So this is my 3rd child due Dec 13th. My previous two have been delivered via c-section by the same dr. My c-sections were the easiest things EVER. No complications, no pain. I was back to normal the day they sent me home from the hospital 3 days after delivery. Well now im a SCARED cuz I've heard so many horrible stories about vaginal deliveries at nhcp that I only thing c-section would be worse. Tricare won't let me change to an off base since I live so close. My previous dr is only 2 hours away but My husband is deploying again in September and if this pregnancy is like the others I will be at the drs alot and a 2 hr drive with 2 kids and no husband plus hospital stay is impossible. I need reassurance that i will be okay delivering at nhcp. I know bad things happen all the time anywhere but i just need help. So if u had a baby at nhcp i could really like to hear about your experience. Thank you. Srry kinda long. I talk a lot. 

I've never had a baby at NHCP or anywhere but I've heard awful stories as well :( But they were just the experience though, not the care, I mean Mom and baby were fine the NH just didnt cater to what the Mom wanted as far as taking the baby after birth ect. 

I had a friend who lost her baby because they waited too long to deliver and another suing them because she almost died from an infection they sent her home with. They say c-sections get harder the more you have and I plan on this possibly be my last child but im just nervous that something will go wrong and make me terrified or make it impossible to have another. Its probably all in my head but im just hoping some good reviews will help. Maybe I can request that dr. 

You can change to standard and be seen off base (maternity is covered 100% under standard as well). I was seen by the hospital back in 2005/2006 for part of a pregnancy and had no issues but did not deliver there. Good luck. 

You can't always listen to what everyone on here says. You could hear horror stories about every hospital. I had a csection at camp Pendleton. Everything went well. I am scheduled for my 2nd in a couple of weeks and am not worried. Go through past forums people have good stories too. 

Everyone is going to have different opinions. I had my last child there in February, first one at this naval hospital and my experience was not a good one. But I have heard plenty of good experiences. If you are that worried about it and dont want to switch to standard all you have to do is go to a hospital 50 miles from the naval hospital to deliver and Tricare will cover it. My husband and I went back and forth with doing this because we werent happy with the prenatal care I received but they ended up inducing me early because of some complications so I didnt get to make that choice. If I had found out that I could switch to Standard before my last trimester I would have. But by the time I got my request to see a doctor out in town was turned down for the 3rd attempt and they finally explained to me no matter what anyone says the only way to see a doc out in town was to switch to Standard I was already to far along.
Dont freak yourself out or else no matter what your experience will not be a good one. Like I said if you are that scared drive the 50 miles to another hospital. 

I know there will always be good and bad experience anytime someone has a baby. I was just it seems like more bad experiences at nhcp. I was not aware that I could switch to standard when I called tricare they never mentioned this. Thanks for letting me know! 

I have to agree with a3426941uu. You are going to hear good and bad things about any hospital. I had my son in a NJ hospital non Military and people had mixed things to say about it too. But everything was fine.

I had my daughter this past December at the Naval Hospital and speaking from my own personal experience it was good. I didn't have a C-section but my overall time there from start to finish was great.

Address your concerns with your doctor or nurse and I'm sure they'll be able to put your mind at ease :)

Best of luck and Congratulations 

They never mentioned it to me ether until it was to late. Good luck 

I had my son at NH Camp P... It was not all bad, but what you need to say is that you do not want anyone "training" on you. It is a training hospital and Dr's and Nurses that are training that they allow to work on you.

My experience was not a great one.

1. They would not deliver me until I was a week past due...I kept telling them I am in labor, 1 they stopped because he would have been 3 weeks early. I kept telling her the baby is too big and she said no he's not he will be barely 7 lbs....she measured! I was in so much pain and so huge and my feet swelled so bad... I couldn't take it anymore...I had to say an alarming statement so they would induce me almost a week over due. I have seen personally someone loose their baby because they left the baby in too long. So I was scared.

2. I was induced, my water broke even before the meds started working, I was in pain and opted for the epidural. I was the Dr how long has she been doing epidurals and the nurse butted in and said ohhhhh she's good and has been doing this a long time....long story short....when she did the epidural, I felt a shock on my left side, she pulled the needle out and re inserted.....get to this later in my step by step scenerio...

3. In labor about 19 hours, I started not feeling the pain meds half way through, I dialated to 8 for a doc to come in and say, you need a csection, the baby is too big....yep too big just Luke I said at 38 weeks....

4. I told the doctor on station, I do not want anyone training doing my csection...she wanted to argue that its a training hospital, I said I know my rights and no no no....she said ok

5. Everything went well for the csection

6. During the sewing up process, I hear the docs talking and laughing and the training doctor said...and I quote "well this one looks better than the last". Not kidding!

7. I'm in recovery, the doctor who gave me my epidural 21 hours later, comes to me and says, I'm sorry to tell you this but I'm pretty sure I punctured your spinal sack! If you get a headache prior to leaving this hospital tell your nurse. I said ugh ok. The electric shock I felt was her puncturing the spinal sack.

8. 3rd day in hospital my son getting circumcised, I had to fight tooth and nail for a experienced, on staff meaning paid not training doctor to circumcise our son....

9. 6 days later came a headache from hell....I thought I was having a brain annurism ( can't spell sorry lol ) my husband and kids and new baby all went to the hospital, had to go to labor and delivery, they thought I had something else and did blood work, despite me telling them the lady punctured my spinal sack and its a spinal headache....they said no the headache comes when your in the hospital not 6 days later... I could not stand or sit up because the headache was so painful.

10. They sent us to the third floor to see the walking doc for epidurals, the people were so rude, they sent my husband to get my records, the records dept didn't have them mean while I'm in so much pain and can barely see or sit in the chair, after 30 mins of no one helping us, I scream so loud that they are so dumb and don't know what the hell theory doing....I cursed a lot.... One lady in uniform came up to me and said....maam you can't be talking like that....really, that's all you care about, I'm in pain get me some help now!

11. Finally they got me a bed, and rushes me back now this doctor...the anesthiologist, was awesome....I need a new epidural, they took blood from the iv the put in and injected it into the epidural to make a patch for the puncture hole....its called a blood patch. Immediately following that procedure, I was cured....no head ache...no more spinal fluid leaking.

So there it is in a nut shell, I will never deliver at CPNH ever again! I will get standard next time oh and BTW I had a previous csection and the scar was beautiful, now I have a terrible ugly scar from them.... Oh and out son was 8lbs9oz not 7lbs... :)

Thank you and good luck 

I had my son at NHCP. It went awesome. The recovery was great. I would go there again in a heart beat.

My friend puposed to have her baby NOT at NHCP because of the rumors she had heard of their care. She had her second baby off base and it is a horror story.

Make sure that you go in knowing what you want and be vocal enough to demand it. Since it isn't your first, you already know what to expect in some aspects. Good luck.

Keep in mind that if you don't have a novice 'training' on you, these people are in a hospital that serves a population that is typically young and therefore sees a lot of births. So they are pretty experienced in general. 

Some people LOVE to complain about everything that doesn't go their way. God forbid a human make a mistake, or do something other than a demanding woman in labor wants.

There is the potential for something to go wrong at any hospital, I highly advise you to take every complaint and compliment with a grain of salt. 

Keep in mind that if you don't have a novice 'training' on you
The person training on me was better than the actual trained and skilled doctor. This was my 3rd child that was delivered here and I went in knowing what to expect and what I wanted. I made it known but because my doctor was a idiot and wanted to rush my labor my child and I had problems. This was the trained doctor not the student. The student actually said to the trained doctor that the pitocin was to high for just starting out and doctor said thats what he wanted it set at and he knew what he was doing. The nurse actual came in and turned it down right away but it was still to high. They would tell me something was wrong and walk out of the room and not come back so my husband would go hunt them down to see what was going on.They were busy and the doctor just wanted to clear rooms so he put my pitocin way to high. In the beginning I knew something was wrong but the doctor just brushed me off even though I said it was my 3rd time being induced. The doctor wouldnt listen to anything I had to say, my husband had to get loud and angry with them more than once. I think because they do do so many births are they numb to it and think they know it all when in fact they dont. Everyone reacts differently.

My recovery room was the size of a closet, it was the last one they had left and the nurse said they try not to use it but had no where else to put me. If they were so busy they should of sent me out in town.

My 2nd child, the one before this last was born at the naval hospital in 29 Palms and it was a great experience. 

Let me start with this: I HATE the naval hospital. I think there are a lot of incompetent personnel working there. I will say this: I just had my third son ( I had my second son at NHCP too) at NHCP 2 weeks ago. Both of my experiences were amazing. I had the same OB for both pregnancies and she was awesome (Dr. Mostofian). The staff and nurses on L&D are very nice, helpful and competent. I have nothing but good things to say about the L&D staff. I say give them a shot. 

I had a good experience when I had my daughter. Keep in mind you can control the environment as long as you stand up for your self. In the beginning the nurse I had was rude and had an attitude because I said I was allergic to latex after she opened the box of gloves and pulled out a few. I told her if she couldn't get a different pair of gloves with out being rude she could just leave the room. I was in a lot of pain, tired (it was 2 in the morning) and I was scared because her heart rate kept dropping. Her attitude changed fast and the doctor quickly apologized and we had a new nurse. 

I'm sure there is good and bad at all hospitals, I have 4 children and this was the only time I delivered at NHCP. Like I said it was not all bad......the nurses in recovery were very nice. I have another experience I won't bore you with the details but I miscarried at 20 weeks and let's just say the male nurse on staff was rude and horrible to me when I had to get a dnc because the baby was not coming out naturally.... And as far as being pretty experienced that is a hit and miss as well. The MD in family practice, didn't even know how to remove a wart from my daughters foot. She had to get a male Navy nurse to come in and show her how to freeze it off.

I'm only giving my experience and of coarse do your research. Never second guess yourself. If it doesn't feel right, then switch.

Thank you 

Overall I had a great experience.

The only issue I had was with one nurse, about the oxygen mask (it was giving me a major headache) I had taken it off, and she started yelling (during a contraction) at me that I needed to keep it on. My husband told her to back off that it was giving me a headache, she said she didn't care that I still needed to keep it on. He proceeded to tell her (in not such a nice way) that she was an idiot, and that if the Dr. wanted me to keep it on then he could come in and explain to us why when all it was causing was a headache, and that if she came back into my room it would be over his dead body.

We never saw her again, and everyone else was amazing. 

I have had 2 children at NHCP. One in 2006, one in 2010, and I will be having another there in October. I have never had a bad experience with them. I love the NHCPs delivery department. 

i would highly recommend dr mostofian as well if you do decide to stay at nhcp. my first dr there me and my husband hated! but due to some complications then made her my dr, and she was so much nicer, knew what she was doing,took time to really explain things and not just rush us in and out. unfortunatly she couldnt deliver me because i had to be transfered to balboa, but it was a good experience for us once we had her. she was quick to make the best decisions for the baby and me as well! 

It is what you make it. It's YOUR delivery, you have to advocate for yourself. If you don't like what's going on, speak up! Don't take no for an answer. That being said, I delivered my 2nd there and have zero complaints. I loved everyone, from my check-in nurse to my discharge nurse. 

Miss Kriss, honestly I don't trust naval hospitals. I have had so many bad experiences, not in ob, but with other areas and just don't think it is the place for me. I am pregnant with our second due in january and cried when they wouldn't let me choose a doctor off base. On a positive note though I switched to tricare standard. It is super easy to do! Go to the sixth floor of the naval hospital and go to the tricare office. Tell them you want to disenroll yourself from prime (your other children can still stay on it though). You are disenrolled that day. Find a ob that you like off base, call them up and make an appointment. All your ob appointments will be covered 100% up until six weeks after the pregnancy. The only cost you will see is 17.50 per day that you are in the hospital for delivery. Which I think is well worth it :) After a year of being on standard you can just switch back to prime. Very easy! If you have any questions just let me know. I got the run around for hours trying to figure everything out so I am pretty educated on it now :) 

Txbelle- I have been reading about changing to standard but yet to do because if the costs. With my last pregnancy I was in the hospital 3 weeks straight right before I delivered because if kidney problems. If that was to happen again I'm afraid I will end up with a huge bill on standard. Is it 17$ a day anytime you stay in the hospital? 

I included the page talking about standard. From the looks of it the 17.05 is for hospital stays and for length of stay during labor and delivery. To me it would definitely be worth it to spend a little more to know that I have chosen my own clinic for delivery, but it is really up to you and your husband and how comfortable you feel at the naval hospital. 

http://www.tricare.mil/mybenefit/home/Costs/HealthPlanCosts/TRICAREStandardExtralink title 

I did a V bac at the NH if it wasn't for the Dr it wouldn't have been so bad. Everything else was great