St Luke's birthing center?

[Nicki722]

Has anyone ever given birth there? and do the midwives there accept medicaid? I am really looking to stay in manhattan or the bronx.. i know i didn't really make that clear in my last post.

[AutumninNY]

Hi, I don't know about the medicaid issue but I have given birth in the birthing center twice. What kind of info are you looking for about it? I had a good experience both times. My Midwives were awesome. The nurses that work in the birthing center are really great, kind, patient, attentive, listened to me about what I was needing. My first birth there was fairly long, for the birthing center, I think I was in labor for about 15.5 hours. My second was born a short hour after I walked in the door! For both the only time a fetal heart monitor was used was right when I got there. It was put on, left on for one contraction and then taken off. NBD. If you have specific ?'s I can try to answer them. Good luck

[physmom]

Do you mean Roosevelt? St. Luke's doesn't have a birthing center...

We delivered at Roosevelt. Unfortunately, not in the birthing center because my OB/Gyn, who I loved, wasn't associated with it. If I get pregnant again, though, we're definitely planning on going there!

My only complaint was that the nurses there could've been more helpful with breastfeeding. The problem was that my daughter was screaming for HOURS during the middle of the night and instead of trying to help me calm her down by improving my swaddling technique, etc they just told me that she was hungry. And kept pushing formula on me. I finally broke down and she got .5 oz and I cried the entire time while she was drinking it. Fortunately, after that we didn't have any problems with BFing, but I still get upset when I think about it!

Besides that my birthing experience was great (although I think that depends a lot more on your doctor/midwife than anything else). Triage was HORRIBLE there but if you're going the birthing center route you'll get to avoid it (another reason we're planning on doing that next time around).

[LizD]

My sister-in-law used the birth center at St Luke's/Roosevelt and was very pleased- a lot of other Brooklyn ladies have been happy with it as well. Not sure about the medicaid issue but IME most MWs in NYC accept it.

[marija_jane]

The birthing center IS great, but be aware that they send something like 80 to 90 percent of patients out of the birthing center up to the hospital's main L&D unit. That is what happened to us and it was the worst experience of my life. (Next time I'm having a baby it will be at home!)

[kzam]

Greetings.  I am due in Janueary with my second child and would like to have him in the birthing center.  I had my first son sompelace else.  My birth plan is as noninterventional as possible, however with my son I needed to be induced because I was two weeks late.  With the induction I received pitosin and a cervical catheter to help to manually dilalte me. Whilst I have not "gone into labor spontaneously" I'm curious about procedure at the birthing center.  I was told that you need to be at least 4cm in ordered to be admitted.  No problem there.  Is pitocin offered?  I had no epidural with my son and labor proceded quite quickly but I believe that was with the aid of pitosin and the catheter.  How was your overall experience with the birthing center?  Would you recommend it?  How long after your birth were you discharged?  I'm all about the early discharge.  How was the overall cleanliness factor at the center?  I work in a hospital and am a bit of germophobe, hence the eagerness for early discharge.  And comments you have will surely be helpful.  Thank you for your time.