Whatever you do, DO NOT EVER let a resident touch you. I just know too many people who have regretted that, myself included. If I ever encounter that resident again, I quite seriously wouldn't hesitate to hurt her right back. It is your right to refuse a resident.[/quote]


That is entirely unfair. If you do not wish to be cared for by a resident than you should not pick a teaching hospital. Go out to the Main Line and maybe you will get an attending who was never allowed to touch a patient back when they were residents....

It's probably a good thing you won't go into great detail because all the hospital snobs will just discount it anyway, as if they are on the payroll.

I'm not sure if it's because I'm a man, but I'm quite insulted that my complaints were so easily discounted. If I wanted 4 star treatment, I would've gone to a hotel.

All I wanted was for people to do their job and have a little compassion for what is arguably one of the most stressful times in a person's life. My wife had postpartum so I was taking care of her and the baby. My question was what the hell the nurses were doing. Because they weren't doing anything for my wife or baby save checking vitals and chit chatting amongst themselves.

I've no doubt the hospital was crowded that weekend, but chalking it all up to my high expectations is ridiculous. Many other parents also have said how bad things at Penn were. And don't the hospital charges cover the cost of room maintenance and laundry collection. Give me a break already.

And as I said, Crozer Chester was 100% different. I wasn't looking for gold member services, just the services they promised and we paid for.

At midnight on a Sunday would it have killed her to throw an extra sandwich on the platter?

Yes I don't think men belong there, last time I checked men do not breastfeed so what exactly do we need to learn about it that we can't read or hear privately from the lactation consultant, which is exactly what I did?

They didn't encourage, they harshly and unreasonably forced an exhausted postpartum extremely pained and swollen woman to do what should have been their job. It is not a crime to send a baby back to the nursery...its a crime to deny a suffering patient some relief because you are too busy or don't feel like doing the job you are being paid to do.

Many of your arguments are quite superficial. We paid the hospital for services. I peformed those services. Did I get a rebate? No I did not.

As for typical stay, most places allow you to stay til midnight of the last day. We were streeted at 10 AM. Again, I paid for service I needed but I did not get.

My wife's condition was horrendous mentally and physically. Obviously some women take delivery better than others. Does this mean the really bad ones should suck it up as the level of care is geared toward providing the bare minimum?

Why people on forums are so heartless I will never understand. Walk a mile in someone else's shoes or step away from the monitor for a few minutes and maybe you'll regain some of the humanity you've obviously lost.

My wife and I delivered our first at Pennsylvania Hospital last summer. We'll be back again later this year with our second (I know, not wasting much time). Whether you get a single or a double is luck of the draw, although I heard they try to hold singles for women that had especially difficult deliveries. My wife got a single, even though she had a pretty simple delivery (even she said it was much easier than she expected). I got to stay the night on a cot. My wife liked it, but I wouldn't have been heartbroken if she had gotten a double and I had to go home to sleep each night. Some nurses were better than others, but overall, we'd give them very high ratings. Our doctor was awesome! Facilities were comfortable - the cafe on the ground level has great muffins and smoothies! Plus it was close to Fieugo, a very good little Tex-Mex place.

Two negative features, from my perspective. First was Residents. One Resident came in and tried unsuccessfully to do something to my wife using a tool she didn't know how to use (and told us it was only the 2nd time she's picked it up). She had my wife screaming in agony for a good 2-3 minutes - the most painful part of the whole delivery. The doctor showed up and did it in a snap, with almost no pain. At another point, when my wife was getting a "don't talk to me or I'll kill you" contraction, a new Resident walked in and started introducing herself to my wife. Everyone else in the room (Dr., nurse, me, and through the pain, my wife) couldn't help but laugh at her and she left. I've got it on video and it's the comedy highlight of the labor. Our other complaint was the lactation consultant. We hadn't been taking classes, but wanted to give breastfeeding a shot. The lactation consultant, who showed up for the first time the day after delivery, told us that we weren't committed enough to breastfeeding when we rejected her suggestion to snip the underside of our baby's tounge to make breastfeeding easier. I don't know why women get so worked up over breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding, but many do. We were just kind of in the middle - let's see how breastfeeding goes, but if it doesn't work out, oh well. The super-judgmental breastfeeding consultant deterred us from even giving breastfeeding an honest attempt.

Notwithstanding these minor complaints, we thought Pennsylvania Hospital was a great experience overall. It's close (for those in CC), with great facilities, and mostly knowledgable and friendly staff. We didn't give a second thought to returning there this year for our second baby.

While I agree that some of the LCs at Pennsy are too pushy (and I *am* deeply committed to nursing my children), I'd like to suggest that as parents you will find that many people have super-judgmental reactions to various topics, including but by no means limited to, breastfeeding. My friendly advice is to try not to let one annoying person make your parenting decisions for you.

As for residents, as you learned, they're morons. I had a truly traumatic experience with one post-delivery who also didn't know what she was doing. Nonetheless, I refuse let her incompetence and my consequent suffering influence my decision to have another child. The amount of sheer work involved in raising a third might influence me, though.

I think "morons" might be a little harsh. These are people who have graduated from medical school, and are generally a pretty bright bunch. And, believe it or not, they are DOCTORS. Yes, they're learning and are new at their speciality. But morons? Come on.

i think the important thing to remember is that there are "good" everything! good doctors, good residents, good lactation consultants, good nurses, anesthesiologists, blah, blah, blah. you might encounter the good ones as well those perceived as "not so good", regardless of where you deliver. nothing in life is a guarantee.

Thanks for mentioning anesthesiologists - the one we had at Pennsylvania Hospital was awesome! It was 3 minutes, 20 seconds from the time my wife said "let's do the epidural" until the time the anesthesiologist was walking in the room (I know the exact time since I'm the dork who was rolling video the whole time from a discrete camera on a tripod in the corner - over my wife's shoulder, so the whole production is family friendly, but anway...). Quick, professional, got it right the first time, and my wife was VERY satisfied, especially after watching so many childbirth shows on TLC where it seemingly takes forever for the anesthesiologist to show up.

Nope, not harsh at all. But you're welcome to let them experiment on you. I personally hope they get treated by someone as stupid and ignorant as themselves one day and have to suffer the kind of trauma they cause.