Which hospital is best for Maternity, Delivery and Mother Baby Unit? (Austin: obgyn, insurance)

[NewTXan]

Well I think my title says it all. What are the main differences in the hospitals? Are there any I should stay from, or a hands down the BEST!? I would love to hear about peoples experiences at the different hospitals when it comes to having a baby.

[centralaustinite]

You are in luck! Austin is a fertile and growing place and has high quality OB care across the board. It is hard to go wrong.

I had a great experience at Seton Central. St. David's also gets high marks. Both have a complete NICU. Smaller hospitals can be quieter but if baby turns out to have problems, s/he may be transferred to a hospital with a NICU. So, chose Seton Central over Seton SW if you are expecting twins or are high-risk.

I am always surprised by people who insist on using a particular hospital that is miles from their homes, instead of one that is closer. If you have fast labor, distance can matter.

Choose a great OB and use the hospital that they recommend. Check if your insurance prefers one over the other. Otherwise, all of the Austin area hospitals are solid.

[Danbo1957]

North Austin Hospital on N. Mopac just built a brand new multi-million dollar Women's Wing with fantastic birthing options. My first grandaughter was born there last May; we looked at every hospital in the city and North Austin was our favorite - and everything went well.

[Trainwreck20]

There probably is no universal 'best' hospital, it depends a lot on the familly and what they want. That said, We used the North Austin Medical Center (not sure what the real name for it is these days) for our first, and are planning to use it for our soon to arrive second. We received excellent care and were downright surprised on how friendly and helpful the staff was.

[mimimomx3]

we used seton central. not glamourous but a wonderful staff and easy/close by.

[readymade]

I went on a tour of the Austin Birthing Center (http://www.austinabc.com/) and I was VERY impressed with it. If I were going to be giving birth in Austin, that's where I'd do it.

My husband just had surgery at Seton Central and was there for 3 nights. Some of the nurses were really great, and some of them didn't seem to know what they were doing at all. It was kind of freaky. One of them cut through his IV by accident (!!! she just wasn't paying attention for some reason), and kept trying to put it back in but seemed to have a lot of trouble (she had to try various veins, then left to go "ask another nurse what she should do" and then came back and tried another vein and was finally successful.)

Another time, his IV was leaking and blood was backing up into it. He called for a nurse and it took them about 15-20 minutes to send someone. Odd stuff like that kept happening. There were several other "incidents" like that but I won't bore you with them.

I'm pregnant, myself, and my OBGYN is "stationed" out of Seton Central. Based on my husband's experiences, I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable giving birth there, even if I were willing to give birth in a hospital (which I'm not for other reasons). I'm moving out of state, in any case, before the birth.

Also, I don't know if this would bother you or not, but Seton (and St. David's, obviously) are christian hospitals. There were crosses and pictures of dead Jesus all over the place. Kind of freaked us out.

[mark311]

We had a good experience at St. David's North Austin in their new Women's center.

http://www.womenscenteroftexas.com/home.aspx

St. David's HealthCare - St. David's North Austin Medical Center Delivers First Phase of $83-Million Women's Hospital

[NewTXan]

I think that St Davids North Austin hospital sounds like the one I want to go with. Its further from my job but much closer to home. So now the question is finding a great doctor to go along with my hospital of choice. If anyone has any pictures of the rooms they have I would love to see. Not sure if you can post pics on here though???

Thank you so much for the replies!

[Trainwreck20]

Go by and they will give you a tour of the place. They just added a new section in the maternity area, I think, and I have not seen it myself yet.

FWIW for the husbands, the food in the cafeteria was quite decent if not gourmet

[gpurcell]

Seton Central. That's where you want to be if something goes wrong.