An Expecting Mom’s Guide to Delivery Hospitals in Manhattan
By: Lydia Zolman, Director of Customer Development at Leo and Christina Felix, Research Analyst
For most women, the day they find out that they are having a baby is filled with excitement and joy. The natural next question is “what do I do now?” Navigating pregnancy involves asking family and friends for advice and a lot of Googling. Yet for expecting moms living in New York City, the surprising lack of information about the delivery process and what to expect in Manhattan hospitals is frustrating and confusing. We created this guide to make it easier for expecting moms to get a lay-of-the-land when it comes to the various delivery hospital options they can choose from.
This guide was derived from primary market research conducted by Leo during June and July 2016 on five major delivery hospitals in Manhattan: Lenox Hill, Mount Sinai Upper East Side, Mount Sinai Roosevelt, NYP Weill-Cornell, and NYU Langone. Our team spent countless hours gathering data and information including:
We did not include Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and NYP Lower Manhattan Hospital in our review only because we did not collect enough survey responses about these two locations.
From our research, the best way to ensure a safe and comfortable delivery is to find an obstetrician (OB) or delivery professional that you trust. Most OBs in Manhattan only deliver babies at one of the five hospitals, so choosing an OB also means you are choosing a delivery hospital. Of the moms who participated in our survey, 70% chose their OB first and delivered at the OB’s affiliated hospital. However, 14% of moms actually did extensive research on the delivery hospital options before choosing an OB. Selecting a delivery hospital first can help narrow the universe of OBs to consider. Regardless of which approach you take, be sure to verify with your insurance plan that both the delivery hospital and OB are in-network. Just because the OB you choose is in-network doesn’t guarantee that the hospital they deliver at is in-network as well.
In Manhattan, we are lucky to have access to many world-renowned facilities. But even amongst terrific facilities there are differences.
Delivery Hospital Rankings
In our survey, we asked moms to rate their experience at the hospital they delivered at on a scale of 0–100 (0=Terrible;100=excellent). Below are their rankings:
Overwhelmingly, moms who delivered at these five hospitals felt the hustle and bustle of being in a major metropolitan city. The volume of women delivering on any given day is high (12–20 babies per day on average) and the facilities try to accommodate everyone to the best of their abilities. Expecting moms should set realistic expectations because individual attention and privacy seem tough to come by.
The Delivery Process in a Nutshell
All the moms we interviewed who had uncomplicated births had very similar stories about the overall process of delivery across all five hospitals. As soon as contractions begin, you call your OB or delivery professional to find out when to go to the hospital. Once you arrive at the hospital, you will be led to a triage area and hospital nurses will determine if and when you will be admitted. If you arrive too early, the triage nurse may ask you to walk around the hallway to help speed up the contractions or simply send you home to wait for the contractions to become stronger.
When you are admitted, your OB or delivery professional will be at the hospital as well. The actual delivery process is highly variable and depends on the complexity of the birth itself. There are often many nurses helping throughout the process as well as other people you deem appropriate (resident physicians, anesthesiologists, family members, etc). Be prepared for quite a few folks coming in and out. If you require a cesarean section (c-section), you will be moved to surgery and the baby will be born there.
Some moms we spoke to hired a doula to assist in the delivery process. A doula is a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth. Doulas, not to be confused with midwives, have different skill levels and training. For expecting moms who have less family support in the city, having an experienced professional to help navigate each step of the labor process and to promote personal birth plan interests can be incredibly helpful. Doula services are typically not covered by insurance and prices can vary.
After the baby is born, every hospital will encourage skin-to-skin contact between the newborn and mom. Moms will then be wheeled to either a private recovery room or a shared recovery room. The maximum amount of nights a mom can stay in delivery recovery at the hospital is two to three nights for vaginal births and three to four nights for c-section births depending on recovery progress. If your baby is born before midnight, the first night will count towards your total nights.
New parents have the option to keep their baby bedside next to mom during the remainder of their stay or have the baby in the hospital nursery. At every hospital, except for Mt. Sinai Roosevelt, nursery newborns are tagged with an identification anklet and magnetic sensor, which alerts personnel if there is movement outside of the approved newborn areas. At Mt. Sinai Roosevelt, nursery newborns do not have the magnetic sensor. Some moms choose to send the baby to the nursery so they can get some rest and sleep. If you opt for the nursery, nurses will bring the baby to you for feeding and visiting.
Top Three Factors When Choosing a Delivery Hospital
Manhattan moms we surveyed agreed that the top three factors to consider when choosing a delivery hospital are 1) high-risk and specialized team availability, 2) hospital appearance and cleanliness, and 3) private room availability.
To read more about how each of the five hospitals stack up on these three criterion, check out the rest of the guide HERE.
