Positives
1. The Tour
A few weeks before I delivered my baby I took an hour tour of the hospital. I definitely recommend doing this with any hospital you choose. It's nice to do a dry run through while you aren't in labor pain. Trust me you'll retain a lot more and enter the hospital a lot more calmer. The tour really sold me on St. John's. They showed us the delivery rooms, the postpartum rooms and informed us about the services offered before your labor (breast feeding classes, parenting classes) and the information you'll be given once you deliver.
2. Facilities
St. John's was recently renovated and offers an incredible maternity wing. The birthing rooms are very large and offer plenty of room for family, the husband to sleep and for the birth of your child. I was amazed at the size of the room. Larger rooms are offered at a slightly higher price, but from my experience, unless you are having a grand audience, the rooms are big enough to accommodate everything.
Fortunately, this wasn't an issue for me, but St. John's also offers, on the same floor, rooms for C-Sections and has a very expert Maternal Fetal Medicine Team on site to help with high risk pregnancies.
3. Staff for Labor/Delivery
I can't say enough about the staff during the delivery process. I was admitted at night to begin inducing and found each nurse to be welcoming, calming and easily accessible. When it came time to get my epidural, the anesthesiologist heard my concerns about a botched spinal tap a few years before, and did a perfect job in administering my epidural. I literally didn't feel any pain when the epidural went in, and that is saying something because I also experienced my worst contraction at that moment.
During the actual delivery my nurse, Lori, was fantastic. She helped me through almost 90% of the pushing and I found her to be incredibly calming and supportive. I could tell my doctor and the nurses had a very good relationship, which made the whole experience very peaceful.
Once the baby was delivered I absolutely loved the newborn nurse, who cleaned my daughter, weighed her and checked her out. I felt like all the nurses were generally concerned about my daughter and excited for her arrival.
Negatives
1. Postpartum Nursing Staff
Talk about night and day. Once I was wheeled over to the other section of the maternity wing I felt like I was entering a totally different hospital. As opposed to the attention I received during the delivery, I felt like the nurses during my postpartum were busy, neglected to inform me of anything and were very hard to find. For example, I didn't know if I could shower, if we were supposed to change our daughter's diaper ourselves, I didn't receive breakfast the following day until 11 and at one point we had an orthopedic nurse helping us, who really had no idea what was going on. I understand they might have been busy, but as a first time mom, I was hoping for a little more attention.
2. Getting Information on Breastfeeding
On our tour of the hospital we were informed that lactation specialists would be coming to our room, after we had our baby, to help us with breastfeeding. Unfortunately, the lactation specialist only showed up once we were checking out, and that really only felt like the hospital was just sending someone in so we didn't complain that we never saw a specialist. I was rather angry when the specialist asked me, after I had had my baby for three days, and was sitting in a wheelchair waiting to leave, if I had any questions about breastfeeding. Um, yeah, I did, about three days ago. I guess fortunately the hospital did have videos on breastfeeding you could watch on TV while you laid there waiting for a nurse to show up, but I didn't really find those videos helpful. I guess, I didn't really enjoy looking at engorged breasts of strange women.
3. Parking
All I can say is ouch. Be prepared to drop some cash to valet your car or to deal with moving your car every two hours on side streets near the hospital.
Overall, if I was having a baby tomorrow I don't think I would go back to St. John's. It's considerably more expensive that UCLA, which was the other option for me, and I don't think I really got a better experience because of it. The birth was excellent, but the care you really need after was seriously lacking.
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