Editing Pregnancy (section)

== Picking the Delivery Centre ==

Our primary concerns around a delivery centre were:

# ease of access
# sufficiently advanced NICU
# familiarity for our OB
# as few trainees as possible

SF's two premier hospitals for childbirth are the [https://www.google.com/maps/place/CPMC+Van+Ness+Campus/@37.785997,-122.4248823,17z/data=!3m2!4b1!5s0x80858095daa0be11:0xe0e52af890810f0d!4m6!3m5!1s0x808580bddec11691:0x2403a3e527410b5a!8m2!3d37.785997!4d-122.422302!16s%2Fg%2F11gcmrsjmw?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDIwOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D CPMC Facility at 1101 Van Ness Ave] and the [https://g.co/kgs/EvfhQV7 UCSF Birthing Centre in Mission Bay]. The former has a NICU Level 3 and the latter has a NICU Level 4. If you anticipate a birth with advanced conditions, it may be worth considering UCSF. In our case, the following factors weighed in favour of CPMC:

# it is 12-20 minutes away
# it's next door to our obstetrics service
# it is opposite our labs service
# it has a NICU level 3 (this is sufficiently advanced)
# our obstetrician has delivered many babies there
# it is not a teaching hospital

Much after we'd made our choice I talked to a friend of a friend who had their child at UCSF. They had a good experience and they are having their second child at CPMC only for the convenience of the location. They had no problems with trainee doctors etc. and believe that the midwives contributed a lot to the success of the process. In addition, a friend of theirs whose baby had a heart problem also used UCSF to a positive experience.

=== Review ===

[[File:CPMC Van Ness Parking P2 near Emergency Elevator.webp|thumb|Not an empty spot in sight. You also don't want this elevator. Use the one that goes to floor 2. It's much more complicated to get to Floor 5 : Labor and Delivery from this one that goes to Floor 3]]

Pre-delivery our care here has been pretty good: the nurses seem competent, check-in staff are well-trained, wait times are not long, and the facility is well-equipped with bathrooms and so on.

One thing to note is that there are fewer parking spots than cars. It is common to drive down a few floors and find that there are no spots available. In practice, many patients park in the cross-hatched sections along the walls and there doesn't seem to be any adverse enforcement of this.