Welcome to the World, Nina Anastasia!

Our miracle Nina Anastasia arrived on April 5th, Easter Sunday.  We decided to change her middle name to one that means "resurrection" in honor of Easter and all the blessings that new life and new beginnings hold.  She is a gift from God, a dream come true. She was born at 5:03pm and was 7 lbs 3 oz, 19 inches.

I am eager to share the amazing story of my labor and the delivery of Nina, as well as the many stories we already have just in these last two weeks postpartum.  However, due to lack of energy/time I will just start out by copying & pasting the feedback I'm including with the hospital survey regarding the first curveball of the day on April 5th. (I'm excluding specific hospital/doctor/nurse info.)

April 18, 2015

Re: Admissions Process

I am choosing to share my story in this amount of detail in the hopes that this won’t happen to another soon-to-be-mom and patient of Mt X.  Once admitted my experience was extremely positive and I am endlessly grateful that I was able to come in when all was said and done, but the stress of initially being told I would have to go to another hospital (due to "lack of space" for me at Mt X) was traumatic and started my birthing process off on an unnecessarily emotional note.

I began having mild contractions on Saturday morning, April 4^th, around 6:30am.  They were very sporadic throughout the morning and early afternoon, though I was also experiencing other signs of early labor, such as passing the mucus plug and episodes of diarrhea and nausea.  During the late afternoon and evening they started getting more intense and somewhat more consistent.  By 9:30pm they were continuing to become more intense and were getting more regular.  I was timing the contractions and was getting numbers anywhere from 5-10 minutes apart.  My water had not broken.  I know it’s typical to wait until “5-1-1” to call the hospital, but I had been told I tested positive for Group B Strep and that it would be important to receive antibiotics at least 4 hours prior to delivery, so I called the on-call doctor at 9:30pm Saturday night and spoke with Dr H.   She said my contractions weren’t consistent enough to warrant coming in, regardless of being Group B Strep positive.  She said since I was a first-time mom there was little to no chance they would miss the antibiotic window.** She advised me to take a warm shower, drink some tea, and try to relax.

I was up the entire night with increasingly painful contractions.  I could not sleep through them.  My husband and I timed the contractions all night long and kept getting numbers anywhere from 4—11 minutes apart.  It was extremely frustrating.  We would start out a new hour with three contractions 4 or 5 minutes apart, and then they would jump to 6 or 7 mins apart.  I was in a lot of pain.  By 6:00am Sunday morning April 5^th (Easter Sunday), we recorded just about a full hour of contractions 5 minutes apart.  I couldn’t wait any longer and called Dr H again, overjoyed to be just about ready to head to the hospital (or so I thought). 

However, when I informed Dr H of the status of things, she told me that there were no available rooms for me and that I would have to go to another hospital.  I was in shock.  My OB is Dr W, I had participated in a day-long birthing class at the hospital, went on a tour of the Birthing Center, and attended a “Meet the Doctors” night.  Mt X was where I had always planned to deliver and was the hospital I had counted upon. 

I asked if I could at least come into Triage at Mt X and she said no.  I mentioned that at the “Meet the Doctors” night someone had asked if there could ever be a scenario in which a Mt X patient would be turned away from Labor & Delivery due to shortage of rooms; they had said no, that space would be made.  Dr H still insisted there was no room for me. She did not offer sympathy or regret for my situation or reassure me that my records would be sent to another hospital to ensure I received the best care possible.  I began to cry and gave the phone to my husband.  He tried to get more information and was finally told that they would call us back in about an hour to let us know if there was any room for us at that time.

(It later occurred to us that the issue was likely not that there weren’t available rooms, but that there wasn’t enough available staff due to the Easter holiday.  Once on the postpartum unit around 5:30pm that evening, we noticed several free rooms, which we had been told could be used as L&D rooms in the event of a room shortage.  The shortage of staff would also explain why Dr H was telling us I couldn’t even come into Triage to be examined.)

While waiting for Dr H’s return call, we tried to wrap our minds around the distinct possibility of having to get ready to go deliver at another hospital.  Dr H called us back in about an hour and a half and said in another 30 minutes or so we could contact nurse Kathy to inquire about the possibility of coming in.  When we called Kathy, she confirmed we could come in.  By the time I arrived at Triage around 10:00am and was examined, I was 5cm dilated and 80% effaced.  Once on L&D, apologies were offered to us “for the mix-up.”

**I was later told in L&D it’s possible I could have missed the antibiotic window after all; I really needed to come in eight hours prior to delivery, not four, because I needed two doses in order for the antibiotics to be maximally effective.  I was in L&D from approximately 10:30am-5:03pm when I delivered my daughter (about seven hours).

As I said, once admitted my experience was extremely positive, especially with L&D nurse Katherine, postpartum nurse Stacy, and Dr P who delivered our daughter and took care of me when I had a postpartum hemorrhage.  If I hadn’t been permitted to come to Mt X, I would have missed out on the excellent care I received there.  In the future, please make sure you have adequate staffing on holidays to avoid putting patients in this position.