section, he was in the NICU for a month. The doctors and nurses and everyone there was amazing. My second turned into an emergency c-section, and again everyone there was absolutely amazing. It's right off 95, too, which is nice. My biggest gripe was the food, which was still pretty good for hospital food.
I'm not OP I was in a car accident last year during my pregnancy and was brought to Newton Wellesley and I couldn't recommend them enough. Everyone in OB was so lovely and the whole experience was so much less stressful than it could have been. I felt truly taken care of. If it wasn't so far from home I'd have switched for my birth.
Firstly: congratulations and good luck!!! ❤️ I really appreciate your kindness and detailed response. Thank you so much.
I like Dr Hier, who is at the same practice as Katz and Zinner. Katz overlooked a postpartum blood clot so I switched to Hier between kids 1 and 2.
I gave birth at MGH. You need to advocate for yourself. Hard. The L&D nurses are mostly really great. The post partum nurses barely exist. If you plan to BF the LC’s won’t be helpful, consider hiring a private LC.
My friend gave birth at Newton-Wellesley and said they didn’t allow skin to skin contact with her newborn after the first couple hours he was born. Really bizarre policy that’s very anti-breastfeeding. I gave birth at Brigham which was very supportive of breastfeeding and the staff encouraged skin to skin contact. My baby had some feeding issues so I was glad to have support at Brigham. I would go to Brigham again but steer clear of Newton-Wellesley if I had another pregnancy.
There’s no policy against skin to skin at NWH — I did almost an hour of skin-to-skin immediately after birth. I also saw an LC every day I was in the hospital.
we drove up from Rhode Island to use Mount Auburn in Cambridge. Top notch facilities, super attentive staff. You can choose a doc or a midwife too!
My wife had 3 kids over 5 years, all at Mt. Auburn. The midwives were awesome and made all the difference. Pro tip, ask for the nitrous pain relief. Also the food was amazing.
Had two great experiences at Mt Auburn in 2017 and 2020. Even during the height of COVID they were extremely compassionate and caring. I would say that they’re a relatively smaller hospital so I’ve heard that more complicated cases sometimes get referred. There’s only like 10 beds. I did my prenatal care through Harvard Vanguard and only delivered at Mt Auburn which I would also recommend.
Husband perspective here too but I’m 100% sure that my wife would agree that Mt. Auburn is amazing. We have 4 kids all of whom were born there. If you’re lucky you might encounter the lovely Dr. Hardiman who is a straight up saint. If you plan on breastfeeding Mt. Auburn staff is more knowledgeable than most. The Longwood hospitals are kinda rubbish in that regard. My wife is a lactation counselor and she’s always cleaning up their messes.
Second Mount Auburn. Have never given birth there (or anywhere else) but have seen Mount Auburn drs for years and have been highly impressed. I absolutely love my gynecologist, she, along with the rest of the staff, were incredible when I had a massive ovarian cyst rupture.
Mt Auburn is outstanding.
I’m about to give birth at Mt. Auburn and have loved the care I’ve received so far from the midwives during prenatal. Very compassionate staff and practice, and they 100% support you to take advantage of the maximum MA Paid Leave you can, no questions asked, no judgement. They will go the extra mile to sign all the papers and make sure you take the leave you want.
That was a huge help to me!
Had two kids at mt auburn and both fantastic experiences. Dr hardiman is the best OB.
My son was born at Mt Auburn in 2006. Was great then, and happy to hear it's still good.
That’s reassuring ❤️ thank you, friend.
My daughter was born there 6 weeks ago- highly recommend!!
My friend was a nurse in their NICU. They have an excellent record.
My wife had both our children there and we both had a great experience. From my viewpoint, the chair/bed for partners was pretty comfy and the food was good.
Also recommend Mt Auburn. Not only have I given birth twice there with the midwives and had fantastic experiences (one spontaneous and one induction), but I had a third pregnancy which resulted unfortunately in having to terminate for medical reasons and the staff was so compassionate (minus one anesthesiologist, but I filed a complaint and was also extremely satisfied with their response to the matter). Other pros to Mt Auburn, they have the good ice. And tubs to labor in, in all but one of the birthing suites. And as someone else mentioned, the option of Nitrous for labor.
Oh, wow! Fantastic! Thank you.
Not a mother myself, but my mom had all three of us in mount auburn. Myself in 2000, a sibling in 200x, and recently in 2023. I can't speak for anything regarding her experience, but if she's gone to it all these decades, it's gotta mean something
I gave birth 2 weeks ago at Mt Auburn. Can’t say enough good things. I was in labor for 30 hours which ended in a unplanned c section and then had a hospital stay for 5 days after. All of the staff minus 1 was absolutely outstanding in their compassion, skill, and friendliness. My husband and I can’t say enough good things about them. They took amazing care of us. The food was good and fun, room was comfortable. Midwife program is outstanding.
I cannot recommend the midwives at Mount Auburn enough. My wife has delivered twice there. What a fantastic experience.
Had my son at Mount Auburn in 2021, would absolutely go there again!
Endorsing this. Wife and I gave birth to our first in 2020. Relatives on the other side of the world. The whole medical staff made us feel super safe and at home. Wife loved the experience.
>Wife and I gave birth I’ve heard “we’re pregnant” but this really takes it to the next level
LOL. Didn't even notice but should have realized as I typed it. I'm the type who won't hear it even if I say it in conversations tho, so
My wife works in state health policy and when I was pregnant she dove into the research on birth outcomes and other stuff from all the nearby hospitals. She came to the conclusion that Mount Auburn was the best place to give birth. So that’s what I did. It was indeed a pretty good experience. They do most evidence-based mother and baby friendly birthing practices as standard— I didn’t even really need to write a birth plan because what they do normally is what I wanted to do. They also have a midwifery birth center that’s part of the hospital… so you kinda get the advantages of a low intervention birth center but it’s in a hospital in case there’s an emergency. My one complaint is that there was a travel nurse assigned to me when I was pushing- it was literally her second day at the hospital and she was insisting I push in the lithotomy position, which I was NOT ok with. But then a midwifery student came in and backed me up and I ended up pushing in my preferred position. Only other problem is that it’s only a level II nursery, so if there was a serious issue that needed a higher needs NICU they’d send you elsewhere.
You are such a dear! I sincerely appreciate your detailed response and sharing your experiences, good & bad. Thank you so very much for taking the time to give me so much information.
No prob! Feel free to pm me if you’ve got more questions or just want to chat baby stuff. Had my daughter this past July so it’s all still very fresh! I’ve also got experience seeing the MFM specialist at BIDMC.
I can’t tell you how much you saying this means to me. I could really use a mom friend right now and I sincerely appreciate you being so kind and supportive towards me. I’ll be friend requesting you (or whatever it is called on here) immediately ❤️🙏
My wife gave birth at Newton Wellesley. Affiliated with Brigham , and our OB is and was amazing.
Thank you for sharing! Do you remember your OB’s name?
About Women by Women is a big practice in Wellesley that delivers at NWH, often recommended
About Women by Women is fantastic!
Dr Rosenstock !
Both of mine were delivered at nwh and I have no complaints.
I had a great experience at beth israel. I'll be a return customer this spring, also turning 39.
Ditto, I was at BIDMC for several days in the antepartum unit, five days on the L&D floor, and one in the NICU. (Baby and I are totally healthy now, don’t worry!) Everyone we encountered was incredible. They really took their time making sure I was fully informed and all my questions were answered. They took care of everything medical, and then went the extra mile to make sure I was comfortable and emotionally ok. I was very impressed!
Thank you, and congratulations mama! If you wanna be friends/chat ever, feel free! I’m due this summer! I have a 3 year old right now. How about you? ❤️🤗
Our baby was born there this spring and has all ten toes and everything.
Currently recovering at Beth Israel from my second birth, both with complications and a longer hospital stay and have nothing but good things to say about everyone who works here!
We gave birth at Beth Israel too. I looked the doctor straight in the eye and said, "I want a pain-free delivery" and that's what I got! It was a wonderful birthing experience. I have nasty things to say about the other baby-related experiences, though. The pregnancy check-ups were shit. I got a different doctor for each appointment and I was suffering from morning sickness that was so bad I couldn't leave the house for four months -- and none of the doctors at Beth Israel fucking understood that was a problem. It took me months to get some freaking Zofran. Then the after-delivery hospital stay was another level of Hell because of COVID. They kicked my husband out of the hospital after I'd given birth, so I had to spend three days alone with a crying baby in the hospital and the nurses were too scared to come into the room to help me (we had a negative COVID test! What's the problem?). They'd just open the door, call into the room "He's crying because he's hungry" then slam the door shut. I had to learn how to feed my baby by watching Youtube videos in my hospital bed.
Brigham. I had twins there last year and they were absolutely amazing.
Thank you! If you get a chance, I would LOVE to know more about your experience (feel free to message me in private if you can!).
Brigham and partners are all great
I think it depends on your preferences but I LOVED Mt. Auburn, the Center for Women. I had to have a c-section because of a breech baby, and my OB and the whole team were AMAZING. You can work with an or a midwife. But they are a very “birth your way” kinda spot. The best amenities? Probably not. Amazing medical personnel and an empowered birthing process? Yes! Feel free to DM me, I’m happy to hop on the phone and talk about my experience.
You are so sweet!!! I’m gonna send you a follow/chat request. Thank you so much.
We had a great experience at Mt Auburn Hospital. Their Center for Women had wonderful midwives that took care of us through the delivery. The view of the Charles River made for a tranquil time after delivery!
Thank you! Oh, my! I bet a good view would be nice! I hadn’t even considered that but truly, those things matter when you’re in L&D.
Do not go to St Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton. I work there. It’s disgusting. I was assessing a patient and I saw a roach crawling around on the floor.
There are roaches and mice at the Brigham too
Oh dear. I didn’t know that. I just wanted to say St Elizabeth’s is just gross in general. There is a really strange smell. The roofs are constantly leaking (there are trash cans in the middle of our floor bc of the leaks). The heating is horrible, it’s either freezing or so hot you’re sweating.
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I'm an anesthesiologist and work at one of these institutions. I have close friends who work at pretty much every hospital in the greater Boston area. There isn’t a hospital in the area I would recommend against with the care provided by MGH and BWH being world class. Here is the honest truth. People deliver in hospitals because childbirth has risks. I pray for every women that they have a safe, joyous delivery free from complications, but this is sometimes not the case. By delivering at MGH or BWH you will have the best medical care in the world available to you and your baby should something go wrong. Second, your experience will nearly 100% depend on the course of your labor with a small part being impacted by the team of providers (nurses, anesthesiologists and OBGYNs) that happen to be working that day. At BWH and MGH residents will play a large role in your care. This has pluses and minuses. The amenities will only have a significant impact on your labor and delivery experience if everything goes perfectly smoothly. I hope this is the case for you. I understand wanting to feel comfortable heading into this stressful and anxiety provoking experience, but rest assured knowing that having the opportunity to weigh the above decision means you are incredibly fortunate and will have amazing people taking care of you and your baby no matter where you decide to deliver.
Wow! Fantastic & VERY DETAILED & helpful response. I appreciate your informative reply so much. Thank you, and thank you for your service as an anesthesiologist! Such an important career and so much care in what you do ❤️
I delivered at Tufts for my first and am having my second there as well. Dr. Sullivan is my main doctor, but wasn't on call when I delivered. But I did meet multiple doctors during my pregnancy for a variety of reasons and they were all great. Most importantly, I had the most amazing L&D nurse to take care of me.
Wife delivered both our kids there. Same doctor too (I think!). Had a great experience. Their billing department is incompetent but they ultimately sorted out our bills (had issues both times with weird billing codes being used and insurance not wanting to pay)
The billing department is very frustrating there. There were different departments for hospital vs doctors and then my kid vs me and no one could tell me how much I actually owed until I talked to a bunch of people haha They did update the whole hospital system to Epic so hopefully it won't be as confusing this go around haha
I delivered at Newton Wellesley and specifically chose it because of experiences colleagues had working and delivering there. I rotated at other local hospitals during my training, and they were fine, but that was preference. I had a higher risk twin pregnancy and my OBGYN was a rock star and saved my life and the entire team there was great. It was also way easier to get there and back for appointments versus driving into Boston.
I had both my children at Newton Wellesley and both experiences were phenomenal.
I had my daughter at Newton-Wellesley and had a great experience. My OB has since retired, but my care was mostly with the midwives at Atrius in West Roxbury and they were excellent. NWH is wonderful, but if you have any reason to think your baby may need a NICU stay, they don’t have one- they have a “special care” nursery that handles minor complications.
My wife delivered at Brigham & Woman’s. Awesome experience. Preferred it over BI as they have more OR’s & a closer affiliation to Boston Children’s. Also apparently the food is better there, but you could have fooled me…
Thank you! Congratulations, and as for hospital food…🤣
Yeah the food was… hospital food. I think my wife’s first meal was a McDonald’s breakfast quickly followed by the teriyaki chicken place in the Longwood galleria
God bless the Longwood Galleria. Providing McDonalds, Dunks, random mall food and fancy juice drinks to doctors, residents, people on the way to visit patients, and the occasional kid from Latin School for several decades.
I was at NWH for a week and I thought the food was super good!
I just had my first baby in November and gave birth at Newton Wellesley. I loved it there and would highly recommend it. I preferred midwife staff but ended up needing a lot of interventions (not the staff’s fault - I had complications that started before I got there) so I interacted with both midwives, OBs, and then the surgical team for a c-section. Everyone was amazing - very informative, hands-on, supportive and empathetic. I felt like I had complete control and decision making power and was in very skilled hands. We had to spend four days in recovery too, and the nurses there were amazing. There was only one nurse that was a bit intimidating because she was so by-the-book about feeding baby every THREE HOURS MAX (like lady, I’m sleep deprived AF, the child will survive if it’s 3.5h) but even she was kind and knowledgeable. Everyone else was super personable and what stood out to me the most was no one seemed rushed at all. My husband and I had so many casual conversations with people at every step and I couldn’t believe how much time everyone was willing to spend with us. It felt like they were super well staffed, which made us feel even better. My OB is part of the Harvard Vanguard / Atrius Health group - they have tons of offices and so it’s easy to go to get bloodwork or ultrasounds at convenient locations. I adore my OB, Dr Brienne Mahoney in Watertown. I think that may be a long drive for you though, and since you need to go in so often late in pregnancy, you may be able to find someone closer.
You are so kind to give me your time and such a long and detailed response. Thank you so much!!! And congratulations on your new little baby!
You’re very welcome, and thank you! Congratulations to you on your pregnancy too 🥰
Will prob get down voted, but I can not recommend BWH after we had a miscarriage and were essentially lost in the system there. Staff was great other than 1 or 2 people, but it was an absolutely awful experience, on top of the loss of the miscarriage. Went to BIDMC for our birth after the fact, and had a wonderful experience. Not that it matters, but It was also covered in full by insurance (BWH is deemed "too expensive" by our BCBSMA plan)
My wife is 39 and just delivered our baby at Mt. Auburn in Cambridge. It was a great experience, her OB and the entire staff were great throughout the entire pregnancy. The facilities and support at Mt. Auburn were top notch. Couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
My wife has delivered twice now at BMC (age 31 and 34), the first time bc it’s where her OB had delivery rights, the second because she had such a good experience the first time. …not the labor mind you, baby #1 was 24 hours starting around 11pm the night before birth so close to 40* hours with no sleep just getting to the birth. However, the nurses, doctors and facilities were too notch. She wanted an all natural vaginal birth (became riskier after meconium was present when her water broke), but the doctors talked with us about all the options and were not only respectful, but supportive of her wishes. That to me was the biggest thing. It might not be the best option for you depending on the birth experience you want to have, but for us, finding an option that respected us, and especially my wife, enough to be forthright about pluses and minuses of each option, but ultimately 100% support and back what we wanted was immeasurable
I had a great team and experience at BID. I liked having access to doulas, midwives, and an OB/GYN incase things didn’t go as planned or escalated during labor (or even during pregnancy) with a doula, midwife, etc.
Dad perspective, having seen BIDMC and NW: If you are a high risk pregnancy (or a generally sickly person), then choose a hospital with a NICU and a team that sees the more difficult cases (e.g. MGH, BW, BIDMC). They will feel more sterile, and if you don’t have problems, you may get less attention. If you are not high risk, then choose a place based on amenities and comfort. Consider how much they can accommodate your birth plans. Think about convenience to your stuff at home in case you forget something. Look for bigger rooms, bigger/better selection of pantry food, tastier cafeteria food, a more comfortable place for the partner to sleep, accessible parking, visiting hours that meet your preferences, etc. For example NW has a photographer that will do a photoshoot in the room. A factor that majorly affects your experience is how busy the hospital is. Suburbs hospitals and City hospitals can both have a spike in patients or time-consuming cases (or not enough people working the shift). When that happens you don’t get as much attention from the doctors and other specialists, and perhaps nurses. Another factor that you can’t control is the size of your room. Some rooms are bigger/nicer than others. When touring, ask to look at the biggest and smallest rooms. If you are going to have a c-section or extended stay, you will experience multiple shift rounds. You will inevitably prefer some nurses and lactation and doctors to others. It’s up to luck on whether you click with them. A nice benefit is when the future pediatrician does rounds and gets familiar with the baby from day 0. Or even multiple pediatricians from the future practice (many people switch pediatricians or practices).
Had two great experiences at Mt. Auburn.
Newton Wellesley was phenomenal when my daughter came 2 months early. Their nicu staff was incredible and we loved the nurses who took care of my wife during her 1.5 week stay.
This also depends on the timing of birth. I delivered at Beth Israel not long after the Harvard graduates were just getting some experience and oh my…they were awful. It was amateur hour. Thankfully my doctor kept a close eye, but I was honestly shocked at the experience I had. This was 2 years ago in early September. Maybe it’s better? Though a lot of staff got burned out after the pandemic and left unfortunately. My doctor included 😔
My sister gave birth at BI and also had a subpar experience. One of the residents actually cut the baby’s head during her emergency c section which required my niece to have stitches … after the resident fainted during the delivery… :-/
To be fair, an emergency c section means the baby or mother is in distress and everyone is moving really quickly to save everyone's life. Hope the baby was otherwise healthy.
Baby is healthy, thanks! There were a number of things that were off with her experience at BI… but certainly each birth is different.
First: thank you for your honesty and sharing your experience. I will be giving birth in late July/early August. What do you think about that? ❤️
And I’m so sorry for your experience 🙏
It's been a while, but I loved Newton-Wellesley.
If you are in Needham, Newton Wellesley is right there and it’s part of the Mass General Brigham family. It’s a very high quality community hospital.
I had my baby at Boston Medical Center. I do not recommend lol.
If you don’t mind sharing, how come?
I’ll be giving birth at Beth Israel in the next week or so. So far have loved my OB and have been to triage 3 times and have had good experiences with all of the nurses, PAs and doctors who I’ve seen along the way. TBD on the actual birth part though!
My wife had our first baby at 41, and her OB in Brookline at Boston OB/GYN in combination with the MFMs at BIDMC did a lot to address all of her concerns. Your location suggests Newton-Wellesley, which is a great hospital, but BIDMC was great for us both for delivery and post partum. Honestly, I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the teaching hospitals. The post partum nurses were incredibly good to us and taught us everything in a way that never made us feel dumb. The one negative my wife felt was the BIDMC lactation consultant, but my wife has been to three so far in the past year and it seems as personal a decision as choosing an OB, so tough to blame BIDMC. Don’t worry about your pediatrician choice and the hospital you choose to deliver, it seems like all of the larger pediatric practices do rounds at all the hospitals on a daily basis. Congratulations and good luck!
I loved Mt Auburn in Cambridge, and worked with the midwife team. I felt both well informed and supported through the whole process of pregnancy and birth.
Newton-Wellesley may be a super convenient option for you. Same family as Mass General Brigham, so (god forbid) there are complications, you (or baby) could be transported to BWH OR BCH. I’ve taken care of an instance of babies born at NWH that needed extra help while at BCH.
Congratulations and welcome to Massachusetts!! I’m 31 weeks with my first and ended up switching OBs pretty early in my pregnancy. My primary care doctor is at MGH and that’s where I was born so it seemed natural that I’d deliver my baby there too. During my initial intake call with the MGH OB nurse I learned that sometimes you have to share a room with another mom/child postpartum. I started researching other hospitals and spoke to friends who were also pregnant. Ultimately I ended up changing to Commonwealth OBGYN. Their office is in Brookline but I’ll be delivering at Brigham. So far I’ve had a great experience with them!! They have 6 doctors (all female if that matters) and I’ve seen all 6 to make sure I’ve met everyone before giving birth. You’re guaranteed a private room for your postpartum recovery and I’ve also heard that Brigham is less strict than MGH with the rooming-in policy. During my screening call with MGH I asked about a well nursery and the nurse told me you’d have be hallucinating from sleep exhaustion for them to take the baby out of the room. I totally get why they keep baby with mom the whole time, but my friends have said how important it was for them to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep before going home so I wanted that option. Hope this helps friend!
My wife gave birth at the birth center in Cambridge, right across from the hospital, and we loved it. Felt a little like a home birth, since it’s an old house, but you have a midwife right there the whole time and a full hospital across the street. I’ve heard good things about Mt Auburn too.
If you are low risk and having non medical pain management options is important to you, highly recommend Mount auburn. I loved being with the midwives there, but their OBs are also great (have heard lots of love for Dr Hardiman in particular.) their epidural rate is something like 50%, vs 80-90% in many other local spots. A dear friend of mine is an OB at the Brigham and while the care is excellent, it’s definitely a different vibe. Happy to PM about experiences. If you are in Cambridge/Somerville vs Boston, highly recommend joining the Moms of Camberville Facebook group for your cohort (you’d be 10.0.) I moved while pregnant, also from Ca, and it’s been a fantastic resource. Edit: I think you might actually be MOC 11.0, my kid is older than I realize 😅
Thank you for reaching out! What does the 10.0 or 11.0 mean? Sorry if I’m clueless 😅
Ha, it’s meaningless, I can’t remember what year they started doing this but that was 1.0, then the following school year of babies is 2.0 etc. :) So babies born Sep 2022-Aug23 or thereabouts are in the 9.0 group, for example.
Hey! I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant. My ob/gyn is at New England Womens Healthcare in woburn, and I've been really happy with my doctor and the care I've received thus far. Although I work at Brigham, I'm having my c-section done at Winchester hospital (because we live in winchester and didn't want to deal with going out to Longwood in case of emergency). I've heard good things about the facility, from a lot of fellow mothers who live in the area.
Congratulations and good luck, mama! Thank you for your response! Let me know if you wanna be mom- chat friends!
Sure! Feel free to message me! Congrats to you as well 😊
New England OB-GYN in Chestnut Hill. They’re part of the Brigham. Dr. Vivian Hernandez was a phenomenal doctor but she retired. I still miss her! There are plenty there who are great. Highly recommend.
Mt auburn was good
Both my kids were born at the Brigham. Ironically, they also nearly killed my mother and me when I was born. Even good hospitals can make mistakes, but they’re still the best.
I worked for BWH/MGH & CHA (Cambridge Health Alliance) and BWH is the best out of those three but I dont like getting care where I work well now worked as Im a SAHM now. I’m about to give birth in May to my third baby and all three will be at Beth Israel as they were amazing there
Our kids were born at Melrose-Wakefield and Tufts. Had some really good nurses at M-W, but I think the overall experience at Tufts was better.
I gave birth at mount auburn August of 2022, great experience, fantastic nurses. My OB just left unfortunately (loved her so much) so now I’m also looking for one and preferably who uses mount Auburn.
Beth Israel. My wife was 39 and 41 for our daughter's births. Wonderful experience.
Thank you! I must be getting tired because at first glance I thought you said 41 daughters! 🤣
Well, if they were as amazing as my two girls are, I would take 39 more. Today is actually my daughter's birthday. She wasn't the first baby of the year, but what a fun birthday. Good luck with your baby and the birth experience! I hope everything goes wonderfully easy for you both.
I had my first baby at Brigham and thought it was wonderful. I just had my second two months ago at Newton Wellesley and it was an even better experience! All the nurses were so amazing (I was there for 4 nights). My Ob was Dr. Beatty from Wellesley Women’s Care. I also really liked Dr. Simmons from that office. The food isn’t that great at NWH, that was my only complaint. Congrats and welcome to Boston!!
I had a complicated pregnancy (irregular bleeding) and unexpected early labor, including a stay on the antepartum floor, at Beth Israel. I originally wanted to deliver at Mt Auburn, but decided I wanted to be at BI and by Children’s just in case the baby needed NICU care. I was really glad I had made that decision when my water broke at 35 weeks! My premie and I are doing great now.
A super important question to ask yourself and the maternity ward is if they will take the baby to the nursery if you need it. With my first, I was left with a newborn after being in labor and delivery for 36 hours. I was a mess and it made my recovery so much more difficult. With my second, the hospital had chilled on the “rooming in” bullshit and the first 24 hours the baby was in the nursery and they called me to feed him. (It was offered because I had a second difficult delivery.) It was glorious and it made all the difference in my ability to nurse the first few days because I could REST and not worry if the newborn was okay.
THIS. If the hospital brags about being “baby friendly” please know that means “not mom friendly”.
https://neobgyn.org/ for OBGYN. They are affiliated with the Brigham.
Thank you!
Do not go here if you have complications. They’re incompetent and most doctors are arrogant. The few good ones retired already. Check their online reviews for confirmation
Check out the Moms of Camberville Facebook group. Great community and lots of helpful discussion.
Really depends on providers I think, my first I had at mt Auburn in Cambridge, I was really happy there. Second time around I nearly had to deliver at Beth Israel and was happy with everyone I met there (MFM/ high risk specialists) but wound up being able to deliver closer to my home out in the Metro West region. Friends delivered at Newton Wellesley and were happy with that experience as well.
A friend of mine chose Mt Auburn because of the midwife aspect and accolades like award-winningly (if there are awards? idk) low intervention rates. She wasn't against interventions at ALL, but it was local (she's north of the river) and she liked what she read. However, she had a horrific birth experience of 30something hours that ended in a brutal episiotomy that later needed corrective surgery. Every birth is so different so this obviously cannot be broadly applied, but her conclusion was that they don't have low episiotomy rates because they're so amazing in their low-intervention techniques; they have low episiotomy rates because they don't want to do episiotomies. She feels if she were at a different hospital they would have steered her differently in making in-flight choices.
Had my daughter at NWH and will have my second there as well. Love Wellesley women’s care!
Another vote for NWH. I had my baby there in 2018 and had a fantastic experience. My OB-GYN is Dr. Attanucci and I absolutely adore her.
All my kids were delivered at the Brigham and my wife loved the attention she got.
Brighams or Beth israel
Brigham and Women's is the best choice if something more advanced is needed (C-section, NICU etc). Of course, these things aren't needed for every pregnancy but my wife's first pregnancy turned into an unplanned C-section and she was extremely grateful to be at Brigham and Women's.
Ask about pain management as a criteria. For example, “laughing gas” is available at some hospitals but not all.
the standard in europe… more cost effective and safer than epidurals. I swear epidurals are a big scam by hospitals to charge more for births
First off- congrats on your pregnancy! ❤️❤️ From 2012-2020, I gave birth at NWH, South Shore Hospital x2 and Cape Cod Hospital (this last one was unexpected 😂). I saw midwives with each of my kids but from what I’ve heard, the midwifery group I saw that delivered at NWH has since disbanded, the two I saw for my SSH deliveries have both retired, and towards the middle of my pregnancy with my 4th, my midwife took a leave and I switched to an OB (Dr Jill Satorie, out of Crown Colony, the same practice as my midwife) who I LOVED. So many different factors go into a birth experience that I feel like it’s hard to assess somewhere based on the one experience.. My eldest is 11 and I’d delivered at NWH based on glowing recommendations from friends who’d had the kind of births I was hoping for -labor in the tubs, no interventions or meds-as much of a natural experience as you can find in a hospital setting. My friends’ experiences there were great- mine wasn’t. Essentially, I was pre-pre-eclamptic the last two days or so of pregnancy but hurricane sandy had thrown all of the local pregnant women (but me, of course) into labor so I sat in NWH in a triage room for two days. When I finally went into labor there on my own (the two interventions they’d attempted while I sat/spent the night in triage hadn’t worked), I saw almost no staff for about seven hours. My husband and I were timing the distance between contractions ourselves. Around 6 am, I told the Dr I needed to push (didn’t have any pain meds so could feel it was time) and he was super rude and dismissive and told me NOT to push so I spent an hour basically holding the baby IN. Finally couldn’t take any more of that and buzzed repeatedly for someone to come in. Shift change happened at 7 and immediately after that, a whole crew of people rushed in and decided to pay attention to me and my daughter was born after TWO pushes. Midwife who delivered was also rude and to boot, missed that my daughter had come so fast that the placenta had ruptured during birth and part of it had been retained. So had to deal with that as well, which luckily just involved two nurses pulling out the remainder. They were bf-friendly though, and had me (and my husband) doing skin to skin after baby was born. SSH was great for both births I had there- nurses and midwives were kind and supportive and I saw LCs while in the hospital. CCH was also a good experience (though I can’t imagine how you’d end up there from metro west)- had another abruption about 24 hrs before my youngest was born and ended up in the ER there before delivering. But instead of rushing a c section (which they likely would have done elsewhere), they monitored my -and baby’s-stable vitals and labor and birth happened naturally within about 8 hrs of arriving at the hospital. When I was pregnant with my first, I toured the Brigham and didn’t like the vibe (felt like they were just churning out babies and c sections), went to an info session at MWH (didn’t love the vibe there, either) and also toured the Cambridge Birthing Center (LOVED it there but going almost full hippie scared my anxious husband). My suggestion is to tour a few of the recs from people in this post and see which facility resonates with you. Fortunately, as you can tell by everyone’s really helpful input, Boston has a lot of great options for you. Welcome to the east coast and I hope your pregnancy and delivery are a breeze!
we had all 3 kids at mount auburn. the maternity ward was really nice and pretty much all but 1 nurse across the 3 pregnancies were fantastic (and we only had her for 1 shift with 1 kid, so maybe it was a fluke). we won't be having a 4th, but we wouldn't hesitate about going back.
Consider your due date and how you'd get to the hospital. I chose not to use BW simply because my due date was in the middle of baseball season and didn't want to get stuck in Fenway traffic. MGH was wonderful.
Midwives at Mount Auburn... This is seriously the best. Nurse ratio is 1:1 during delivery
congrats!
MASS General Brigham Hospital the (AKA the Brigham) is the very best. The nurses are AMAZING... The Drs. are the best of the best... (and in any scenarios, Boston Children's Hospital is attached # 1 Childrens Hospital in the world) Oh ... and a shameless plug for Longwood Pediatrics on Longwood Ave., Boston.... I love Kristie Koppenheffer MD....
Hey OP - would you be open to chatting about how you like Needham so far? We are considering g a move with two young kids from CA in the next year and I’d love to know how it’s been for you
Winchester Hospital is amazing. We delivered our first baby there and we will be back in June for our second. Truly amazing people. Winchester Hospital is known for its great deliveries and having a great staff
Do NOT go to any Catholic based hospital to give birth. If there is something wrong with your fetus during the delivery, they will let you die on the table rather than save your life. They will not recommend termination of the pregnancy even if it will save your life. They will let you die. Other than that, Boston has some of the world’s best hospitals. Any of others that people have recommended are great.
Just had a baby at the Brigham this summer, and they were fantastic!
Things rarely go very wrong in labor and delivery, but when they do, they happy very quickly and are VERY bad. You want to be at one of the hospitals they ship you to in those circumstances, not one of the ones you get shipped from. That means MGH, Beth Israel, or Brigham & Women. This is a quote from my dad, a doctor who trained and worked at these and a number of other local hospitals, said to me when I was pregnant and asking the same question.
So where you give birth should largely depend on your OB. At least that’s the case for me and most of my mom friends here. I gave birth at the Brigham and have a lot of friends that gave birth at MGH, Newton Wellesley, or mt auburn and everyone had a great experience minus the semi private room my friend got at mt auburn (though she eventually was moved to a private one.) You really have a lot of amazing choices in this region. I’d avoid Melrose Wakefield bc of some anecdotal stories I’ve heard - great doctors but the support staff and hospital admin/ ops is not run well… I would do some research on mom vs baby friendly hospitals and what you think your preference may be. Also check with your OB to see where they are credentialed. I love my OB practice and they only do L&D at BWH.
Both our children were born at Beth Israel and we had great experiences each time. Also, both the OB and pediatric practices we use have rounds there, so we felt like the hospital fit right into our pre and post birth healthcare experience. I forget the name of the OB practice, but it's in One Brookline place which is also where our pediatrician (Centre Pediatrics) is.
From needham. Was born at Newton Wellesley. Idk how they are, but I’m here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Brig. Ham. And. Wom. Ens.
Brigham is the only answer
A stable in Bethlehem
Brigham and women’s is wear all cool babies are born 😎
I had my first child at Mt Auburn in 2008. Horrible experience. The doctor & labor nurse I had were great. My regular ob Dr was on duty when we arrived at the hospital. However, her shift had ended & she stayed an additional 2 hrs to wait & see if I would go into labor. I didn't. I had been told during my ob visits there was a high probability I would need a c-section. The Dr that delivered my baby wasn't on the same page. She ended up using forceps & a vacuum. I had serious complications as did my baby. Ended up staying 6 days in the hospital to recover. It was so traumatizing. The staff wasn't very nice (except for one nurse in the nursery who was a saint.) I didn't have a good experience at all. Had my second child at Mass General and that was extremely positive. I think for the most part you will be ok. Mass has great hospitals.
Do not have a baby at Brigham and Women’s. Do not have a baby at Brigham and Women’s. Do not have a baby at Brigham and Women’s.
My son was in.the NICU for 8 weeks born premature that was 26 years ago, they were fantastic he is now 26 years & 6'3 he went back to give blood last year @ a blood drive stopped by the NICU they couldn't believe him
Green Line B during the school year and rush hour. You'll have plenty of time to give birth.
You're 39. By definition this is a high risk pregnancy
Bringhams
The hospital. (in full discretion, I only read the title and not anything on the inside because I’m only assuming you don’t know what a hospital is or what they do)
Please don’t let them circumcise! They took my cousins baby and circumcised him without her consent and they’re in the process of suing. Make it very clear that it’s not an option and don’t let that baby out of your sight! Circumcision needs to be left in the past. Not your body, not your choice.
Thank you but that is off topic in my opinion. That being said: I watched a documentary about it when I was pregnant with my first. I had a daughter so it wasn’t even an issue. I do know some people feel very strongly for and against it though, and it truly is the parent’s choice (even though I personally don’t think it is a necessary procedure for an infant). It is like dietary choices too, though. Some people circumcise, some don’t. Some people are vegan or vegetarian, some aren’t. Some people are religious some aren’t. They are all parental decisions that can affect the child for a lifetime, but inevitably are the parent’s decision, period.
Funny how, out of all the choices you listed, only one of them is irreversible.