Novant Health Maternity—What to know for your birth
In my last few blogs, I have been exploring different labor and delivery hospital options around the Charlotte Area. The first few were Atrium based, but this one is a Novant Health based hospital. They have two options for maternity, but I will be touching upon Presbyterian Main, the closest Novant Health Maternity Center near Charlotte. I actually have personal experience with this hospital, as I delivered my third child here. (And I also photographed a Fresh 48 session when I was 35 weeks along, all the nurses thought I was there for my own delivery!) As a newborn photographer, I get to see the insides of a lot of the local hospitals during those precious Fresh 48 sessions and also get to hear the chatter from all the moms at their studio session about how their birth experiences went. Hopefully these little tidbits of information will help you make a decision on the best place for YOU to have your baby. (Congrats by the way!)
Novant Health Maternity- the deets!
Every hospital offers different rooms for moms to labor in and different levels of care as fa as NICUs go. Here are some quick facts from their website about what they offer to expecting moms at Presbyterian Novant Health Maternity.
Spacious maternity suites.
Breastfeeding services at Novant Health Nursing Mother’s Place.
A Women’s View Boutique: a specialty boutique designed exclusively for mothers and babies. Store hours: Monday through Friday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday: 1 to 5 p.m. (I have’t gone here myself, but I did go to something like this in Ohio after I had my first. If they offer nursing bras, it might be a great option to check out!! I left the hospital with a J cup size and had to find a specialty bra. I found it in a place that sounds like this!!)
Rooming in - where your baby remains in the maternity suite with you
Quiet time: every day on the maternity floor between 2 and 3:30 p.m. All visitors are asked to leave the maternity suite so mother and baby can have some quiet time and rest. (This might be beneficial if you are expecting a lot of visitors and maybe some that may be *ahem not wanted for long periods of time!
Kangaroo care (skin-to-skin experience)
At Presbyterian Medical Center, they offer an advanced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with our Level IV nursery - the highest designation in North Carolina. The nursery is staffed 24/7 by a team of board-certified neonatologists, nurse practitioners and registered nurses.
Presbyterian Novant Health Maternity {Personal Experience}
I have only had one of my three kiddos in North Carolina. The others were born in Ohio. We had an amazing OB here in Charlotte- she was super easy to get along with and very sarcastic and down to Earth. By some stroke of luck, we actually ended up delivering with her too! We got to see her during the pushing phase of my labor. My husband was taking forever to get on his white sterile suit so he could help catch the baby, and she was giving him tons of shit, oops I mean crap about me sitting there with my legs splayed WAITING on my silly husband to be ready. (She did end up letting him pull the baby out himself which was awesome!!)
The actual experience at Presbyterian Novant Health Maternity was a good one. The nurses were nice, the lactation consultants came in too much and the hospital room was pretty nice if I remember correctly. You did not deliver and stay in the same room the whole time, you did have to switch to a new room after baby arrived. Everyone was professional and clean, my OB respected what birth wishes I had, as did the hospital staff.
My only complaints on this facility were- pain meds. At the other hospitals I delivered in, they were given religiously without me knowing they were due or coming due. They did not do that here (this was 6 years ago though). We had to call for them, and by the time I knew I needed some, I was of course already in pain. The other complaint was that the hospital hit you up for payment before you even left. I think we were in the middle of changing her diaper or doing a sponge bath and they had a full on conversation with some very tired fresh new parents and neither of us were happy about that!
Other than that, the experience was a good one and I would feel comfortable personally recommending Presbyterian Main to other delivering mothers!
Feel free to check out these other blogs to read about other local maternity wards. And if you are looking around for a maternity or newborn photographer, I would love to chat with you about setting up a session!!
