Experience Giving Birth at Willamette Falls Hospital or PDX Area Hospitals?

Hi K.,

I apologize for the delay in answering your questions. If you are still interested in experiences from both places; as a doula, I can give you loads of experience at both hospitals specific to Labor and Delivery, as well as the midwives, but from a different perspective.

I cannot, however, speak to their E.R. as I have had no experience in that department.

I will tell you that there are HORROR stores from each and every hospital as well as glowing reports.

Best of luck to you,
T. Nelson CD (DONA)

I can't speak to Willamette Falls, but I did have my daughter at St. Vincents. I thought that the staff there was very nice and friendly. They were also very accommodating and actually allowed my husband to deliver the baby. We are going back there to have our next child, and I would recommend them.

K.

I also live in Oregon City. I too have experienced a visit to the ER in which I felt things could have been done differently which would have saved me a lot of money. However, my daughter was born at the Willamette Falls Birthing Center and it was an absolutely wonderful experience. The staff was wonderful, very personable and I felt very confident in their performance. I can't say enough good things about it. My first two were born at Kaiser and let me tell you the experiences between Kaiser and Willamette Falls were as different as night and day. If you don't already have a doctor or midwife, check out Women's Health Center (located right next to Willamette Falls). They have both. I personally know Marny Lawson and she is a great person. I also love my doctor Nancy Salisbury.

I had my twins at Portland Adventist by Mall 205 and had a great experience. Not sure about other hospital rooms but PA has nice large rooms. I was there for 4days due to my c-section and all the nurses were wonderful. Not sure about the whole midwife thing, so you may need to check it out. Good Luck and remember there are good things and bad things that go on in every hospital. My step son was born at WF in the OC but that was 20yrs ago.

Congratulations!

I had my son at Portland Providence off Gleason. I thought they were all very nice and not too pushy (for the most part!). They didn't seem to understand gestational diabetes very well but I've been reassured their nursing staff has since had mandatory diabetes training for pregnant women in labor. I was surprised how frequently people were in and out of our room, but I hear that's pretty normal wherever you go. They tested my sons hearing (I didn't expect that!) and had people come in to see if we wanted a deal for having pictures taken (I didn't expect or like that!). We had help with paperwork stuff and a pediatrician visited before we left (we didn't have one so it was helpful to have them arrange this for us!). There was a lactation consultant that came to help me with breastfeeding....who knew? I really, really, really needed that! Had no idea I'd have both breasts attached to a hospital pump by day 2 and apparently this is the norm to get the milk going??? Some of the nurses were awesome, one was REALLY annoying, but we took it with a grain of salt. Overall, it was a good experience but on our drive home, instead of feeling nervous as first time parents, we felt so relieved that now we could finally be left alone:) I hear this is also the norm with hospital stays (I had to be there for 3 days ugh!).

Overall I would recommend it to anyone though. I don't know anything about other hospitals.

Good luck to you and again, congratulations!!!

I had our son at St. Vincent's two years ago and it was a great experience. I was a high risk pregnancy, and they have an awesome NICU (which fortunately, we didn't need to use) but it made us feel like we were in really good hands if something were to go wrong. My main labor and delivery nurse, Susan, was awesome. She was with me all day, and even stayed 45 minutes after her shift ended just to see the arrival of our son (I pushed for 3 hours). The delivery room was awesome. It was really big with lots of windows and a view. The post-partum room was tiny and just ok. Like someone else mentioned at a different hospital, people were always coming and going. Nurses to check on you, picture people (no thanks!) and the hearing testing lady. Also, like one of the other moms mentioned, we were so excited to just be able to go home with our little guy and not be bothered anymore. Overall, it was a great experience, and I would deliver there again in a heartbeat!