In our experience quilted health would be an excellent choice if this is not your first time giving birth, you are open to an epidural and want to give birth at Sacred Heart.
The positives of our experience with quilted were that over 60+ hours of labor we were given choices and mostly treated with respect. The staff at Sacred Heart was wonderful with the exception of one nurse who we were able to request not to have again. Even though it ended in C section, Hannah, one of the excellent midwives came in the OR with us and was incredibly kind and helpful. The OB Hospitalist, Dr Tyler was such a great communicator and we felt very safe and at ease with him and his fellow Dr Laubauch. The MA's and office staff at quilted were all great and we liked being able to have appointments in the cute brick house instead of having to go to Sacred Heart.
The negatives were that 3 of the 8 midwives could be quite condescending and we were lectured during the birth by one of them and after the birth by another. The 3rd made a scary experience during the pregnancy even scarier by not accurately communicating with us about why she needed to do a pelvic exam and not explaining why she thought I was wrong about what I felt happen- other than she "had never seen it in 29 years of experience". 2 of these midwives also were not fully up to date on hospital policy and 1 of them got very defensive when we asked that she tell those whose water has broken that if they go to the OB ED they will be pressured to stay and be admitted.
Even though Dr Tyler was amazing, if you do end up getting a C-section, you will now have to use the hospitalist OB staff if you need any surgical follow up care. They are emergency based so you cannot schedule an appointment or OR time with them. There was excessive bleeding later on and we spent over 8 hours in the OB ED with our newborn. Dr Zwiesler was great as well and thankfully ordered the test which caught the problem but there were very limited options to deal with it there. Since nothing could be scheduled, I was told to come back the next day, not to eat or drink for 8 hours before and wait in triage again to get a DNC.
Also when you use Quilted they send you to the MFM clinic for ultrasounds. You can read the reviews of them and decide but if we had to do it over again we definitely would have asked to be sent to inland imaging. Our negative experience at the MFM clinic was brushed off and Dr Barber was described as a "great provider", that was certainly not our experience.
A bit of luck of the draw with this experience, in the end we were certainly glad we were in a hospital and not at home, we also had great midwifery care from Hannah, Haleigh, Charlie and Jane - but there were enough negatives with this experience that if we had to do it over again we would have chosen differently. read more
