Having a baby in Lexington

[nlschr0]

For female ob/gyns - I still highly recommend Dr. Jeanne O'Nan. She is just very friendly, warm, laid-back, and personable, yet also very technical and knowledgeable. She is a mom of young children herself (including twins!) and can relate to a lot of concerns and questions. When I've had questions, she's always given me ample time during my appointment and I've never felt rushed. I've even talked to her personally on the phone (even after hours) when I had some pregnancy issues and was very anxious. Due to some previous problems, I had a lot of concerns about my pregnancies and she told to me come in as often as I needed, if I wanted to get a quick check-up or hear the baby's heartbeat. I always felt like I was in great hands and had a LOT of control over my own pregnancies and deliveries. She is at Lexington Women's Health.

Originally Posted by Hey_Hey

When it comes to the quality of the staff and resources available UK and CB are the places to be. They don't give you that spa-like experience (although they are still very nice), but if something goes wrong with you or the baby you will be taken care of.

Hey Hey - I don't mean this to sound snarky, but I am curious why you feel this way. I definitely agree that UK is the place to be for higher-risk deliveries as they have the highest level NICU in the area, but CB and SJE both provide the same level of NICU support and both have neonatologists on staff. In addition, SJE is the only hospital that has full-time hospitalists (OBs) on staff around the clock who are able to perform emergency deliveries and c-sections within minutes, even if a patient's regular doctor is not onsite. Furthermore, Dr. Berry Campbell is a well-respected local high-risk pregnancy specialist and his office is located within the hospital at SJE. I know that there have been times that Dr. Campbell has caught problems in "normal" labors of women that weren't even his patients, and ended up saving the babies' lives. My own OB (whose office is on-site at CB) said that she liked the idea of me delivering at SJE as I had some complications and the onsite hospitalists were a reassurance. Both CB and SJE have to transfer babies with serious conditions to UK - I personally know two women who had to transfer there from CB due to babies that were too high-risk for CB.

After delivering at both SJE and CB, overall I had good experiences at both. I really appreciated the hospitalist's presence at SJE since I have extremely fast labors, and last time my OB was caught in traffic and we weren't sure she would make it on time. While waiting for her to arrive, I had another OB right there with me in case I delivered quickly. At CB, I faced a similar situation but was told that the nurse might have to deliver my baby (although after panting in misery for almost 45 minutes I was able to wait for a midwife that they located). I liked the fact that at CB they bathed my baby in my room and I could watch and be near. Both had great nurses. The food was better at CB.

[Hey_Hey]

From my experience I just think the quality of those two are higher. I view st Joe east as st joe's attempt to keep up with the other two baby delivering hospitals in town.

The nicu's at cb and sje are not the same as that at uk. Cb and sje won't take babies less than 30 weeks. UK will take any age (defined roughly as 24 weeks). Much of rhe reason for that is that you really need onsite pediatric surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, and pediatric cardic surgeons for that age.

Sje isn't the only hospital with 24/7 in house obs either. I can't speak for cb, but uk will always have an attending obstetrician in house and also have a minimum of one chief resident (last year of residency).

[dmaccrimmon]

We delivered at SJE with Dr. O'nan this past July. It was a very positive experience. The only two problems I had with SJE was that there was still some construction noise even on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The other complaint, though minor, was that the post delivery rooms don't have a good night light for feeding. It seemed that you had to have a bright light or no light, which equaled some painful breastfeeding experiences. Overall I loved the nursing staff. They were low key and very nice. The night before you are discharged they give you a lovely restaurant style meal... kind of like a last supper before the chaos of home.

Dr. O'nan was wonderful! We moved here from Nashville at 32 weeks. It was difficult to get to see her at first because she was sooooo popular, but she was SO worth the wait. She always answered all of our questions and we really felt like she cared about us and our experience. When we couldn't see Dr. O'nan we saw Dr. McKenzie (sp) and she was really nice too!

[nlschr0]

Originally Posted by Hey_Hey

The nicu's at cb and sje are not the same as that at uk. Cb and sje won't take babies less than 30 weeks. UK will take any age (defined roughly as 24 weeks). Much of rhe reason for that is that you really need onsite pediatric surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, and pediatric cardic surgeons for that age.

Yes, I agree. To clarify, in my post I was stating that SJE and CB are equivalent to each other in terms of NICU care. UK definitely does have a higher level of NICU than either SJE or CB, and they offer more options for babies who need critical care. However, if I was not anticipating a high-risk delivery or having a baby with a health condition, I would not choose UK for a normal delivery.

[tibor75]

Nobody wants to deliver at an academic medical center. UK is no better/worse in this regard than others. Maybe worse in that hte hospital is older - I assume it will look better when the new hospital is set up.

But for reasons that we rather not say, an academic center can be life saving. You can say all you want about a "normal delivery", but if it's not normal (and you may not know this until you go into labor), the simple facts are that community places may be ill-equipped to handle it - particularly if there is no warning that there are problems.

So what if the food isn't as good and the room is smaller? There is a reason childbirth happens in the hospital. It can be dangerous.

[First Time Mom]

I have never written a review for anything, but I had to write one to rave on our experience at St. Joe East. Neither my husband nor I are from Lexington and we don’t know anyone who has had a child here. We chose St. Joe because we had read so many great reviews from different websites online and liked how personal it sounded. It was truly the best experience and beyond what I imagined it could be. I could not possibly change it in any way to make it better. We stayed over Christmas and the nurses were all incredibly cheerful and helpful. Every person who entered our room went above and beyond their own duties to offer assistance and make sure we were both as comfortable and happy as possible. The hospital was quiet and we had a large private room. The doctors and nurses were available for any question we might have and treated us with the utmost respect and patience. They went out of their way multiple times to give us any assistance they could- and if they couldn’t offer something, they found the person who could. I HIGHLY recommend St. Joe’s. I knew that everything was taken care of and felt like I was the only patient they had ever waited on. All I did was rest and bond with my husband and newborn, which is exactly what I needed! I guarantee you will not regret gong with St. Joe’s!!

[zhugeliang1]

I had two babies at UK Hospital and it was horrible. They are very medically micromanaging, even though my babies were ok they whisked them away for hours of "observation" and dumped me in an empty recovery room for seven hours with no food no water no care no monitoring no help no nothing! They do everything they can to make postpartum recovery the worst experience of life. If I had my cell phone on me at the time (which I didn't) I would have called Patient Representative to complain. Also they "forgot" to bring me dinner about three hours after I delivered so I spent all night with no food. UK Hospital is the WORST.