Cedars-Sinai Vs. St. John's Hospital

I had a planned cesarean at Cedars. Excellent across the board. The only drawback was the parking. The parking in the building isn't great, but you can park at the Beverly Center for very little. I believe they gave us some parking passes, I can't remember. It wouldn't have been an issue except we had a lot of people come to visit on a Saturday night. I wouldn't let parking be a huge factor, everything else is much more important. The Lactation nurses at Cedars where phenomenal. I didn't want to leave the place until I had it down. I videotaped my session so that I could have a record of the proper hold, placement etc. I never needed to look at it though, because once I was shown the proper way with help, everything worked perfectly in that department (this is after a day of cracked and bleeding nipples, don't underestimate the importance of getting assistance in this department, anyone who says the baby just latched on and it was golden until weaning is either extremely lucky or lying). I agree that you should pick your doctor first (including where your pediatrician), then the nursing staff, accommodation, and finally the parking. I thought the food was good, too. Also, it's close to the beverly center and a few restaurants so anyone staying for the duration has access to food. They also let me go home a day early which I appreciated. Best of luck!

My sister had babies at both, and I can tell you all about the experiences but who is your doctor? THAT makes a big difference.

I visited both wards before the birth of my first child. We ended up choosing a birth center, from which I was transferred to the nearest hospital - Cedars Sinai. I won't go back there again. In fact, I chose to give birth at home the 2nd time around. If I had to choose a hospital, I would choose St. John's.

Hi T.,

I just had my daughter at St. John's 4 weeks ago. These are the reasons I chose them over Cedars:

-much closer to my house (I live in Brentwood)
-individualized care. The labor & delivery wing just re-opened about 6 months ago, and it seemed as if I were always the only one being cared for. I liked the one-on-one attention I received, and I didn't think I'd get it at Cedars, the "baby factory" as my friends call it.
-Nurses were very attentive and helpful
-Facilities are super-clean as everything is still fairly new

The only downside is, I didn't like the parking situation. It's pretty much valet only, and it's $12 each visit. So, if your husband wanted to leave for an hour to go get you food from somewhere down the street, he'd have to pay $12 each time he left the parking lot.

Good luck with your decision; and congrats!!

~I.

That depends -- the first question for you is ... what kind of a birth are you hoping to have?

I've attended many, many births at both hospitals ... hand's down Cedars-Sinai is better for a natural birth! More of the nursing staff is open to whatever kind of birth you're looking for, they have telemetry monitoring so you can walk around and still be monitored, they have rooms with tubs (but you have to request that when you arrive and you need to be going for a natural, unmedicated birth to get one) and the parking, if you park in Lot #1, couldn't be any closer unless you could drive a car into L&D :)

OTOH, if you're planning on getting an epidural early in your labor, it makes much less of a difference, except for parking. The nurses at St. John's are great with women who have epidurals and c-sections -- it's a really good hospital for medically managed births.

If you decide to birth at Cedars, let me know and I'll send you instructions for the shortcut to L&D from the parking lot ;-)

I hope that helps :)

Happy Birthing!

T.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
T. H., CD(DONA)
B*E*S*T Doula Service
http://www.bestdoulas.com
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

i had my son at Cedars ...C section..there was a nurse in the recovery room..i guess she thought i was out of it but i heard her say "Someone shut that god damn baby up" about my newborn b/c he was crying...i'll never forget how ugly that sounded..otherwise the rest of the stay was good..we were there for about 5 days...this was in March 2006