I had my daughter there 14 months ago and it was the best experience! The dr was great-Dr. Mellen-one of the best and is known for being one of the top C-section surgeons in the country! Nurses were wonderful. Room was great and the food was amazing! Had a thanksgiving dinner one night I drive by there each day on the way to work and always get such good vibes.

My sister in law just had her first last weekend. She had her baby in Harrisburg at the Harrisburg Hospital and I couldn't believe what treatment she was NOT getting after a c-section. They had her up in the room after only 2 hours where i stayed in recovery for 5 hours and was monitored closely!

You're making an excellent choice if you chose to go with PH!

one more thing.
in response to one of the moms here saying 'wherever you are, you're dying to get out of the hospital,' i have to say i was NOT...i didn't want to leave! such a comfortable and safe experience for a first timer. some of the nurses would come in just to keep me company if my husband had to leave for something. i get emotional just thinking of what a perfect time that all was.

I sometimes think that Mellen and co. deliver all of the babies in the city. I delivered there (with Ufberg) in July and had a great experience. Private room, but we had twins and a c-section. I drive by there on my way to work every day and like another poster said, have such a good feeling about the place. Best of luck!!

Ok ladies, I hope you don't mind me chiming in but I am a stay at home Dad so I've got credentials .

Our experience was HORRENDOUS! And I've spoken to more than few people who had similar...we were there Nov '03 and the place was a madhouse. My wife also had Mellen/Ufberg but unbeknownst to us, they don't cover weekends so we got Debs? as a pinch hitter...he was so busy you'd see him for a minute to "check the oil" (brutally I might add, my poor wife would crawl up the bed each time) and come back an hour or two later...

Granted it was a first child so he knew it would be a while but I ended up holding her leg for hours, sometimes while the nurse left the room to do other things...bear in mind I didn't even want to be in the room bc I was worried I would pass out! Needless to say I didn't/couldn't because my wife needed me.

My wife was in labor 18 hours and my family couldn't get anyone to tell them anything...it was crazy. And if you have a big family, forget it, only 2 visitors at a time in the your room...we would have to kick one of our parents out so the other could visit...and once visiting hours were over, everybody got the boot...it was ridiculous...I'm all for security but don't they realize people have more than 1 parent apiece? We got a single room, looked like a cement prison cell with extra dark curtains...talk about depressing!

We finally delivered the baby 8:30 and got to the room about 11 on a Sunday night...the nurse got my wife a meal and flipped me a take out menu and said "Better call now and see if you can get something before they close" like it would've killed her to give me a sandwich...

That nurse at least took pity on my wife and kept the baby all night...but the next day, 7 AM the futon for Dad goes away, and the nurse tells me "Watch this because I'm only going to show you once..." and that's how I learned to bathe and diaper a baby, which I did myself the entire rest of our miserable stay..

My wife really had a bad tear so I had to change all the pads, gauze underwear, put tucks on them, all of it...and the nurses were nowhere to be found...

I would have to request pain meds in person bc they would keep telling us the next nurse would bring them and they never did...

When the dirty linens began to pile up in the bathroom, I had to take them out to the hallway and put them in the hamper

When I got tired of looking at the blood on the bathroom floor, I had to track the cleaning lady down and beg her to mop the room as we had been in it over 24 hours and noboby had bothered to clean it or empty the trash...

When the pediatrician would check my son without a diaper and he would pee all over the bassinet, I would have to walk over to the nurse's station and get linens, bring them back, and change the sheets myself...All the while the nurses sat there chatting...that's all they seemed to do...

One nurse didn't want the baby in the nursery so she forced my wife to keep trying to breastfeed even tho it wasn't working and my wife was exhausted, physically worn out, and seemingly depressed...she told my wife to let the baby sleep on her, which my wife told her she was uncomfortable doing, so the woman just stormed out! So my poor wife was up all night with the baby and decided she might skip the lactation class...

Well the Lactation nazi there started to read me the riot act about my wife not going...I finally yelled at her "If she can be there, she will be!" Then she gave me a hard time bc I said I wasn't going to attend as I had to pack up bc they were kicking us out at 10 AM on Tuesday...mind you we just had the baby 8:30PM Sunday...

And the lactaction class had moms and dads in it...I can't imagine what the women who actually breastfed during the class must thought about all these strange men seeing them breastfeed...

So we got the hell outta there asap....they told us to bring our son back for a Bilirubin test as his was slightly elevated and could lead to jaundice...well the testing was in a waiting area of the hospital with sick people all around so that, in combination with the general bad treatment, caused me to think, "No way, I'll take him to our local pediatrician instead"

His levels were so elevated, he was admitted Friday night to Crozer Chester, put in an isolette naked save for a diaper and the little eye patches, and they stuck an IV in his little arm...My wife was so out of it, I took him and stayed with him at the hospital and was out of my mind with worry...

All because PA Hospital didn't send me home with a bili-light blanket to help break down the bilirubin in his system...a common occurence and standard practice in many places...

At Crozer Chester they were kind, patient, understanding, we actually saw the nurses and spoke with them, the nurse actually got me a meal at 9 PM on a Friday and pointed me to the kitchen area, told me to help myself. My wife got help with breastfeeding, I got help with dealing with her soon-to-be-diagnosed postpartum and the baby was able to go home 2 days later.

I will be eternally grateful to Crozer Chester, so much so that we had our next 2 children there. And I will be eternally disdainful of PA Hospital and recommend people not deliver there...

While you may have some valid complaints, they are packaged with just the most ridiculous expectations and demands.
- the hospital didn't give YOU food?
- GASP! MEN in a breastfeeding class? Heck yeah my husband went with me.
- They encouraged you to keep the baby in room instead of the nursery and you didn't get any sleep? You have a newborn, why do you expect to sleep?

That's some list of complaints.
Certainly your issues with the bilirubin are valid, but as for the rest, I think you need to remember you were at a hospital, not a hotel.

I've delivered 2 babies at PA Hospital, and both experiences were as pleasant as I could ask for childbirth. The doctors and nurses were wonderful. Were there some cranky people? Sure, they are everywhere.

Were there men in the breastfeeding class? Sure. But if you're going to nurse a baby, you need to get over that. The men weren't there to stare at your breasts, they were there to support their parnters.

Yes, only 2 visitors. They tell you this when you take the tour. There are many other birthing options which would allow additional visitors- if that's your thing, you should have investigated before he birth.

Yes, they will make you hold a leg. If you thought you were going to pass out, you should have spoken up and told someone.

Yes, they will make you diaper your baby. I know, shocking. They do offer classes on diapering/bathing/caring for a baby.

For the most part, you do need to change your own ice pack in your underwear. And put the Tucks pads in. There simply are not enough nurses to attend to your every whim, nor should they have to unless you have a medical issue rendering you incapable.

Your stay for a vaginal birth was typical. Blame that on insurance.

And if you are going to nurse your baby- having the baby stay with you in your room is ideal. The baby needs to nurse on demand, and needs to be put on the breast as often as possible. Your wife wasn't going to get an 8 hour nap even if the baby stayed in the nursery- they'd just be bringing him back all night.

And no, they are not required to feed fathers. Lots of dads pack snacks in the hospital bag.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, and that your son was ill. But many of your complaints are quite superficial, and show that you did not investigate the process of having a baby in a hospital. Some of the people are not going to be perpetually perky, nor are they going to cater to your every whim.

My heart went out to the poster who had a litany of complaints about his treatment. Having a baby is an extremely stressful time, and when you don't have the support you are expecting, is indeed somewhat indicated by advance tours, it can be extra devastating. As someone who had a very unpleasant experience there, due less to the standards of individual caregivers than the fact that they were not staffed to handle the numbers of births they had at the time, I found myself reliving my despair when reading his post.

For people who are planning on going to PA hospital soon, one piece of advice: If your husband/partner wants to stay with you overnight, if there is noone else in the room, he/she is allowed to. If there is someone else in the room, he/she can stay in the lounge areas. Period end. It was incredibly distressing to see my husband kicked out of the hospital within an hour of my son's birth (at 1 in the morning) because I had been transferred into a room where there was another patient (who, by the way, had the TV on all night, and did not turn it off at the request of the nurse). When we complained to another nurse the next day that we had expected him to be able to be with me, she told us we should have "stuck to our guns" to allow him to stay in the lounge area.

Every bit of my stay there was horrible, down to when I FINALLY got to take a shower, I fiddled with the controls for about 20 minutes, trying to get hot water out of it, then had to find my husband, to find a nurse, who then pulled a Fonz and smacked it to get the hot water to come out. So - another word to the wise: have your partner do a shower tutorial. When you're postpartum, you really really really want a hot shower, and when it's so close and yet so far, man, it sucks.

Yes, the bilirubin complaint is important, although it's not as if the hospital missed it; they told the parents to return with the baby. Not getting the pain meds is not good either. Most of the rest of the complaints I chalk up to extreme expectant-father new-father stress and unrealistic expectations, and would hope that in retrospect the poster would be able to sort out some of that. Also, that experience occurred close to five years ago, so much may have changed.

Yes, in a hospital, visitors are limited. People are recuperating and need rest and privacy, and a party of four grandparents at once and other relatives around a new mom's bed may disturb other patients. It seems nice that the hospital provided a futon for the new dad, not cruel that they removed it in the a.m. As for linens, I think they do expect new parents to start caring for the baby in the hospital, if the mom is physically up to it.

Overall, I was happy with our experience two-plus years ago at Pennsylvania Hospital. My OB is wonderful, and all the people involved with the delivery were excellent. The baby and I were well-cared for and left healthy and happy, which is most important.

People were nice, supportive of and patient with my husband and me. I remember that nurses would bring me ice, which I appreciated. There were a couple of comments that a couple of staff people made that I didn't appreciate, and I think the nurses who weren't also lactation consultants didn't seem to know enough about lactation support or show much interest in it.

Overall, it was a good place for us.

I am sorry for the other poster who also was distressed about her experience there. I can understand how upsetting it would be to have your husband have to leave so soon after the birth.

I won't go into great detail but my fiancé and I did not have a good experience at Penn Hospital. We were there quite recently (Feb 18 - C-Section) and expected more. Our biggest problem with Penn was there insistence on doing countless tests to our daughter (which were never explained) and then missing the high bilirubin count which landed us in CHOP the day after being discharged due to jaundice. During our stay at Penn we also dealt with no hot water in the shower, lack of nurses, a bad roommate with the TV on, and a feeling of being rushed to discharge by the staff due to their constant reminder of being "over crowded".

We have spoken to friends who also share bad stories of Penn and will be heading out to the Main Line for Baby #2.

No one speaks about Hahneman Hospital, but I had a great experience there in Feb 2007. My OBs were Drexel OB/GYN. Although I usually go to the 17th Street office, a Dr. Croft from one of the other offices delivered, he was great. My OBs from my office came to visit me while I was in the hospital. At the 17th street office, I really like Kym, the NP, Drs Sullivan & Daniels. Very patient and answering of all my questions as a first time neurotic pregnant woman.

The nurses during labor were excellent. I had one nurse who stayed by my side her entire shift. The nurse who helpe me through the delivery was so nice and encouraging. She would massage my leg between pushes.

The anesthesiologist stayed almost an hour with me after he gave me the epidurial to monitor things and just chat! He gave me the whole scoop on attendings & residents relationships (I was into Grey's Anatomy at the time).

And the recovery nurses were great, coming in constantly to check on me. Letting me choose to room with the baby when I could and take her to the nursery when I couldn't. I did have a private room because it was an off night for them. And the priorities for the private are c-sections and then first come, first serve.

I was initially pretty aprehensive about delivering at Hahneman because I didn't have any information about them, no one I knew delivered there. But I was very pleased with my experience and most likely deliver there again.