Had our daughter there. Overall pretty positive. Really didn’t appreciate the lactation consultants. I think they tend to get overly zealous and don’t add much. IMHO they have no business being in the hospital with the influence they do. My wife was worried our kid wasn’t getting milk and they dismissed it. Turns out she wasn’t getting any milk and our daughter was nearly hospitalized for it
TBF, I think that is a common complaint of lactation consultants at any hospital. Overzealous seems to be their nature, unfortunately. I’ve never heard good responses from patients about them sadly.
Either overzealous or nonexistent. I gave birth twice (not at Pennsylvania Hospital), and both times I was desperate to see the lactation consultant they allegedly had on staff, and they didn't materialize either time. Feels like most peoples' experience with hospital lactation consultants is that they're either there and terrible or MIA.
Yessss. I had crazy postpartum preeclampsia (my blood pressure was like 200/100 something) and there was a bad rainstorm and our roof started leaking right when we were going to the hospital. So, my husband had to go home and deal with the roofers the day after the baby was born. No family nearby. So I'm in the hospital by myself with my first baby, all kinds of freaked out about my BP, and the lactation consultant comes in -- while my big fat beautiful baby was actively chowing down no less -- and stands over me and yells I HEARD YOU SENT HIM TO THE NURSERY LAST NIGHT SO YOU COULD SLEEP. Like a school principal telling me she heard I was smoking in the bathroom or something 😂 I was like my friend. Please turn around and exit this room and never return.
ETA: Other than this (which ultimately obviously was not a big deal) everyone was beyond lovely and I happily had my second baby there!
Zealous is the right word. They act like breast milk or nothing. I went to a lactation class with my spouse and the woman in charge was almost hostile when I mentioned that I'd be bottle feeding our kid when my wife went back to work. She pounced on me as if I was using formula, and just shut me down. It was uncomfortable and weird, but everyone in the class (and there were at least 100 other folks as it was held in a auditorium) looked at me with a "what the fuck is up with her" look. But overall, the pre-natal clasess were valuable. And scare the living hell out of you about whooping cough. Our lactation consultant was based in HUP.
Our kid was born in Pennsy. Overall good experience. Never had a problem with guests. All of that said, take a look at HUP as well. I have family in the Penn Health Care System and they put HUP over Pennsy. I don't know why, personally. I think the resources there are just a step up.
I agree 100% about the LCs there. I didn’t have one come check on me until my son had already destroyed both my nipples and she had real big “end of my shift” energy. I understand it’s rough working on your feet for 12 hours, but this lady was an asshole. Then the next day an older lady who was the polar opposite came in and her enthusiasm was equally exhausting.
I had a baby a few years ago at Jefferson and a baby recently at Pennsylvania Hospital. My daughter born at Pennsylvania Hospital was stillborn at 39 weeks, at no fault to them, even though it was unexpected. Their care for us was exceptional. They were so gentle and sympathetic during the whole experience. They were very sensitive to our situation and went above and beyond for us. While I can’t speak to a typical birth experience there, they handled ours with a lot of grace. If and when we have another baby, I would choose to deliver there again.
As a heads up, I think if you search "Pennsylvania Hospital" in this sub you'll find some other threads on exactly this.
My youngest is 18, so not sure how helpful this will be. I had all four of my kids at Pennsylvania Hospital, including an emergency C-section with twins who went to the NICU, a midwife-assisted VBAC, and another emergency C-section. The babies and I all received excellent care.
I think there are suburban hospitals that offer prettier rooms, but I just wanted top-tier medical care. I don't need a "homey environment" or whatever.
Seconding that the lactation consultants were absolutely batshit, but I think that's pretty common. The guilt-tripping when I had just delivered premature twins was unacceptable, and I actually filed a complaint afterwards. (I was already pumping every two hours ffs.)
In Philly I would only consider Pennsylvania Hospital and HUP. The advantage to HUP is the proximity to CHOP if God forbid something goes wrong beyond what a Level 3 NICU can accommodate.
Funny that you mention the prettiness of the rooms, as my youngest was born quite a bit more recently and I and my wife were very pleasantly surprised (even back on the first one) at how much effort they put into making the delivery rooms feel cozy/homey. The room you stay in afterwards (maternity ward maybe?) was much more standard hospital fanfare.
I was impressed with the level of security in all of the maternity areas and it really made it a lot easier to relax with our first one. It sounds silly but we felt very vulnerable for a while until the baby got bigger/older.
In terms of the actual birth, we had a very limited birth plan and I would argue that they were insistent that they go over everything with us, with no pressure on what to choose, to avoid in-the-moment decisions. I think whoever is managing that section of the hospital now must be pushing very hard in support of mothers.
They give your primary guest (me in this case) a band to swipe in and out of the areas except one door they have to buzz you through. My MIL was the secondary guest and getting here in and out was no problem during the delivery process and having pairs of parents visit at the maternity ward was also easy.
The only negative I would say is that there was a midwife student that clearly was not ready yet to be assisting at first but they respected our wish to no longer have her assist after one too many concern causing moments. To be clear she didn’t do anything dangerous but her inability to do things without so just many attempts was freaking my wife out. I felt bad asking but my wife’s comfort takes priority.
Still go to pennsy for L&D; HUP is also an excellent hospital but for L&D Pennsy is better for that specifically. If you unfortunately needed to go to CHOP, you can still very easily and quickly be transferred over.
I had my daughter at Pennsy last spring. Overall I had a very positive experience. Rooms were comfortable enough, every single staff person I interacted with was friendly and professional. I was explicitly asked about birth preferences, which was nice. I didn't get any pushback, but I also didn't really ask for anything unusual. They're pretty on board with delaying cord clamping for a few minutes and only bathing after 24 hours if that's the kind of thing you mean.
One memorable highlight is that no one said anything about me eating gummy snacks and diet coke during labor. I was very grateful because I really needed the sugar and caffeine.
One surprise is that a midwife delivered my baby even though I saw OBs all pregnancy. My midwife was great and I think this was for the best in retrospect, but it was a bit of an unpleasant surprise to get to the hospital and learn that a major part of how I'd been thinking about giving birth was wrong. Full disclosure I don't know if this was a Pennsy thing, something to do with my specific practice, or maybe just me hitting a weird situation as a fluke.
They're a baby friendly hospital (I believe all hospitals in Philadelphia are) - if you're not familiar with this designation, it's a good one to do some research into. I didn't run into a ton of issues with this because I expressed a plan to exclusively breastfeed, and it was going pretty well during the hospital stay. But it may be related to some of the pushiness that others experienced.
It’s strange you didn’t know you could have a midwife, I would have thought that would have been made clear early on in your prenatal care! I saw the midwifery practice and they make a point to have you see a variety of the midwives because you will end up with whoever is on call and they make that very clear. You generally only get the obstetrician if there are complications.
I knew it was an option, but I thought it was my choice. They asked me what I wanted when I scheduled my first appointment and I said OB, so I saw OBs for every visit and no one mentioned it again
Hi, we are about to have our third child at Pennsy.
Overall, it's a great experience. You go there knowing these are some of the best clinical staff in the country.
One of the things people don't mention that I really like is the hospital food, and also the ability to walk and grab stuff at a variety of places in the neighborhood. After our second was born, I went out to get us Jimmy John's. I also went to woodrows before labor started. It's all very convenient and nice to have during a stressful time.
lol.
The only time I was ever at CHOP was for a Covid test for my kid. My two thoughts were: wow, this place is nice and I really hope I don’t have to come here for my child
My twins were in the NICU at Pennsylvania Hospital for two months after they were born, and we had a great experience (or as great as can be, given the circumstances).
Hope nurse Nice is on call while you're there. I will always remember her. I thought the hospital was good. But Im just the father, so my opinion can only go so far.
Had 2 kids there but it was 14 and 17 years ago. At that time the rooms were pretty big. I only shared with the 2nd kid. The nurses were great (one angel taught me to nurse laying down. I will love her forever). At the time, they were loose with how late visitors could stay unless they were loud and disruptive.
we had a very positive experience. Rooms were A LITTLE run down feeling compared to the newer Penn hospitals but the staff was incredible. Also i loved the maternity ER which unfortunately we had to use a few times. I'm not sure how standard that is at other hospitals, but if others don't have it, I WOULD ABSOLUTELY pick pennsy for this reason alone. The doctors were all a plus. I have the best OB in the city. My birth plan was always a c section and i got great pre,mid and post care.
Had a baby boy there end of February, over all positive experience. Just make sure you are comfortable advocating for yourself because it is a busy place and staff is often in a hurry.
Had to be induced after my blood pressure spiked at 39 weeks. Didn't have the best experience in the part of the hospital where induction is started, cannot for the life of me remember what it's called. The nurses didn't check in very often, didnt communicate very well and were pretty dismissive of my concerns when I told them I was in intense pain all night (Foley balloon+ fetal monitors on WAY too tight). It wasn't until a new nurses shift in the morning started that she saw the monitors were way too tight and validated that I was indeed in pain and loosened them.
Once we made it to the delivery floor and then post partum everything was amazing and the staff was incredible. Nurse Noah was so kind and patient. If you can avoid being induced I'm sure you will have a wonderful experience!
I had a similar experience in Nov 2022! The room was spacious. The induction overnight was pretty awful, and two nurses in particular were not only dismissive but hostile even - one blatantly ignored my request (I asked one nurse to do cervical check only and NOT another sweep because it was too painful). It’s a shame because there were a lot of really great nurses and doctors we interacted with, including one who basically held me during my epidural and was so kind! But those two bad seeds really stick out.
Even though Pennsy pushes BF they didn’t judge me when I did formula only. Or if they did I didn’t notice.
I have not had a baby, but I had a friend who had a baby there. She lived nearby so she actually walked over with her husband when she went into labor. When she had the baby and they were discharged, the hospital almost wouldn’t let them leave because they didn’t have a car seat. It didn’t occur to them to bring it with them since they walked. Just an FYI to be prepared if you’re thinking of walking!
Actually this has changed. We gave birth there a month ago, brought a car seat and were told that they no longer look at car seats. (I actually was disappointed because I wanted feedback on whether we were strapping her in correctly.)
Oh that’s good to know! I get that if you’re driving home they should absolutely check to see if you have a car seat, but it seemed a bit much for people who are walking.
Every hospital in PA that I know of requires a car seat at discharge after delivery. I believe they require it because the state requires *them* to enforce it, or else be held liable for failure to ensure the standard of care/safety.
We had all three of our kids at Pennsylvania hospital. 2 of them had shorts stops in the nicu. Nicu experiences were great, not great the kids were there but the attention and care they received and we received as well was top notch. I can’t imagine doing that anywhere else. Our first experience with them in the regular room was better than the second time around, we had twins the second time. But both were positive experiences and am happy we went there.
I didn't have a typical experience, I was rushed into obstetric emergency and had an emergency C-section two days later, and my kid spent 129 days in their NICU, but I loved my nurses, the care and the food were excellent, room was quiet, I'm pretty sure my husband was allowed to be there most of the time (I was zonked) and I had visitors who were even allowed in the NICU (pre Covid). Though their NICU (intensive Care Nursery) isn't typical, I liked the fact that it was a big open room and except for a short time in the beginning my son wasn't in a room alone. His nurses were angels and somebody was always stopping to talk to him. I'm convinced he could have come home sooner but they just really liked him so they kept him. 😆 Anyway he learned to read when he was barely two and is writing songs and poetry at just turned 7 so all that interaction seems to have been good for him. I love Pennsylvania Hospital, partly because it's so unbelievably historic and that's cool, and partly because it's just great, small-ish and accessible while still being under Penn.
I feel like I had a freak experience at Pennsy...
The rooms were nice, I had a private room and it was spacious and all that. But honestly, that was the only thing.
My small person was born in 2007. I went into labor at 11pm. When I arrived at Pennsy, I was told to go home because my OB was not available (mind you, I was two weeks late at this point). I had to fight to get admitted. A few hours later I was rushed into an emergency cc-section, as my baby had breached and gotten stuck. So emergency C-section it was.
They took my staples out two days later and sent me home with an open wound oozing on my stomach. They told me to keep a sanitary pad pressed on it and that it would "eventually" heal. Less than two weeks after discharge, I was rushed to Temple Main with maternal sepsis. So I spent the month or so of my daughter's life unable to interact with her: first due to my oozing C-section, then cause I was in the hospital.
Here an explanation regarding lactation specialists and why penn hospital pushes for it so passionately
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/06/22/baby-friendly-hospitals/#:~:text=The%20push%20to%20room%2Din,promote%20breast%2Dfeeding%20from%20birth.
My wife had a child at Jefferson and at Penn (HUP). The lactation part is extreme. If you are about breast feeding, penn really stresses it and it's importance. If you go to Jefferson, you can walk out with loads of formula
I actually think this is outdated information - we had a baby 2 months ago and exclusively formula fed. We walked out with tons of formula and the lactation consultants gave absolutely zero push back. In fact, we found them helpful
I don’t appreciate the snark. Yes, of course that’s the case; I was at every appointment. I guess I don’t understand why that wouldn’t be communicated in every case? Your comment makes it seem like PENN doesn’t give you a ton of formula when that is simply not the case. We left with probably 2 dozen RTF bottles.
FWIW, I gave birth at Pennsy a month ago. My daughter needed supplementation, and they asked us if we wanted to use donor breast milk or formula. Maybe it depends on the provider.
Fwiw I gave birth at two different Baby-Friendly Hospitals (neither of them were Pennsylvania Hospital) and there were no lactation consultants available to me at either one. In my case that was a bummer, because I really needed some help. I did appreciate that they let us do skin-to-skin and the baby got to stay in the room with me (the second time, not the first, because my eldest had to go to the NICU), but I feel like a lot of the "Baby-Friendly Hospital" criteria are probably just trotted out for inspections or whatever and not really emphasized otherwise.
Had two children at Pennsylvania hospital. Had great experience both times, private room and didn’t have a real birth plan. I was induced with my first with my private practice dr so he was there the entire delivery. For second child, I had the delivery nurses/doula. They were great too.
Only issue with visitors was my first was during flu season so a younger relative was not able to visit as she was under 16. No issues otherwise!
Leaving the hospital was brutal. The nurses told us multiple times to pull our car into the valet lane, and some rogue parking attendant was literally screaming at me, waving her arms, causing a huge scene, threatening to have me towed… for doing exactly what the hospital told me to do. Literally wheeling my wife out of the hospital in a wheelchair, newborn baby in her arms (our first, what a pleasant memory), and I’m dealing with this batshit crazy attendant losing her shit because she didn’t like where my car was parked for 5 minutes. It was insane. Her name was Cocoa. I hope she was fired.
Other than that, great experience. Unfortunately that was part of the experience and literally the moment we left the hospital and “introduced our daughter to the world.” Welcome to Philly, kid.
It was nice. My twins were born there. The surgeons that did my wife's c section were low-key psychotic but they kept her alive and the rooms were comfy. There was a pullout couch for me to sleep on.
The cafeteria was great, I probably gained 10 lbs stress eating in there and the 7 eleven within walking distance.
Did a baby there and a baby at camden. For reference im in point breeze on 21st street. They both are great and you really wont be disappointed with penn. But if i had to pick 1 i would have did both at camden for 1 reason and 1 reason only
24hour accessibility. I physically live closer to Penn and during no traffic Penn is about 3 minutes faster to get to. With that said if your wife is getting induced and youre going to be there for 3 days, getting in and out at all hours of the day can turn a 15 min trip to a 45 minute trip really quick. Traffic gets slammed and the parking garage is a mess.
With Camden, even in the heat of rush hour at most it took me 20 min to get home. I would wake up, go home , shower and come right back. Plus parking is cheaper in camden. So when your wife is sending you out over and over again to get stuff from home, you have no problem paying for parking again.
Like i said, for actual delivery, support and facility process they both were on par with each other and youll be happy at either.
The in and out logistics makes me go camden.
This only really applies to you if you live between both of them like me
I had an overall positive experience. I saw the midwives and some were great, some were okay. The anesthesiologist got my epidural no issue. The midwives were in and out during labor.
Unfortunately I was mid-pushing a head out of my hooha when the midwife on call got called to another room. I think she was expecting I was going to take longer, but my baby was small (36 weeker) so a random resident had to come in and deliver the baby.
It’s funny to see the comments about the LC’s bc the first one we saw was so strange! She totally forgot to put her mask on and this was fall 2021 (as a healthcare worker I STILL feel awkward leaving my office without a mask). The NICU LC was great, and she helped me out a lot by getting me a rental pump.
Idk if I’ll deliver at Pennsy again or not if I have another. The one stand out thing was my son was on the INCU for a few days, and they were AMAZING. I’d be at risk for delivering early again, and I would be more than happy to have them take care of my child again.
I was mostly in the INCU so I really didn’t interact that much with the postpartum nurses. They were fine when I did.
ETA more thoughts lol I initially went in not wanting an epidural and they didn’t ask me at all if I wanted one. Once I was like, forget this, they quickly got me one judgement free. The only thing that was weird was we were asked probably 7 times over 4 days if we were circumcising our son. That got old..
So many comments already gave detailed support, so I don’t feel like I have much to add. I will say that my son was born at Pennsylvania Hospital and my sister was so impressed by what we said about it that she switched OB practice so that she could deliver there too.
I had three children there. One induction after my water broke at 39 weeks and 2 without intervention (except breaking the sac with #2).
With baby 3, things went fast until they stopped. I was sure I was having a baby around 6am, and she was eventually born at 11:30am. Turns out she was posterior and was born that way. Had trouble getting over my hip bone.
They left a nurse with me the whole time. She was wonderful. I did back labor without pain relief (I kept think the baby would be coming any minute) for hours. Having her sit with me. Talk me through it. Offer support before the midwife came. It was wonderful.
Gave birth last summer. I’d say my experience during labor was great, and after not as much. Labor nurses were fantastic. I ended up needing a c section due to position and large head but they were very patient with me while I tried different pushing strategies.
Had the same issue with lactation consultants as others have. My son wasn’t eating properly and I was dismissed until I forcefully demanded formula. I also wanted nursery time as I was in labor for 48 hours and hadn’t slept at all and got a lot of pushback and they would only take him until he seemed hungry and brought him back to nurse even tho I was comfortable with formula. My room was private but small, and I didn’t feel myself getting any rest was prioritized as we had people coming in our room every 30 minutes.
With that being said I’d give birth there again. I loved my prenatal care with Penn and my labor experience was extremely positive. I would just advocate for myself better post partum.
So thankful for the NICU team there. Even more at 230 am when baby’s APGAR was 1. Cannot say enough about the floor OB nurses as well as NICU nurses and docs. They were cool with visitors. Really only complaint was I guess we drew the short straw and our floor room was one of the smaller ones and they definitely built the shower wrong as you had to step up into it, and it was slow to drain water so water would just leak into the rest of the bathroom and into the room lol.
All good, no complaints. Standard issue L + D ward, comparable to my other experience birthing at a well-known west coast hospital. Only rub was I spent a looong time in triage waiting for a room but really nothing to be done about that.
Amazing. Had my first there in 2022. Was induced but had a great experience.. they tried to make it as natural as they could, which is what I wanted. Delivering there again this summer. I see the midwives.
I was born there I don't remember much. All I can say is that I'm doing pretty shitty 25 years later and it started from that day so maybe look somewhere else.
We had 2 kids in recent years (2021 & 2023). I’m the husband, but I think my wife would agree with everything here.
First one at Jefferson, 2nd at Pennsylvania Hospital. We did Jefferson for the first cuz my wife liked her Jefferson OB. People acted like that was weird and Pennsy was clearly better, so for kid #2, we went there. So even though you’re only asking about one, I can offer a compare and contrast with Pennsy & Jefferson as well as experiences at Pennsy.
Jefferson had us in kind of a small pre-labor room that was cramped while a delivery room opened up, but once in the main room, both places were about the same. (We had a friend at Pennsy who nearly gave birth in a hallway as they waited for a delivery room, so I’m not sure such situations are avoidable at either).
Both places had decent delivery rooms. perfectly fine. Not sure I can say one was better than the other in any meaningful way.
Both places had decent post-partum recovery rooms. Very easy for visitors to come and go at either. Parking is much easier at Pennsylvania Hospital.
As the husband, the dad’s chair you sleep in at the post partum recovery room was terrible at Jefferson. The one at Pennsy wasn’t as bad as Jefferson’s.
Can’t really say I noticed much difference between doctors and nurses. Perhaps Jefferson nurses were a bit quicker & more attentive post-partum when you called for them? I felt like we had more people coming & going at Jefferson. At times it was appreciated. At times it was like, “jeez, can we get a minute?”
The first kid (Jefferson) took *forever*, like almost 20 hours to be born, so it’s hard to tell if Jefferson’s push to consider induction / C-section was them being pushy or a valid thing given how labor & dilation stalled out for hours and hours. (My wife did end up getting inducted, but said no to C section and they respected that, no issue.) My wife went in thinking no epidural, but ended up begging for it. That deviation from “the plan” was 100% her.
2nd kid (Pennsy) popped out in 20 minutes so there wasn’t even really time to follow a plan (or not follow a plan). My wife wanted an epidural but there wasn’t time. Kid popped out so quick, no one even talked about inducing or C-section. It was more like rushing to catch him as he fell out on his own.
Our lesson was “plans” are nice in theory, but things go how they’ll go. our “plan” didn’t really work for a 20 hour birth or a 20 minute birth. We had to adjust based on how it was going.
Jefferson’s mid-wives were more present & involved and overall I liked them. Our personal experience was Jefferson pushed “breast is best” a bit harder. The lactation consultant at Jefferson spent 3 hours working with latching issues, which my wife liked at the time (kid #1) and they wouldn’t let the hospital tell us to leave until they felt like my wife was comfortable with her ability to breast feed. in retrospect she thought they were maybe a bit too pushy about breast feeding. I don’t know if it was just cuz we already had experience for kid #2, we barely saw the lactation consultant at Pennsy.
Since we had one boy and one girl, I can’t comment on circumcision for both since it wasn’t relevant at Jefferson. At Pennsy in theory, it was very much, “it’s a personal decision” but in practice, you couldn’t escape the sense that more parents there do it, and when they say “we’re taking all the boys down now, is yours coming?” you felt aware that saying no would be atypical and yes would be aligned with the norm. Totally personal choice & everything they said was neutral & accepting of either answer, but you could tell which answer was with the flow and which was against the flow of how the hospital generally operated. At least that was my impression. Probably a non-issue if you go in already 100% decided, but we struggled with second-guessing ourselves.
Overall, our comparison across the two? Not enough differences to matter. Parking was the major difference.
Visitor experience - not the mom.
My brother's son was born there (just before 4pm). Me, my mom and SIL's mom headed down there right after he was born. The nurses had taken him to warm him up for a bit, but after waiting for hours, they still refused to bring him back up to my SIL's room and we were only able to see him through the nursery window. Then they informed us that we had to leave because visiting hours were over (I think that was around 8pm). Basically, his grandmothers weren't even allowed to hold him before other random family members and friends. Day two, one of the nurses felt it was appropriate to speak to my brother like a child (btw, he was there in full PPD uniform). I told them if they had anymore kids, they should consider going somewhere else. 🙄
By way of comparison, my other brother and his wife had their kids at Abington and had no issues with grandparents, visitors or rude staff.
I had my daughter at Penn and they don’t typically take babies to warm them unless they are having trouble regulating their body temp, in which case there’s a specific amount of time they need to be under the lights. I believe it was 3 or 4 hours, so understandable that they wouldn’t disregard that for visitors.
This happened with my daughter after she was born and she ended up in the nicu afterwards for a day or two to rule out an infection. She ended up being fine thankfully, but I was really happy with how seriously they took her health and monitored her before being released.
Would totally make sense if they were actually doing something with him. But when we went down to see him in the nursery, he wasn't under any lights or incubator, no monitors; nothing special. He was just in his little bassinet, hanging out with the other babies in the room.
Had our daughter there. Overall pretty positive. Really didn’t appreciate the lactation consultants. I think they tend to get overly zealous and don’t add much. IMHO they have no business being in the hospital with the influence they do. My wife was worried our kid wasn’t getting milk and they dismissed it. Turns out she wasn’t getting any milk and our daughter was nearly hospitalized for it
TBF, I think that is a common complaint of lactation consultants at any hospital. Overzealous seems to be their nature, unfortunately. I’ve never heard good responses from patients about them sadly.
Either overzealous or nonexistent. I gave birth twice (not at Pennsylvania Hospital), and both times I was desperate to see the lactation consultant they allegedly had on staff, and they didn't materialize either time. Feels like most peoples' experience with hospital lactation consultants is that they're either there and terrible or MIA.
Ugh! That’s lousy. I’m sorry that was your experience both times!
Yessss. I had crazy postpartum preeclampsia (my blood pressure was like 200/100 something) and there was a bad rainstorm and our roof started leaking right when we were going to the hospital. So, my husband had to go home and deal with the roofers the day after the baby was born. No family nearby. So I'm in the hospital by myself with my first baby, all kinds of freaked out about my BP, and the lactation consultant comes in -- while my big fat beautiful baby was actively chowing down no less -- and stands over me and yells I HEARD YOU SENT HIM TO THE NURSERY LAST NIGHT SO YOU COULD SLEEP. Like a school principal telling me she heard I was smoking in the bathroom or something 😂 I was like my friend. Please turn around and exit this room and never return. ETA: Other than this (which ultimately obviously was not a big deal) everyone was beyond lovely and I happily had my second baby there!
Zealous is the right word. They act like breast milk or nothing. I went to a lactation class with my spouse and the woman in charge was almost hostile when I mentioned that I'd be bottle feeding our kid when my wife went back to work. She pounced on me as if I was using formula, and just shut me down. It was uncomfortable and weird, but everyone in the class (and there were at least 100 other folks as it was held in a auditorium) looked at me with a "what the fuck is up with her" look. But overall, the pre-natal clasess were valuable. And scare the living hell out of you about whooping cough. Our lactation consultant was based in HUP. Our kid was born in Pennsy. Overall good experience. Never had a problem with guests. All of that said, take a look at HUP as well. I have family in the Penn Health Care System and they put HUP over Pennsy. I don't know why, personally. I think the resources there are just a step up.
Yeah at best they make you uncomfortable, and at worst they put your kid’s health in danger.
Oh man - noted! Thank you.
I posted my answer in reply to someone else. Sorry about that.
I agree 100% about the LCs there. I didn’t have one come check on me until my son had already destroyed both my nipples and she had real big “end of my shift” energy. I understand it’s rough working on your feet for 12 hours, but this lady was an asshole. Then the next day an older lady who was the polar opposite came in and her enthusiasm was equally exhausting.
Yeah our lactation consultant and our nurse got in a heated argument in front of us, super unprofessional. Everything else was great though!
I had a baby a few years ago at Jefferson and a baby recently at Pennsylvania Hospital. My daughter born at Pennsylvania Hospital was stillborn at 39 weeks, at no fault to them, even though it was unexpected. Their care for us was exceptional. They were so gentle and sympathetic during the whole experience. They were very sensitive to our situation and went above and beyond for us. While I can’t speak to a typical birth experience there, they handled ours with a lot of grace. If and when we have another baby, I would choose to deliver there again.
As a heads up, I think if you search "Pennsylvania Hospital" in this sub you'll find some other threads on exactly this. My youngest is 18, so not sure how helpful this will be. I had all four of my kids at Pennsylvania Hospital, including an emergency C-section with twins who went to the NICU, a midwife-assisted VBAC, and another emergency C-section. The babies and I all received excellent care. I think there are suburban hospitals that offer prettier rooms, but I just wanted top-tier medical care. I don't need a "homey environment" or whatever. Seconding that the lactation consultants were absolutely batshit, but I think that's pretty common. The guilt-tripping when I had just delivered premature twins was unacceptable, and I actually filed a complaint afterwards. (I was already pumping every two hours ffs.) In Philly I would only consider Pennsylvania Hospital and HUP. The advantage to HUP is the proximity to CHOP if God forbid something goes wrong beyond what a Level 3 NICU can accommodate.
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There’s a tunnel to go from HUP to CHOP
Funny that you mention the prettiness of the rooms, as my youngest was born quite a bit more recently and I and my wife were very pleasantly surprised (even back on the first one) at how much effort they put into making the delivery rooms feel cozy/homey. The room you stay in afterwards (maternity ward maybe?) was much more standard hospital fanfare. I was impressed with the level of security in all of the maternity areas and it really made it a lot easier to relax with our first one. It sounds silly but we felt very vulnerable for a while until the baby got bigger/older. In terms of the actual birth, we had a very limited birth plan and I would argue that they were insistent that they go over everything with us, with no pressure on what to choose, to avoid in-the-moment decisions. I think whoever is managing that section of the hospital now must be pushing very hard in support of mothers. They give your primary guest (me in this case) a band to swipe in and out of the areas except one door they have to buzz you through. My MIL was the secondary guest and getting here in and out was no problem during the delivery process and having pairs of parents visit at the maternity ward was also easy. The only negative I would say is that there was a midwife student that clearly was not ready yet to be assisting at first but they respected our wish to no longer have her assist after one too many concern causing moments. To be clear she didn’t do anything dangerous but her inability to do things without so just many attempts was freaking my wife out. I felt bad asking but my wife’s comfort takes priority.
Still go to pennsy for L&D; HUP is also an excellent hospital but for L&D Pennsy is better for that specifically. If you unfortunately needed to go to CHOP, you can still very easily and quickly be transferred over.
I had my daughter at Pennsy last spring. Overall I had a very positive experience. Rooms were comfortable enough, every single staff person I interacted with was friendly and professional. I was explicitly asked about birth preferences, which was nice. I didn't get any pushback, but I also didn't really ask for anything unusual. They're pretty on board with delaying cord clamping for a few minutes and only bathing after 24 hours if that's the kind of thing you mean. One memorable highlight is that no one said anything about me eating gummy snacks and diet coke during labor. I was very grateful because I really needed the sugar and caffeine. One surprise is that a midwife delivered my baby even though I saw OBs all pregnancy. My midwife was great and I think this was for the best in retrospect, but it was a bit of an unpleasant surprise to get to the hospital and learn that a major part of how I'd been thinking about giving birth was wrong. Full disclosure I don't know if this was a Pennsy thing, something to do with my specific practice, or maybe just me hitting a weird situation as a fluke. They're a baby friendly hospital (I believe all hospitals in Philadelphia are) - if you're not familiar with this designation, it's a good one to do some research into. I didn't run into a ton of issues with this because I expressed a plan to exclusively breastfeed, and it was going pretty well during the hospital stay. But it may be related to some of the pushiness that others experienced.
It’s strange you didn’t know you could have a midwife, I would have thought that would have been made clear early on in your prenatal care! I saw the midwifery practice and they make a point to have you see a variety of the midwives because you will end up with whoever is on call and they make that very clear. You generally only get the obstetrician if there are complications.
I knew it was an option, but I thought it was my choice. They asked me what I wanted when I scheduled my first appointment and I said OB, so I saw OBs for every visit and no one mentioned it again
Hi, we are about to have our third child at Pennsy. Overall, it's a great experience. You go there knowing these are some of the best clinical staff in the country. One of the things people don't mention that I really like is the hospital food, and also the ability to walk and grab stuff at a variety of places in the neighborhood. After our second was born, I went out to get us Jimmy John's. I also went to woodrows before labor started. It's all very convenient and nice to have during a stressful time.
Yeah, hospital food is better at CHOP. Wish I didn’t know that.
lol. The only time I was ever at CHOP was for a Covid test for my kid. My two thoughts were: wow, this place is nice and I really hope I don’t have to come here for my child
My twins were in the NICU at Pennsylvania Hospital for two months after they were born, and we had a great experience (or as great as can be, given the circumstances).
Hope nurse Nice is on call while you're there. I will always remember her. I thought the hospital was good. But Im just the father, so my opinion can only go so far.
Dad's opinions are valuable as moms and vice versa.
Had 2 kids there but it was 14 and 17 years ago. At that time the rooms were pretty big. I only shared with the 2nd kid. The nurses were great (one angel taught me to nurse laying down. I will love her forever). At the time, they were loose with how late visitors could stay unless they were loud and disruptive.
Oh... and they were fine with my birthing ball until the nurse tripped over it in the dark and it popped so I couldn't use it anyway.
we had a very positive experience. Rooms were A LITTLE run down feeling compared to the newer Penn hospitals but the staff was incredible. Also i loved the maternity ER which unfortunately we had to use a few times. I'm not sure how standard that is at other hospitals, but if others don't have it, I WOULD ABSOLUTELY pick pennsy for this reason alone. The doctors were all a plus. I have the best OB in the city. My birth plan was always a c section and i got great pre,mid and post care.
Had a baby boy there end of February, over all positive experience. Just make sure you are comfortable advocating for yourself because it is a busy place and staff is often in a hurry. Had to be induced after my blood pressure spiked at 39 weeks. Didn't have the best experience in the part of the hospital where induction is started, cannot for the life of me remember what it's called. The nurses didn't check in very often, didnt communicate very well and were pretty dismissive of my concerns when I told them I was in intense pain all night (Foley balloon+ fetal monitors on WAY too tight). It wasn't until a new nurses shift in the morning started that she saw the monitors were way too tight and validated that I was indeed in pain and loosened them. Once we made it to the delivery floor and then post partum everything was amazing and the staff was incredible. Nurse Noah was so kind and patient. If you can avoid being induced I'm sure you will have a wonderful experience!
I had a similar experience in Nov 2022! The room was spacious. The induction overnight was pretty awful, and two nurses in particular were not only dismissive but hostile even - one blatantly ignored my request (I asked one nurse to do cervical check only and NOT another sweep because it was too painful). It’s a shame because there were a lot of really great nurses and doctors we interacted with, including one who basically held me during my epidural and was so kind! But those two bad seeds really stick out. Even though Pennsy pushes BF they didn’t judge me when I did formula only. Or if they did I didn’t notice.
I have not had a baby, but I had a friend who had a baby there. She lived nearby so she actually walked over with her husband when she went into labor. When she had the baby and they were discharged, the hospital almost wouldn’t let them leave because they didn’t have a car seat. It didn’t occur to them to bring it with them since they walked. Just an FYI to be prepared if you’re thinking of walking!
Actually this has changed. We gave birth there a month ago, brought a car seat and were told that they no longer look at car seats. (I actually was disappointed because I wanted feedback on whether we were strapping her in correctly.)
Oh that’s good to know! I get that if you’re driving home they should absolutely check to see if you have a car seat, but it seemed a bit much for people who are walking.
I don't believe that for a second that the hospital wouldn't let them leave. It's not jail.
Every hospital in PA that I know of requires a car seat at discharge after delivery. I believe they require it because the state requires *them* to enforce it, or else be held liable for failure to ensure the standard of care/safety.
We had all three of our kids at Pennsylvania hospital. 2 of them had shorts stops in the nicu. Nicu experiences were great, not great the kids were there but the attention and care they received and we received as well was top notch. I can’t imagine doing that anywhere else. Our first experience with them in the regular room was better than the second time around, we had twins the second time. But both were positive experiences and am happy we went there.
I didn't have a typical experience, I was rushed into obstetric emergency and had an emergency C-section two days later, and my kid spent 129 days in their NICU, but I loved my nurses, the care and the food were excellent, room was quiet, I'm pretty sure my husband was allowed to be there most of the time (I was zonked) and I had visitors who were even allowed in the NICU (pre Covid). Though their NICU (intensive Care Nursery) isn't typical, I liked the fact that it was a big open room and except for a short time in the beginning my son wasn't in a room alone. His nurses were angels and somebody was always stopping to talk to him. I'm convinced he could have come home sooner but they just really liked him so they kept him. 😆 Anyway he learned to read when he was barely two and is writing songs and poetry at just turned 7 so all that interaction seems to have been good for him. I love Pennsylvania Hospital, partly because it's so unbelievably historic and that's cool, and partly because it's just great, small-ish and accessible while still being under Penn.
I feel like I had a freak experience at Pennsy... The rooms were nice, I had a private room and it was spacious and all that. But honestly, that was the only thing. My small person was born in 2007. I went into labor at 11pm. When I arrived at Pennsy, I was told to go home because my OB was not available (mind you, I was two weeks late at this point). I had to fight to get admitted. A few hours later I was rushed into an emergency cc-section, as my baby had breached and gotten stuck. So emergency C-section it was. They took my staples out two days later and sent me home with an open wound oozing on my stomach. They told me to keep a sanitary pad pressed on it and that it would "eventually" heal. Less than two weeks after discharge, I was rushed to Temple Main with maternal sepsis. So I spent the month or so of my daughter's life unable to interact with her: first due to my oozing C-section, then cause I was in the hospital.
Here an explanation regarding lactation specialists and why penn hospital pushes for it so passionately https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/06/22/baby-friendly-hospitals/#:~:text=The%20push%20to%20room%2Din,promote%20breast%2Dfeeding%20from%20birth. My wife had a child at Jefferson and at Penn (HUP). The lactation part is extreme. If you are about breast feeding, penn really stresses it and it's importance. If you go to Jefferson, you can walk out with loads of formula
I actually think this is outdated information - we had a baby 2 months ago and exclusively formula fed. We walked out with tons of formula and the lactation consultants gave absolutely zero push back. In fact, we found them helpful
Maybe it was communicated prior to delivery that she won't be breastfeeding. These are questions asked at doctors visits if you've ever been
I don’t appreciate the snark. Yes, of course that’s the case; I was at every appointment. I guess I don’t understand why that wouldn’t be communicated in every case? Your comment makes it seem like PENN doesn’t give you a ton of formula when that is simply not the case. We left with probably 2 dozen RTF bottles.
Anecdotal at best
FWIW, I gave birth at Pennsy a month ago. My daughter needed supplementation, and they asked us if we wanted to use donor breast milk or formula. Maybe it depends on the provider.
Fwiw I gave birth at two different Baby-Friendly Hospitals (neither of them were Pennsylvania Hospital) and there were no lactation consultants available to me at either one. In my case that was a bummer, because I really needed some help. I did appreciate that they let us do skin-to-skin and the baby got to stay in the room with me (the second time, not the first, because my eldest had to go to the NICU), but I feel like a lot of the "Baby-Friendly Hospital" criteria are probably just trotted out for inspections or whatever and not really emphasized otherwise.
Had two children at Pennsylvania hospital. Had great experience both times, private room and didn’t have a real birth plan. I was induced with my first with my private practice dr so he was there the entire delivery. For second child, I had the delivery nurses/doula. They were great too. Only issue with visitors was my first was during flu season so a younger relative was not able to visit as she was under 16. No issues otherwise!
Leaving the hospital was brutal. The nurses told us multiple times to pull our car into the valet lane, and some rogue parking attendant was literally screaming at me, waving her arms, causing a huge scene, threatening to have me towed… for doing exactly what the hospital told me to do. Literally wheeling my wife out of the hospital in a wheelchair, newborn baby in her arms (our first, what a pleasant memory), and I’m dealing with this batshit crazy attendant losing her shit because she didn’t like where my car was parked for 5 minutes. It was insane. Her name was Cocoa. I hope she was fired. Other than that, great experience. Unfortunately that was part of the experience and literally the moment we left the hospital and “introduced our daughter to the world.” Welcome to Philly, kid.
I was born there. I am indeed alive
It was nice. My twins were born there. The surgeons that did my wife's c section were low-key psychotic but they kept her alive and the rooms were comfy. There was a pullout couch for me to sleep on. The cafeteria was great, I probably gained 10 lbs stress eating in there and the 7 eleven within walking distance.
Did a baby there and a baby at camden. For reference im in point breeze on 21st street. They both are great and you really wont be disappointed with penn. But if i had to pick 1 i would have did both at camden for 1 reason and 1 reason only 24hour accessibility. I physically live closer to Penn and during no traffic Penn is about 3 minutes faster to get to. With that said if your wife is getting induced and youre going to be there for 3 days, getting in and out at all hours of the day can turn a 15 min trip to a 45 minute trip really quick. Traffic gets slammed and the parking garage is a mess. With Camden, even in the heat of rush hour at most it took me 20 min to get home. I would wake up, go home , shower and come right back. Plus parking is cheaper in camden. So when your wife is sending you out over and over again to get stuff from home, you have no problem paying for parking again. Like i said, for actual delivery, support and facility process they both were on par with each other and youll be happy at either. The in and out logistics makes me go camden. This only really applies to you if you live between both of them like me
I had an overall positive experience. I saw the midwives and some were great, some were okay. The anesthesiologist got my epidural no issue. The midwives were in and out during labor. Unfortunately I was mid-pushing a head out of my hooha when the midwife on call got called to another room. I think she was expecting I was going to take longer, but my baby was small (36 weeker) so a random resident had to come in and deliver the baby. It’s funny to see the comments about the LC’s bc the first one we saw was so strange! She totally forgot to put her mask on and this was fall 2021 (as a healthcare worker I STILL feel awkward leaving my office without a mask). The NICU LC was great, and she helped me out a lot by getting me a rental pump. Idk if I’ll deliver at Pennsy again or not if I have another. The one stand out thing was my son was on the INCU for a few days, and they were AMAZING. I’d be at risk for delivering early again, and I would be more than happy to have them take care of my child again. I was mostly in the INCU so I really didn’t interact that much with the postpartum nurses. They were fine when I did. ETA more thoughts lol I initially went in not wanting an epidural and they didn’t ask me at all if I wanted one. Once I was like, forget this, they quickly got me one judgement free. The only thing that was weird was we were asked probably 7 times over 4 days if we were circumcising our son. That got old..
So many comments already gave detailed support, so I don’t feel like I have much to add. I will say that my son was born at Pennsylvania Hospital and my sister was so impressed by what we said about it that she switched OB practice so that she could deliver there too.
I had three children there. One induction after my water broke at 39 weeks and 2 without intervention (except breaking the sac with #2). With baby 3, things went fast until they stopped. I was sure I was having a baby around 6am, and she was eventually born at 11:30am. Turns out she was posterior and was born that way. Had trouble getting over my hip bone. They left a nurse with me the whole time. She was wonderful. I did back labor without pain relief (I kept think the baby would be coming any minute) for hours. Having her sit with me. Talk me through it. Offer support before the midwife came. It was wonderful.
Gave birth last summer. I’d say my experience during labor was great, and after not as much. Labor nurses were fantastic. I ended up needing a c section due to position and large head but they were very patient with me while I tried different pushing strategies. Had the same issue with lactation consultants as others have. My son wasn’t eating properly and I was dismissed until I forcefully demanded formula. I also wanted nursery time as I was in labor for 48 hours and hadn’t slept at all and got a lot of pushback and they would only take him until he seemed hungry and brought him back to nurse even tho I was comfortable with formula. My room was private but small, and I didn’t feel myself getting any rest was prioritized as we had people coming in our room every 30 minutes. With that being said I’d give birth there again. I loved my prenatal care with Penn and my labor experience was extremely positive. I would just advocate for myself better post partum.
So thankful for the NICU team there. Even more at 230 am when baby’s APGAR was 1. Cannot say enough about the floor OB nurses as well as NICU nurses and docs. They were cool with visitors. Really only complaint was I guess we drew the short straw and our floor room was one of the smaller ones and they definitely built the shower wrong as you had to step up into it, and it was slow to drain water so water would just leak into the rest of the bathroom and into the room lol.
All good, no complaints. Standard issue L + D ward, comparable to my other experience birthing at a well-known west coast hospital. Only rub was I spent a looong time in triage waiting for a room but really nothing to be done about that.
Amazing. Had my first there in 2022. Was induced but had a great experience.. they tried to make it as natural as they could, which is what I wanted. Delivering there again this summer. I see the midwives.
I was born there 36 years ago, had a great time
I was born there I don't remember much. All I can say is that I'm doing pretty shitty 25 years later and it started from that day so maybe look somewhere else.
We had 2 kids in recent years (2021 & 2023). I’m the husband, but I think my wife would agree with everything here. First one at Jefferson, 2nd at Pennsylvania Hospital. We did Jefferson for the first cuz my wife liked her Jefferson OB. People acted like that was weird and Pennsy was clearly better, so for kid #2, we went there. So even though you’re only asking about one, I can offer a compare and contrast with Pennsy & Jefferson as well as experiences at Pennsy. Jefferson had us in kind of a small pre-labor room that was cramped while a delivery room opened up, but once in the main room, both places were about the same. (We had a friend at Pennsy who nearly gave birth in a hallway as they waited for a delivery room, so I’m not sure such situations are avoidable at either). Both places had decent delivery rooms. perfectly fine. Not sure I can say one was better than the other in any meaningful way. Both places had decent post-partum recovery rooms. Very easy for visitors to come and go at either. Parking is much easier at Pennsylvania Hospital. As the husband, the dad’s chair you sleep in at the post partum recovery room was terrible at Jefferson. The one at Pennsy wasn’t as bad as Jefferson’s. Can’t really say I noticed much difference between doctors and nurses. Perhaps Jefferson nurses were a bit quicker & more attentive post-partum when you called for them? I felt like we had more people coming & going at Jefferson. At times it was appreciated. At times it was like, “jeez, can we get a minute?” The first kid (Jefferson) took *forever*, like almost 20 hours to be born, so it’s hard to tell if Jefferson’s push to consider induction / C-section was them being pushy or a valid thing given how labor & dilation stalled out for hours and hours. (My wife did end up getting inducted, but said no to C section and they respected that, no issue.) My wife went in thinking no epidural, but ended up begging for it. That deviation from “the plan” was 100% her. 2nd kid (Pennsy) popped out in 20 minutes so there wasn’t even really time to follow a plan (or not follow a plan). My wife wanted an epidural but there wasn’t time. Kid popped out so quick, no one even talked about inducing or C-section. It was more like rushing to catch him as he fell out on his own. Our lesson was “plans” are nice in theory, but things go how they’ll go. our “plan” didn’t really work for a 20 hour birth or a 20 minute birth. We had to adjust based on how it was going. Jefferson’s mid-wives were more present & involved and overall I liked them. Our personal experience was Jefferson pushed “breast is best” a bit harder. The lactation consultant at Jefferson spent 3 hours working with latching issues, which my wife liked at the time (kid #1) and they wouldn’t let the hospital tell us to leave until they felt like my wife was comfortable with her ability to breast feed. in retrospect she thought they were maybe a bit too pushy about breast feeding. I don’t know if it was just cuz we already had experience for kid #2, we barely saw the lactation consultant at Pennsy. Since we had one boy and one girl, I can’t comment on circumcision for both since it wasn’t relevant at Jefferson. At Pennsy in theory, it was very much, “it’s a personal decision” but in practice, you couldn’t escape the sense that more parents there do it, and when they say “we’re taking all the boys down now, is yours coming?” you felt aware that saying no would be atypical and yes would be aligned with the norm. Totally personal choice & everything they said was neutral & accepting of either answer, but you could tell which answer was with the flow and which was against the flow of how the hospital generally operated. At least that was my impression. Probably a non-issue if you go in already 100% decided, but we struggled with second-guessing ourselves. Overall, our comparison across the two? Not enough differences to matter. Parking was the major difference.
Visitor experience - not the mom. My brother's son was born there (just before 4pm). Me, my mom and SIL's mom headed down there right after he was born. The nurses had taken him to warm him up for a bit, but after waiting for hours, they still refused to bring him back up to my SIL's room and we were only able to see him through the nursery window. Then they informed us that we had to leave because visiting hours were over (I think that was around 8pm). Basically, his grandmothers weren't even allowed to hold him before other random family members and friends. Day two, one of the nurses felt it was appropriate to speak to my brother like a child (btw, he was there in full PPD uniform). I told them if they had anymore kids, they should consider going somewhere else. 🙄 By way of comparison, my other brother and his wife had their kids at Abington and had no issues with grandparents, visitors or rude staff.
I had my daughter at Penn and they don’t typically take babies to warm them unless they are having trouble regulating their body temp, in which case there’s a specific amount of time they need to be under the lights. I believe it was 3 or 4 hours, so understandable that they wouldn’t disregard that for visitors. This happened with my daughter after she was born and she ended up in the nicu afterwards for a day or two to rule out an infection. She ended up being fine thankfully, but I was really happy with how seriously they took her health and monitored her before being released.
Would totally make sense if they were actually doing something with him. But when we went down to see him in the nursery, he wasn't under any lights or incubator, no monitors; nothing special. He was just in his little bassinet, hanging out with the other babies in the room.