My wife and I did not have a good experience at Duke Birthing Center. We were fairly familiar with the facility before going into labor, but we were very disappointed with our interactions with the majority of the personnel during our post-labor care.
The actual birth went well. The birthing side was great!
And that's where the good times ended.
Post labor, we were able to relax for an hour or so in our birthing room, admiring our new child and trying to rest from the loooong birthing process. The nurses were preparing to move us to a post-partum room where we could stay the remainder of our term, but it was getting close to dinner time so we asked the nurses about dinner. They provided us a menu with a number to call to order dinner, advising that dinner would take about 45 min to 1 hour to arrive (seems long time, but we understood). I spent 30+ minutes on hold with the food service line, but the order was placed. After advising us on the food service, they informed us that they would shortly be moving us to our new room. My wife and I then voiced our concern that our food was on its way and we were going to change rooms. TWO nurses on TWO separate visits informed us that "Yeah, it's no problem. The food will get to you." Perhaps it was our naivete that caused us to trust in these "professionals" with this information. This was our first child, and so we were none-the-wiser on how the food service works. Long story short, we were moved to our new room and our food had never made it to us 2 hours later. Our first nurse was very kind and understanding and gave us some vouchers to use in the downstairs cafeteria. We really enjoyed this nurse, as she was the most helpful, kind, caring, and professional.
From there on out, it was downhill. Every subsequent nurse treated us poorly, with very little caring, support, etc. Again, we were monitored and checked on frequently, but this time it felt like a "check them and get out of here" situation. The doctor never visited, but I feel like it this was standard operating procedure.
Finally, our doomsday discharge. It's time to go home. Our discharging nurse (our absolute least favorite) let us know that we would be getting discharged at about 2:00pm, so we decided to call in for lunch, thinking that 2+ hours would be plenty of time to eat before discharge (how foolish of us!). Lunch service ended at 2:00pm, so we wanted to order plenty of time ahead (our meal on the second night after birth took 1.5 hours to arrived - well outside the 1 hour window told to us). Here is a timeline of our lunch fiasco:
11:47am - I call down my wife's lunch order: a pizza with fresh fruit cup, chocolate pudding, and chocolate milk. The call recipient seemed to take our order no problem.
1:37pm - I call the food service line to check on the status of our meal (I gave them some time because our previous night's meal was late). The call recipient informed us that our meal was "still sitting on the line", meaning that it had not yet been assembled. Basically, they neglected our order. She informed me that she was going to place our meal order again and that she would have it rushed up to our room.
1:53pm - Food still not arrived. Call food service AGAIN, checking the status of our meal. AGAIN, no idea where it is. I am informed that the food is on its way.
2:11pm - Not discharged yet, and STILL no food. Keep in mind that my post-partum, breastfeeding wife is minutes away from discharge. I call the food service line again and ask for a manager. I speak with the food service manager who asks me if I want her to put the order in again. NO I WANT THE FOOD I ORDERED 2+ HOURS AGO. My wife is running on empty, and yet she's supposed to take care of feeding this child. The food service manager offers basically no help, concession, anything of use to the situation. She tries to explain that the food may take a while because the pizza (the longest cooking item on the menut) would take 6 minutes to cook. 6 MINUTES!!!
2:15pm - While speaking with the manager, our transportation comes to take my wife and our newborn baby to our car. I hang up on the manager, thanking her for nothing, extremely frustrated, upset, hurt, angry, and just disappointed in our situation. While we are being wheeled down the hallway, we see a nurse with a food tray approach our room, notice that it's empty, and walk away. I literally see our food coming 2.5+ hours after ordering. We get to our car and get out of there as quickly as possible. We see our final nurse at the nurses station as we pass by. She sees us, but offers no "goodbye", "good luck", "enjoy". No acknowledgement whatsoever.
Duke should be ashamed at how they treated a new mother and her child. It should NEVER, under any circumstances, take 2.5+ hours to get food to a patient. They treated us very poorly, and given the chance, we will never visit this facility again. I recommend this place to nobody. read more
