UNC Hospitals OB/GYN Clinic

"I had a very sudden stillbirth and the midwives and nurses were absolute angels. They were kind and compassionate and made me feel respected and held during such a heartbreaking experience of losing my baby."

"I had my baby here in early Jan of 2023. I can honestly say for any mothers debating on delivering here, please seek alternative hospitals if possible. Upon beginning induction, things had already began badly when the nurse tried a few times to get an IV in me and it wasn't "working". She phoned a veteran nurse to come give her assistance. After wiggling the needle around, the veteran nurse laughed and told me just to bend my wrist.. they were hitting my bone. As soon I bent my wrist, the I.V. went in. When the time came for an epidural they had to try multiple times to get the needle somewhat in the right spot. My left side never went numb which caused issues later on with the c-section. I will say 90% of the nurses on L&D were amazing to work with, however the one day nurse I had really had an attitude problem. I had been in labor for about 30hrs at that point with no progression. It was a scarey, high stress, anxiety inducing situation.. and the nurse just seemed so annoyed that I was upset. The doctors did a good job at the actual L&D, even with my artery being cut which caused severe hemorrhaging. Baby was healthy which is all that mattered to me. Communication between all staff members and patients definitely needs improvement. Doctors and nurses would ask me what the other doctors plan of care was.. I was exhausted and in pain, i could barely think straight from being in there a week. All medical staff should be able to read a patients file and know the exact plan of care. Doctors didn't let nurses know medical conditions and changes to plan of care either. Once I was moved to postpartum, that's when the real nightmare began. As soon as I arrived to the room I told the nurses it was extremely hot in the room, I requested the temperature to be lowered. My fiancé ended up having to adjust the thermostat for me since I was still numb and couldn't walk yet. I felt like I was literally boiling from the inside out, I started getting dizzy and blacking out from the heat (partially from the room temp, and partially from hormones) and panicking because I was fearful of passing out. The older nurse in the room rushed to my side to help me. The other two younger nurses just stood there, eyes wide, just looking at me like I had grown two heads. One just rolled her eyes, did absolutely nothing to help me. She had absolutely 0% compassion when she said "well you're in a hospital... just pass out", like I was an idiot for being scared of what just happened. The night time nurses on the unit are rude, mean, and uncaring. One nurse said she was going to check my bleeding, and with no warning pushed on my lower stomach with force.. after major surgery, then got an attitude with me when I yelled from the pain. I ended up needing a blood transfusion on the day i was supposed to go home. The doctors never communicated that with the nurses so i had to stay up til 1a.m. for the blood and didn't get to go home. Labs were constantly "messed up" and they always "forgot" to run important tests, so i was constantly being stuck for blood. When they had to put a new IV in, i requested the IV team because i was tired of being a pin cushion. The nurses decided to each try a few times regardless of my wishes prior to calling the IV team. The IV team even had to give it about 3 tries as well. Another nurse literally called me a hyperchondriac because after all the hospital "mishaps" I couldn't stop my body from shaking uncontrollably in fear when it was time for the transfusion. The nurse was impatient, kept rushing, and banging on the transfusion pump because it wasn't working properly. Then totally unprofessionally yelled and chewed out the poor cna who took my vitals. Overall this hospital made childbirth a traumatizing experience and has made me terrified of having anymore kids. I could barely make it through my daughter's first ped appointment without having a panic attack from just being back in a medical setting. I could write sooo more, but unfortunately out of room."

"I received my prenatal care at UNC MFM in Raleigh and they were great but since I was high risk I had to deliver in chapel hill. I’m giving 2 stars because my labor and delivery team were awesome and made me feel like I had a say in what we did and my nurses were always busting through the door within seconds of me pressing my call bell and were always so willing to do whatever I needed. But once I was moved to postpartum it was like I was at a totally different hospital. My first nurse checked me and was like “oh my that’s a lot of blood. I have to press on you to make sure you aren’t bleeding out”. I understand she was taken back by the amount of blood she saw but she could have worded that differently. She then called in someone to help her, they cleaned me up and got some briefs on me. Then the night nurse came in.. her name was Bethany I think. She checked me and took my briefs off and just stuck a new pad under me and took my catheter out and told me I had to pee x amount of times before 3:00. Some time later I had to use the restroom but as soon as I sat up I felt a gush of blood and I knew as soon as I stood up I would bleed everywhere and as a registered medical assistant myself, I didn’t want to walk across my room dripping blood everywhere. So I called for help so I could get some underwear on, 15 minutes go by and no one has come in yet. I called again and asked for help. Another 10 minutes go by and I really had to go so I just stood up and sure enough, blood went everywhere so I sat back on the bed. The nurse came in and was like “you needed something?” I explained and she was like “yeah it’s normal”. I told her I didn’t want to leak everywhere so she handed me a towel to put between my legs, wiped up the blood and left. The next day I had a decent nurse but she still didn’t keep up with my pain medications or my gas medicine. My fiancé had to leave for a few hours, I called to order breakfast and when it was brought up to me the lady who brought it watched me struggle to fix the bedside table so that she could place the tray where I could reach it. She finally set the tray on the end furthest from me and walked out. I assumed she was going to find a table that worked. She never came back and I couldn’t get to my breakfast and had to wait about an hour until someone came in so that they could hand it to me. The nurse we had the last night we were there was very rude to my fiancé. He had no experience with babies prior to our daughter and she would make comments about him being afraid to do certain things and would sound very condescending. While we were there we were told several times there was no nursery. The last night we were there we were both exhausted and I hadn’t slept in 3 or 4 days so around midnight I asked if there was anyway that one of the nurses could watch her for a few hours so we could sleep. We were told that usually the nursery would take babies in that case but they were backed up so she would check. She came back in a while later and asked me something but never mentioned the nursery or anyone taking my daughter for us. Anytime I had to use the call bell the person answering it sounded like they had the worst job in the world and like we were a burden. Through the entire time we were there no one offered to help me shower or get cleaned up and I could hardly move. Finally a CUSTODIAN gave me towels to shower. I was supposed to get my Nexplanon implant before we left. It had been mentioned several times. I asked about it when I was told we could go home and the nurse told me that everyone forgot about it and that it would be 20 minutes before a doctor could even put the order in and then however much longer before someone would be in to place it. I was so ready to go at that point that I just said to forget it and I would get it at my 6 week postpartum appointment. I loved UNC MFM and my labor and delivery team but the postpartum staff is enough to make me want to switch facilities all together for my next pregnancy."