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a lady I work with gave birth a month ago. She is a navy wife and she said she had the best of care. I would suppose you bring with you what you bring at other hospitals, unless you wanna wear that ugly gown and have your butt showing all the time :-O
I noticed one of the posters said they would have used Bayside. I delivered there long ago. They stopped delivering about 10 years ago. I haven't heard that they started again.
I am going to be very honest about this. I would never go back. I was scheduled for an induction b/c I was "over due". I came in already having contractions and my water broke shortly after I arrived. They did not believe me until I stood up and then as water gushed out she said"maybe" I had. I knew from then on things were not going to go well. They hooked me up to pit even though I was having contractions. I did not want an epidural but after 13 hours I gave in b/c they kept upping the pit every half hour.I spent 24 hours in labor. Because they "checked" me all the tiem I got an infection and they hooked me up to an antibiotic drip for twelve hours. This would later make me dangerously ill. They staff is hit or miss. I started out with a great nurse only for her shift to end and she was replaced by the worst. I won't go into the rest of it but I have to say that they tend to take choices away from you and do it their wqay no matter what your desires are. I felt as if I had no say in anything. I do know of some people who have recently opted out of Portsmouth and gone to Bon Secure ( they ahve a wonderful reputation and a birthing center, not a ward). You are allowed out of your room after birth to walk with the baby in circles around the ward. The things I wish I had taken more of are panties (I didn't count on so much bleeding afterward so I went throught them quickly), my own socks (they give you these terrible green ones). I did bring my own night gown and nursing bras. I also took along with me a birthing plan. I am not sure it did me any good but at least they will know your desires. Also make friends with your nurse. They are your advicate btwn you and the doctor. My first nurse was wonderful and I felt a connection with her, the second was unreachable. BTW the second one left and the first nurse came back (first words out of my mouth were Thank God!)and my little one was born shortly there after. Try to connect to your nurse. Don't let the nurses or anyone else push you into something you don't want you can always refuse certain treatment. I did not know this as a military member I thought I had no choice. If you have enough time try to take a birthing class. Even if you choose not to go natural they have loads of information and if you end up not being able to have meds then you are well informed on pain management. Here are somethings I wish some one had told me about giving birth and the aftermath:
1) You will be constipated afterward. Who knew. Make sure your diet after the baby is full of salads and fruit. Drink tons of water especially if you plan on breats feeding. You will thank yourself later.
2) You may bleed alot and for days or weeks afterward. Tehy will tell you if you throw "large clots" go back to the hospital. You idea of large and thiers are two different things. You think large it may be quarter sized clots. They are talking about clots the size of your hand. they may fail to tell you that one important detail.
3) Do not fear calling the nurses station after you are discharged for any reason. They are wonderfully accomodating and willing to answer your questions.
4) Don't be afraid to question someone when you think your safety is in jepardy. I have latex allergy and a nurse was going to touch me with the wrong gloves despite the sign hanging over my bed. I questioned her and turns out I saved my own life.
5)You may get hemeroids after. another reason to keep your diet leafy. There are wonderful products over the counter but don't be afraid to ask for them at the hospital. You don't want to make any stop that are not needed after you are home. You have so much more going on.
I know this was long but I would have loved it if some one had clued me in on a few of these things. Once it is over and you talk to other women about certain things thats when they will tell you they had the same probs. The time to know is before. Then at least you are ready for it and knwo what to expect instead of being blind sided. I hope this helps. Everyones birthing experiance is different. I hope yours goes smoothly and just the way you like it. Thank you.
I had a baby there last year the late fall of 2008 and I am having another baby there in the summer of 2010 in just two months. I am sad to read all the responses with bad birthing experiences and even more sad to think that some might attach the feelings of a bad birth to the Naval Hospital. I am a Navy wife and would have my children no where else on this coast. The hospital has every speciality under one roof and the best of care available. The hospital, staff, amenities, are all top notch BUT bear in mind it is a hospital. It is not a 5 star luxury resort! Don't expect one! YOU the patient are responsible for bringing everything you might need to keep yourself comfortable and happy. YOU are responsible for being prepared for any type of birth from early to a c section to a natural vaginal delivery. And most of all YOU the expectant mother should know what you want and to be prepared to be flexible. We make plans, our babies may have another. Childrens/Peds at this hospital is equally excellent.
I gave birth there five years ago. It was not a good experience for me. They had asked me to give them a urine sample while having contractions 3 minutes apart. My daughter was 2 weeks early, so while having contractions in the waiting area, they had us fill out the paperwork. Once in the obgyn room, the nurse couldnt get the iv in to save her life. So I never had an iv. I walked away with three broken veins. I was drinking my water bottle because I didnt get ice chips. They had one doctor on call that morning. He was rushing between rooms. The doctor was not pleased with me, when I told the nurse to go get him, because I had to push. He wanted to deliver his first set of twins. I had torn instead of him cutting me. Once she was out, they took her to check her out, didnt have to option to see her. As he was stitching up me up, he was pulling so hard it hurt and I could see the thread he was using. Plus he dropped the needle on the ground and had to go get another one. He was in such a hurry, he kept asking the nurse to check to see if the lady with the twins what ready to push. Once he was done sewing my up, he ran out to go to the next lady. The nursing staff was wonderful after the delivery. I was first to eat breakfast since I had my daughter at 450 am. I was put in a room with another lady. I didnt have a tv that worked. The food was ok. They wouldnt allow my husband to stay in the room with me overnight. If possible try and get your own room. I didnt sleep the three days I was in there. I will not deliver at Portsmouth again.
If i had a choice id never go back to portsmouth agian. I had the absolute worst experience ever. I never was able to see the same dr twice my entire pregnancy. I was high risk with both my children for the same reason but with the second one the drs couldnt decide if i was or wasnt but than when i went into labor they had to put me on pit because the dr said the baby needed to be delievered immediatly because of my condition. I told them when i got there that the scans can not read my contractions it happened with my first daughter. they get me into the labor and delievery room the nurse walks in and goes why are you here your not in labor your not contracting i told her you want to bet! an hour later when im yelling because of the pain they check me i was 6 cm so they said oh maybe she was right lets check her contractions manually. DUH!!! The a month and a half ago i got pregneat agian and i went to them immediatly because i knew i would need the shot. the told me no you dont need it what r u talking about. exactly one week after the told me this i lost the baby because i didnt recieve the shot. The dr looked at me said well there isnt a baby there anymore goodbye and that was that no get a follow up appointment nothing. its now been a little over a week later and i just found out i needed a follow up appointment to ensure my body healing correctly. If you have the option do not go to portsmouth unfortuantly if your going to portsmouth its because your military and you have tricare prime and you dont have a choice unless you can afford the huge co pays that comes with standard. the only advice i can give is pray alot.
I had my son at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in April of 2010. I did not have a good overall experience during my stay at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, but I did really like all of the pre-natal care I received at PNH and Sewells Point. Although, I did see a number of different providers during my pregnancy and none of those providers were at the hospital when I delivered, but I was aware of that ahead of time. The other good thing about the military is all the parenting and birthing classes I was able to attend during my pregnancy.
So, I'll start from the beginning. I went to Labor and Delivery the night before I actually delivered because I was having pretty bad contractions pretty close to together but they weren't consistent. Keep in mind this is my first baby so I had no other pregnancies to compare this one to, to know if I was in actual labor. So when I got there I told the lady at the front desk what was going on and that I thought I was in labor...she said "Think you're in labor...honey you'd know if you were actually in labor." So, I give her that, she was right bc the next morning I sure did know that I was in labor. So I sat down and filled out a few sheets of paperwork and while I waited to go back and get checked a family member of another patient and the front desk lady got in a huge argument bc the front desk lady is very matter of fact and I would even say rude. I assume it is bc she sees so many patients and probably deals with so much crap that it's like she had built up a thick skin and just had an attitude with everyone. It's like, we are emotional pregnant women that just want to get seen to have our babies and make sure our babies are healthy, not crack whores trying to get a fix!!! We definitely don't need that extra stress when trying to get admitted. Anyway after I finally went back to triage and I was there for hours upon hours with the medical students that didn't even know how to work the ultrasound machine and they kept leaving the room and leaving me exposed with the jelly all over me, and not just on my belly...everywhere(like a toddler that can't yet color in the lines) and leaving for so long that the jelly would dry up on my belly. After getting the actual doctor in there and telling me that I wasn't quite ready yet and what to look for when I was in true labor, and at this exact point I am exposed with my hooha hanging out, there pops in the medical student that didn't know what she was doing to get a great shot of my beaver. Anyway I just wish the doctor had initially accompanied the medical student and I would have had a much faster and nicer visit that evening. I think I spent between 4-5 hours in the hospital that night. I left the hospital after 2am and then had about a 30 minutes drive home.
So, I woke up the next morning with excruciating contractions at 7 or 8am. Than an hour later I had a small amount of wetness in my shorts...thinking that couldn't possibly be my water breaking bc it was hardly anything...anywho...I started timing my contractions bc I did not want to go back to that hospital until I knew for sure that this kid was ready to pop out, bc of my experience the night before. So as the hours went by the contractions got closer and closer together the pain got worse and worse I just tried to do everything I could to keep my self comfortable to wait until they were 3 minutes apart. Then BAM I couldn't wait any longer and I told my baby daddy..."we gots to go" So at this point it's about 12ish. So we get to the hospital which is a 30minute drive and I can barely walk up there, everytime I had a contraction I had to stop and wait it out and then keep moving. Once I get up to the front desk at L&D. We had to fill out the same paperwork again...ugh...but paperwork is paperwork so we did it. (FYI: stop in a few days early bc there are a few forms you'll have to fill out ahead of time that we didn't know about so we actually did that the night before when I went in with my false alarm) There was a different front desk lady and she was just as sweet as the lady the night before..lol. After completing our paperwork...I was sitting in the waiting room dealing with these contractions and dying inside wondering when are they going to pull me back...so my man goes up for a second time to see how long it's going to be and trying to explain how much pain I am in, but I wasn't screaming yet so I guess she didn't consider me to be in as much pain as she thought I should be in. After talking with her for a few minutes she stated unless my water had broken then they couldn't pull me back yet...and he told her that we think my water may have broken but we are not sure, we also wrote that on my paperwork but I guess she looked over that.
I get back in the triage room and one of the medical students examines me and determines that I was dilated enough and my contractions were consistent. I think it was 4 or 5cm and they swabbed me to see if there were traces of amniotic fluid and then they came back in and sure enough my water did break. So at this point the pain is so bad I can't keep it in anymore and realize I can not deliver this baby without DRUGS! Well, they were so full that there wasn't a room available for me so I had to wait, I probably waited an hour or so in the worst pain ever, they did hook me up to all the monitors to make sure everything was ok with baby.
When I got into my delivery room, the nurse was in immediately and said the anesthesiologist wouldn't be able to make it right in bc he was so busy. So to hold me over he gave me something through an IV which made me very tired, he didn't really ask me if I wanted it or not just kind of did it, not that I would have said no. Almost immediately after I got the pain meds through the IV the anesthesiologist was in my room, I mean less than 5 minutes later. The anesthesiologist was very nice, very informative, and very professional... although I was high on pain meds He almost didn't give me the epidural bc I was dosing off as he was explaining everything to me and you have to be aware and in a normal state of mind bc I had to sign the paper saying I heard everything and was aware of the side effects and consent to give me the epidural. So he made me repeat 3 or 5 of the side effects to deem that I was co-hearant to sign to receive the epidural. It took everything in my power to keep my eyes open and repeat these back to him....when I say I had to dig deep...I HAD TO DIG DEEP!! I woulda been one mad momma if I didn't get that epidural though....but not until after those pain meds wore off and I woke up in pain By the way...the epidural was not that bad. I had been terrified of it my whole pregnancy and thought I might even not get one bc I was so scared.
So there I am in the delivery room, finally. I had probably 3 different nurses through out the process because of shift changes I guess. My beautiful baby boy was born at 1:23am. There were some complications with my delivery...bc my water broke so early and I didn't know it and I waited so long to come to the hospital and I didn't deliver until 1:23 am. My water broke at 8-9am and I didn't deliver until 1:23am the next day. So bc of this I had an infection and my temperature got out of control and they couldn't get it under control...I had the shakes because I felt freezing but I was actually burning up the babies heart rate was going really high than really low, so they had to insert a heart rate monitor to his head while he was inside to keep a closer eye on it. So my temperature started with the first nurse she said I had a slight temp of 99 that she would check with the doctor and let me know what needed to be done for it. So the doctor said we would keep an eye on it. So an hour goes by so they check my temp again and it has gone up to 101. So that nurse says he would check with the doctor and see what we needed to do. About another hour goes by and no one comes back in until I get a new nurse and, at this point this was my 3rd nurse and she happens to be my final nurse that is with me the rest of them time until I delivered, so I ask her if he knows what the doctor said about my temp. So she takes my temp again and at this point it is 102.8 and the doctor has her start me on I think it was a tylenol drip or something, can't remember exactly, and she starts putting ice packs all over me and makes me keep the blankets off, even though I felt freezing and was shivering uncontrollably, but I was actually burning up and couldn't feel it. Well they couldn't get my temp under control it got all the way up to 103.7 and after packing me with ice packs over and over and giving me more tylenol it finally broke...so they started my antibiotic drip for the infection and when I was finished with 3 rounds of antibiotics I was ready to deliver and actually I took the third round of antibiotics after my baby was born she said that I was supposed to have if before though. I only met my doctor once when I first started pushing but then she decided that I needed to be just a little more dialated so they put me on an hour of PIT but after 20 minutes I called the nurse and told her I was READY bc I could feel the contractions still bc the epidural didn't fully take, the anesthesiologist did make me aware of this, I could feel my right leg still and I could feel every contraction and also when I pushed him out I felt the whole thing so be aware that just because you get an epidural your delivery still may not be pain free. My doc just came back in at the very end of me pushing him out...I guess for all the hard pushes at the end. They were so busy that night that I waited in the delivery room for hours before the nurse came in and were finally ready to get me up and go to the bathroom to get me ready to go to my other room. When she came in to do so I had to remind her that I was still hooked up to my epidural so then I had to wait even longer before I could get up to wait for the numbness to wear off. One of the other nurses who was so nice while I was waiting after the baby was born actually went down and got us something to eat bc we were so starving, this was not my main nurse but an additional nurse that came in to help when I was pushing. This additional nurse was also very informative about breast feeding and helped me get a latch with my baby for his first feeding. One thing I did not like was I could hear some of the nurses, while I was waiting for my numbness to wear off, talking about another lady that was in labor next door to me and how difficult she was being. I thought that was un-professional and it made me feel like they were probably doing that about me as well.
So I finally got into my after delivery room and it was about 5amish, and I've had basically no sleep since 8am the previous day, and I had barely enough time to shower and get dressed and my first round of nurses were there at 6am to do all there stuff...which is fine bc i know they have their schedule. So I was there that whole day and one more day after that. Through out my stay in my after delivery room it was non stop doctors and nurses in my room I swear every two hours round the clock and even some squeezed in between that and when I say round the clock I mean all through the night. My baby did have to have 2 days of antibiotics bc of the infection during labor and delivery as a pre-emptive strike to make sure he is healthy but not knowing if he had the infection or not, I totally understand that and I am for anything to make sure he is healthy. I felt like the doctors and nurses should have had a little better plan on when they entered the room like maybe try to clump together so we could try and sleep when our baby slept but it was like every time I tried to close my eyes I was getting woken up by someone to do something. It was like 3 whole days with no sleep! Also so many different doctors and nurses were coming in for so many different things it was like when I had a question I was never asking the right person. And my last day there we were to get discharged as long as baby and I were healthy, which we were, and they were to let me know after doing the tests if my baby did actually have the infection that they pre-emptively gave him the antibiotics for. I couldn't get anyone to get these answers for me...it was like pulling teeth to find out a simple yes or no. And I rarely saw the same nurse through out my stay in the after delivery room so it seemed like every nurse I had to catch up on what was going on... I just wish that there would have been one person overseeing me in the hospital and that that person weather it be my main doc or not made sure everyone was on the same page instead of seeing a million different people that were all on there own page.
The pediatrician at PNH are excellent. I have never had one at that hospital that I didn't like...weather the one that visited me while I was in the hospital or taking my son for his check ups after he was born!!
I did feel like the facilities were clean although when I got to my aftercare room there were two spots of blood on the floor that I had to have someone clean up, but no one is perfect, so besides that everything seemed very clean. The rooms were decent...I did have a 2 bed room but I was alone in the room the whole time until I was checking out, someone was checking in. So I had the bathroom to myself the whole time I had my own closet and he had a small pull out chair to sleep on. We didn't have any other baby crying to wake our son or vice versa...so we lucked out not having a room mate bc I feel that would have been a nightmare to have to share the bathroom and room with someone else right after you just had a baby...I was bleeding everywhere and I would not have wanted to share a bathroom with someone else who was too!! They do try and keep you in your own room unless they are overbooked so that is good.
As far as my experience with the amount of guidance and help I received with breastfeeding...I felt it sucked!! The first time I tried breastfeeding I did have help from my delivery nurse, she was very nice and offered a lot of her own personal knowledge up, but she was not a lactation consultant. I had a really hard time getting a latch and knowing if my baby was getting enough or if anything. So we requested to have the lactation consultant come in and after waiting and waiting almost the whole day she finally popped in but we had a visitor that had just arrived and mind you we only had 2 visitors the whole time we were there. Well she came in and saw our guest and introduced herself and said a few things to us and turned around and left. So after trying to breastfeed again and I felt it just wasn't working we requested to have the lactation consultant come again well it didn't happen that day but she came the next day, after we kept requesting to the nurses over and over. She came in and showed me a few tricks but seems very annoyed with me. She was in the room less than 5minutes and was able to get my baby to latch which was great. But she asked me "Didn't you go to the breastfeeding classes while you were pregnant?"...as if she were saying that I should already know this stuff. Well, I did go to the classes but it's not the same as actually doing it yourself...I found the first week to be very difficult but I stuck with it and now I'm a pro and my baby is still breastfeeding at 8 months and plan to do so up to a year. While all of this was going on, my struggles to get my baby to eat, the nurses come in constantly to see how much your baby is eating. Well I kept telling them I wasn't sure how much he was eating...I would show them the form I was filling out with how many wet diapers, poopy diapers, and how long they were at the breast. They were also making me feel like I wasn't feeding enough... Oh one thing I left out was bc I was concerned one of the nurses suggested I pump my breast and feed him through the dropper that way I know how much he's getting...well that was a good idea but I think it also caused some nipple confusion so early on thus why I was having a hard time getting him to latch also one of the nurses gave my baby a pacifier which was very nice of her but I found out later that it was probably too soon bc I was breastfeeding. The nurses that come in wanting to know how much your baby is eating put a lot of stress on you if you're breastfeeding so I think that is where a lot of my stress came from. Breastfed babies only need a little bit bc at first you only produce colostrum, liquid gold, so they just need a few drops of that every time they eat bc they're stomach's are so small until your milk comes in, unlike formula fed babies who can eat more. Well they eventually pricked his foot to make sure his sugar levels were good...and they were... so all that additional stress for nothing. Back tracking a few...When the lactation consultant was in the room and got my baby to latch on 3 nurses came in to introduce themselves bc there was just a shift change and immediately the lactation consultant got up and left before I could even ask anything else. The 3 nurses proceeded to introduce themselves and I asked them if they could come back bc I finally got a good latch with my baby... well they kept talking and I had to ask again...CAN YOU PLEASE LEAVE AND COME BACK IN ABOUT 30 MINUTES. Oh and all privacy is out the door... everyone barges in breastfeeding and all, even the cleaning crew!
As far as what you need to bring...any loose comfy clothes you may want to wear, if you're breast feeding probably tops that button( I wouldn't recommend night gowns unless you have pants on too bc they are coming in so much to check your belly and down there that you may feel exposed not having something on your bottom half) Keep in mind they do offer gowns but I brought my own clothes. I was cold when walking the hall way so I did use one of there coats they offered... breatfeeding bras...some slippers... and I actually liked they're socks...they are brand new so you don't have to worry about some one having their feet in them. I also didn't even use my own underwear bc I was bleeding so much I used the throw away mesh underwear shorts they give you with the big diaper pads They have all the baby products you'll need for baby including diapers,clothes, and blankets but you can bring your own clothes if you'd like...I did. Just pack his diaper bag for going home...of course you'll need his car seat. Oh and one cute outfit and maybe a favorite blanket for his first pics that they do in the hospital. Any personal items you may want for yourself...but again they give you a goodie bag with a bunch of personal items... and don't forget all the items unused u can take home including the remainder of diapers that are in your room. I even asked for some extra pads, mesh undies, and ice packs to take home with me. You may want to bring some snacks with you, there is a place where you can buys some though. All your meals are free but your partners are not so make sure you have some money. You may also want some personal entertainment...magazines...sudoku...although I found no time for that at all and any moment I had I wanted to try and catch a few minutes of sleep.
Well, I know this was really long but I hope it is helpful.
Overall, I would not want to deliver another baby at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. All I kept hearing before hand is how they are the best and they have all the latest technology and top doctors but I felt the staff did not communicate with one another, the gate keeper(front desk staff) do not want to let you in and the nurses were very gossipy. One nurse that I really liked was asking me about something personal and I'm not too much of a closed off person so I opened up and the next day I had a different nurse bringing that subject up to me bc I guess the other nurse told her and everyone else as far as I know!! I didn't get enough help with breastfeeding and enough information over all on some basic tasks that I would in a few days be all alone, away from all the professionals, and have to do on our own.
Make sure you have a month by month baby book to follow and I also look a lot of things up on the internet.
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Sentara Bayside doesn't deliver babies.
So at this point it's about 12ish. So we get to the hospital which is a 30minute drive and I can barely walk up there, everytime I had a contraction I had to stop and wait it out and then keep moving. Once I get up to the front desk at L&D. We had to fill out the same paperwork again...ugh...but paperwork is paperwork so we did it. (FYI: stop in a few days early bc there are a few forms you'll have to fill out ahead of time that we didn't know about so we actually did that the night before when I went in with my false alarm) There was a different front desk lady and she was just as sweet as the lady the night before..lol. After completing our paperwork...I was sitting in the waiting room dealing with these contractions and dying inside wondering when are they going to pull me back...so my man goes up for a second time to see how long it's going to be and trying to explain how much pain I am in, but I wasn't screaming yet so I guess she didn't consider me to be in as much pain as she thought I should be in. After talking with her for a few minutes she stated unless my water had broken then they couldn't pull me back yet...and he told her that we think my water may have broken but we are not sure, we also wrote that on my paperwork but I guess she looked over that.
