Best Hospital for Child Birth in Lehigh Valley? (Allentown, Bethlehem: work, campus)

[njbuyer]

I just found out I was pregnant, and am new to the area. I was looking to see if anyone could give me advice on a good OBGYN or hospital. I've heard St. Lukes is good. Does it matter if it's the Allentown or the Bethlehem site of St. Lukes? Is one better than another?

I've also heard that Lehigh Valley Hospital is really clinical and has a tendancy to make people just numbers.

[cc_nurse]

Hi and Congratulations!

You really can't go wrong with either hospital, they both have their positive and negative points but are excellent in their own regards just the same.

Lehigh Valley has an excellent perinatal dept which is a nice resource if you should need it as well as a level III NICU, which hopefully you wouldn't need but is there should something happen. Top notch care, modern facility with decent equipment -its a great hospital.

St Lukes technically has a level II NICU as they don't have a pediatric surgeon on board so would have to transport out in case of a surgical emergency. I believe they advertise as a level III as they can accept babies as young as 24 weeks but the lack of a surgeon is potentially problematic. All that aside it is a very nice hospital and you would receive wonderful care there, but these are all things to take into consideration.

IMHO, the Bethlehem campus is the better site as far as resources are concerned, the Allentown one is still kind of an auxiliary hospital in a lot of respects.

Lehigh Valley only delivers at the Cedar Crest campus which is huge.

Best of luck with everything :-)

[JenniferPA]

I've had all 3 of my babies at St. Luke's in Bethlehem and had a wonderful experience all 3 times! I was high risk with my 2nd and 3rd and was followed the the Perinatal center and they were excellent as far as my care and my babies! I can't say enough good things about them!

[DanniGirl]

I had both my Children at Leigh Valley and I have to tell you they were AMAZING! I actually called labor and delivery to tell the person in charge how WONDERFUL my nurse was.
Even in the mother/baby ward they were so nice and so helpful not matter what time it was.

I always say how wonderful they are to everyone I meet!

I also liked the fact they had a wonderful NICU just in case

Not sure what OBGYN you go to, but College Heights is wonderful as well!

[njbuyer]

Does anyone know about Sacred Heart Hospital? My Dr. works with both Sacred Heart and LVH Cedar Crest. I've heard so much about St. Lukes and LVH, but nothing about Sacred Heart. Thanks!

[cc_nurse]

Sacred Heart has a lot of very devoted nurses and physicians working there but *very* limited resources. If you have the choice, go to LVH-CC, they have everything you could need for most any situation, SH would need to transport out if a problem arose, that uses valuable time in an emergency, just MHO...