Mountainside Hospital is revamping their baby care unit. And it’s working. They’ve recently gone from delivering 50 babies a month to around 100. More parents are choosing Mountainside because they’ve added a 24-hour neonatology unit. This means that a highly skilled, experienced baby doctor–a neonatologist–is onsite 24 hours a day everyday. Before, the neonatologist was only available during business hours or on call. This is good news since babies don’t give a poo about business hours.
“A doctor is right here if something goes south fast,” explained Marjorie Rose, R.N.C., nurse manager of neonatal services.
Baby Tyler Melango, now just a week old, was one of those babies who could’ve died without onsite care. He was born with the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around his neck. The family is now doing well at home, see a slideshow of their time at Mountainside below.
Another benefit to delivering at Mountainside: Mothers get private rooms.
I gave birth at St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital in the city. There, you can put yourself on a waiting list for a private room, plus you get to pay $700 extra for it–per night. It sucked. I needed my own room so I could pee on myself in private while juggling two newborns. Plus, I didn’t want to deliver without a neonatologist onhand. I was a typical over-anxious first time mom.
How much easier would it have been to schlep to Mountainside during early labor? Instead, I worried about giving birth in the Lincoln Tunnel. St. Barnabus in West Orange and Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown are also popular destinations for local moms to have their babies.
Melango raves about Mountainside. His wife Valerie had preterm labor issues and was hospitalized six times before giving birth to T.J. “I’m so grateful,” he says. “If anyone has complications with their pregnancy, they should come here.”
Where did you give birth? Would your recommend it?
I gave birth at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck with my first, because my longtime OB/GYN was affiliated there. The staff was great, although they weren’t that supportive with breastfeeding.
The second time I chose Hackensack Medical Center because I was taken in with it’s hotel-like private rooms and highly recommended food menu. I had a terrible experience there. The nurses hardly checked on me, didn’t answer my call for pain medicine and kept trying to force me to keep my baby in the nursery.
I have heard great things abotu Mountainside from friends who delivered there.
The little prof first showed up at Mountainside. We had a great experience there.
I had a weeks stay there and found it perfectly fine.
In fact, one thing they do, that I found most comforting was that whenever a baby is born, chimes play a soft lullaby.
Those sounds, in the middle of the night, always brought a smile to my face.
I’ve given birth twice at Mountainside – 3 years ago, and just 2 months ago, and I had nothing but great experiences both times. The nurses are truly the best. And what I found really great was that most of the same nurses from 3 yrs ago, are still there… and many remembered us, so it was like seeing old friends. The private room is a big deal too… I had 2 c-sections & the recovery isn’t always pretty! I wouldn’t want to share all that with another person in the room. Plus my husband was able to sleep in the room with me – the rooms either have a 2nd bed, or they put a cot in there for the dads… very nice. So kudos to the entire Maternity ward at Mountainside for doing such a great job & treating us moms, dads & the new babies so well!
I had my #1 at Lenox Hill in NYC, and #2 and #3 at Mountainside. The experience for #1 was miserable by comparison (labor nurses spread too thin among several patients, annoying residents popping in at every moment of my stay, loud hallways overnight, exhausted post-partum nurses etc). I had a neonatologist in the room for both deliveries at Mountainside and found the staff to be attentive, professional, capable, and available at every moment. The rooms are not only private but spacious and pleasant. They even provide a higher end dinner for two on your last night before discharge, which was a nice treat for my husband and I before going home to a newborn and two older needy siblings. The only downside I see is that there is a smaller selection of doctors here in Montclair, so some may not find someone they like who takes their insurance.
Why did I give birth at St. Luke’s? It was like a communist block. Shared dirty rooms, crap food and nurses who were so overworked that they didn’t even have time to tell me what the witch hazel pads and squirt bottle was for. I hated it so much that for my second birth (third baby), I insisted on a discharge after 24 hours. Going home early–and getting out of that hospital cess poll–was the best part of my time there. That said, my OB care was excellent, if rushed.
We had both our kids at St Barnabas and they were really, REALLY, fantastic. Great doctors, nurses, everybody. I would highly recommend them, especially if you have any issues, since they have a neonatal intensive care unit.
Our first had her cord wrapped around her neck TWICE in utero, and the neonatal folks found it on their new (at the time) ultrasound. This was something new at the time, as they don’t usually spot that until birth, so they didn’t have a set protocol. They wanted to deliver the baby then and there (32 weeks I think) but her little lungs were not developed to the their satisfaction so the DW was on a monitor for days. Turns out the little thing completely unwrapped herself when the time came.
The second time around we got the private room, with the completely reclining chair for dad to sleep in.
Very Glad to hear Mountainside has improved.
I gave birth to my twins (now 4 y.o.) at Mountainside and received absolutely impeccable care. Every single doctor, nurse, lactation consultant and aide was skilled, attentive and compassionate, which is saying a lot because BOY did I need a lot of help recovering from a c-section with two newborns! I get choked up thinking about it, and I would never give birth anywhere else.
Surprised to hear so many positive birth experiences at Mountainside. I gave birth there 6 years ago and it was horrific-really horrific.
I had 3 previous non eventful births elsewhere and when warned against MS I opted to give it a shot thinking it couldnt be that bad and it was close by. It was…
I am very happy to hear its improved although unless a dire emergency in which time is a factor I wont be visiting there anytime soon.
had #1 in 1996 at Mountainside. While it had some good points, the bad outnumbered them so I had #2 in 1998 at St. B’s. However, due to Murphy’s law of births, I could not get a private room either time – they we were packed! (and I would have paid any amount, the 2nd time around.) That was my biggest problem for both – no post-birth woman should have to share a bathroom! It’s just not sanitary! Plus, at Mountainside I was stuck with a barn-raised heathen who came in at about 2AM and blasted the TV all night and all day, for both days. On the first night, the staff refused to turn off her TV even though she finally passed out. Meantime I was wandering the halls all night.
My sister in law recently delivered at St Claire’s in Denville and I was so jealous, I almost wanted to have another one. It was like a beautiful resort hotel room. Fabulous food, in-room sleeping for dad, quiet, peaceful.