Choosing a hospital for Labor and Delivery in Manhattan

One of the first things I realized I needed to do once I knew I was pregnant was to figure out the hospital I was going to give birth at.  Being from the UK I was unaware that you need to do this in synch with picking an OB GYN since different OB's have delivery rights at different hospitals.

My existing OB (Downtown Women in Soho) deliver at NYU Tisch.  

I decided to do a couple of hospital tours (yes, they really do them!) to suss it all out. 

We first visited St. Luke's Roosevelt Birthing Center and Labor & Delivery ward on the Upper West Side.  They do regular Maternity tours mainly in the evenings.  Here is the link:

http://www.nywomenshealth.com/birthing-center-maternity-tour-st-lukes-hospital-new-york.htm

You meet the tour guide in the main entrance lobby and then proceed to a conference room where some snacks and drinks are provided whilst the tour guide hands out some information packs and gives a quick overview.  You can also ask questions at this point and I would advise to do so - don't be shy!  Once you are walking around the hospital as part of a 30-strong group its harder to get the attention of the tour guide to ask your burning questions.

Once the Q&A is over, up you go to see the L&D areas.  We were shown a LDR room (Labor, Delivery and Recovery - essentially you get to stay in there from arrival at the hospital until you have delivered and have had a couple of hours to bond with baby/recover).  The rooms were very nice; large and spacious with pleasant decor.  Shower and toilet in each of these rooms and the medical kit was hidden behind wooden panelling.  Some rooms had good views over the Hudson.  

Next up we were shown a private room (for the rest of your stay once you have delivered and recovered in the LDR).  It was an ok size and pretty much similar in style to the LDR's but without all of the medical kit.  There are 6 private rooms at St. Luke's and like all the other hospitals they are on a first-born, first-served basis (you need to put your name down and then if one is available you will get it based on time of delivery).  I think the cost was $750 per night for the private room and obviously this is all out of your own pocket on top of the other expenses.  

We then made our way to the Birthing Center which is a kind of annexe to the main delivery ward at St. Lukes Roosevelt Labor and Delivery ward.  It has separate doors and a separate reception area.  This area was very quiet and calm and decorated slightly differently to the rest of the hospital, you did feel like you were somewhere else and not in a hospital.  There are 3 rooms in the Birthing Center and you stay in that room from arriving at the hospital to leaving the hospital.  They are equipped with toilet/bath facilities and also a fridge etc.  The reason you can stay in there the whole time is that they do not keep you in for the normal 2 days/4 days; the average stay in the Birthing Center is 16 hours our tour guide told us.  Usually this is because the ladies who give birth there stay at home to labor for longer and then they want to get home after a few hours if everything is ok with the baby and mother.

No drugs/pain medication or medical interventions are available in the Birthing Center.  I.e. if you want an epidural you should not really consider this as a viable option!  Of course, because the Birthing Center is actually 'in' the hospital in reality if there is a medical emergency or if you have a serious change of heart about a fully natural birth half way through then you are only minutes away from an O.R.  Although I think people rarely change their mind as you have to do a special preparation course before signing up to give birth at the Birthing Center.  And you would have been counselled by your OB who has to have special delivery rights to deliver you there (and fundamentally believes in natural birth I guess).

Overall - my thoughts on St. Luke's for Maternity care was that it seems like a full-service option: lots of choice!  I liked the idea of the natural birth in the Birthing Center but it being my first baby I realistically had no idea how it would pan out so thought I was better off leaving my options a bit more 'open' with a regular hospital birth.

We then checked out the NYU Tisch Hospital tour.  NYU Maternity unit is situated at 1st Ave and 31st St.  You can find out when the tours are here:

http://www.nyubaby.org/tour/

Once you enter the hospital you need to take the elevator to the Labor and Delivery area where you wait in the waiting room for the tour guide.  No snacks or info packs at NYU so take a drink and an energy bar with you if you are late in pregnancy and get hungry/thirsty easily!

The tour was pretty hands on and a smaller group than St.Luke's so asking questions as you went around was easy.  NYU Maternity also operates LDR's and they were practically identical to the ones at St. Lukes: large-ish rooms with own bathroom/shower, equipment hidden behind panels and large windows.  The tour guide demonstrated how the beds could be equipped with a birthing bar if you wanted to use one, and how they have bouncy balls for you to labor on if you wish.  She was thorough in showing us the workings of the bed and how they remove part of the bottom of the bed when the baby is coming out (and showed us the big lights that they turn on to get a good look!).  

We then were walked through the basic process when you have the baby.  After 2 hrs in the LDR they move the mother to the mother and baby unit whilst baby goes to the nursery to get cleaned up.  We were shown the nursery (there were babies in it!!) and were talked through the security measures they operate at NYU.  

Then up to the Mother and Baby unit.  There are 4 private rooms at NYU Tisch and again, first-come first-served basis.  The price is $525 per night out of pocket expense.  A little cheaper than St. Luke's but not much!!

The rest of the rooms are all shared (2 mothers per room).  They are pretty small I have to say (i.e. you can definitely reach out and touch the person in the next bed!!) but all had a bathroom so you are only sharing with one other person.

That was pretty much the tour at NYU Maternity unit.

In the end I decided to go with NYU as I liked my OB practice and they only deliver there, plus NYU is closer to my home.  For a hospital birth there didn't seem much of a difference between St. Luke's and NYU Tisch; once you got into the LDR's and rooms you could have been in either hospital.  They both have very high grade neonatal care units also and both have O.R's right next to the LDR's for emergency C-sections.  I think if you were keen on the all-natural route then probably you would need to consider the birthing center at St. Luke's.