UCLA Health BirthPlace Santa Monica

"I delivered my son at BirthPlace SM last week and I can’t say enough how wonderful the staff was throughout the entire process. All of my nurses were so wonderful (Lindsay, Kerry Anne, Ollie, Diana, Carly, Sheree, Cara) and the doctors were all outstanding as well. I had a difficult labor and I got all the support I needed! I’m beyond grateful for all their help."

"An organization is only as strong as their weakest link, and they have some negligent staff members. Unorganized and there were too many mistakes that I will not deliver here again. Dr. Chiang is the only OB I trust that is left here."

"Excellent amenities, staff. Good food."

"Do not have your child birth here, especially if it is your first. I still have painful memories of what they put my daughter through to this day (she's 5). In fact every physician outside UCLA's health system questioned why they had to spinal tap my newborn daughter 4 times. To think the doctor (who was a resident) then asked if they can place some sort of tube in her heart "for preventative measures", when clearly there was nothing wrong. The whole birthing process was a nightmare for my wife as well to this very day every gyno my wife sees (from Providence to Cedars) question why they put my wife through that birthing process and refused to give her a c-cession when her liver started failing from an infection. Later I find out from a neighbor who works for UCLA that they send 1 year residents to learn there. Maybe you or other reviewers had a better experience but so far on our tour of another hospital (our 2nd) we met 3 other couples that had some sort of horror story as well. You don't have to take it from me, and you can "roll the dice" but I recommend going Providence St Johns or Cedars close by."

"By far one of the worst experiences of my life. I was delivering my first child and there were complications which resulted in a cesarean. I arrived on Wednesday to be induced & was tortured for two days with medications that didn't work and were extremely painful to administer. It wasn't until my actual OB was the staff doctor on Saturday that he was able to give me the right mix of treatment to jump-start my labor. The nurse I had in l&d Deidre was a God send. She took pride in her work and truly made my time there bearable. However once I delivered and was transferred to postpartum I was paired with a nurse Dorothy who was HORRIBLE. She took over 6 minutes to arrive to my room after I had paged twice that I needed assistance lifting my baby as he was tossing in the bassinet and I was afraid that he would roll onto his stomach. Not only did she not apologize, but became extremely defensive. She made several snide comments about being busy and told me i should have said that my request was an emergency when I paged. To add insult to injury, she stood over me and refused to hand me my child. She stated that this was a hospital and they have protocol and needed to check his vitals first. Keep in mind that the nurse prior to her was able to check his vitals while he was in my arms. It wasn't until I screamed at her to hand me my child that she finally gave him to me. I did tons of research to find a great hospital to deliver my child and can say that what I experienced at the birthplace was the complete opposite. I filed a complaint afterwards regarding the nurse and was told the it would "be addressed" however they would not provide any further details. They also did not indicate whether they thought the nurse acted according to their standards. Very disappointing."