I delivered my first and only son at Upper Chesape...

I delivered my first and only son at Upper Chesapeake. When it was time for me to get my epidural, the anesthesiologist came in and was pacing back and forth like he was looking for something. He then proceeds to tell me that this is his first week there and didn't know where anything was. I dont know about anybody else but if someone is about to put a huge needle into my spine, I don't want to hear that they have only been working a week at that hospital and didn't know where anything was. I should have seen that as a warning because he messed up when trying to insert the needle and had to re-do it.

My son was born at 9pm so I knew that change of shift for the nurses would be soon. I loved the nurses that helped me through the delivery but the night shift nurse was awful! The night shift nurse came in to introduce herself at the start of her shift and I told her that I was very unsure of what I was doing. I wanted to breast feed my son so I asked the nurse if she could help me get my son to latch (I was only 18 and this was my first child) and she replied with "oh you will figure it out" and walked out of my room. This had me very upset! Then the nurse decided to come into my room at 2 am to wake me up and move me to a new room. During the transition she put my catheter bag on my bed. I am a certified nursing assistant so I knew that this was a big no-no! The next morning while in my new room the day shift nurse came in to introduce herself and she was very kind. She lifted my gown to see that the night shift nurse never took out my catheter. She didn't even clean me up after the birth. The day shift nurse was very upset by this.

My son ended up having to go to the nursery because he had pneumonia. I had to go down there every few hours to breast feed and on one occasion I went down there and saw a male intern with his finger in my sons mouth allowing him to suck on it. This made me very uncomfortable. Also while I started to breast feed, the male intern decided to stand there and stare and my son's father had to step in and tell him to leave. This wasn't the nurses in the nurserys fault directly but you would think that they would have stepped in and told their interns what they should and shouldn't be doing.

Last but not least, while my son was being treated for pneumonia the nurses that came in to insert his iv had a hard time finding a vein. She inserted the iv into his arm and thought she had a vein. Soon to find out she was wrong and that she pumped medicine into tissue to where his arm swelled up and turned bright red. She came back and poked his other arm, and both of his feet. She then looks at me after multiple attempts in all four locations, and asks if I want her to try again to which I responded "NO! You need to find another way to administer these medications" She then had the medication put into two shots.

Over all I wouldn't say my stay was awful but it definitely could have been better! I am very aware of how busy a nurse can be but thats not an excuse to neglect care or to be rude to a patient!