UCSF Birthing Center

This review is for the new Mission Bay Birthing Center. During my recent experience at UCSF, I would rate most of the nurses there a solid 5; they were caring, compassionate and helpful. Well, except for the one that forced me to take an unnecessary Xray (see below). However, my experience with the midwives was terrible. (yes, I said midwifes, isn’t that ironic!!) Particularly with Kate Frometa, who came into my room, not engaging, cold, uninformative, and sat in my room for a few minutes just to give me condescending glare. Mind you, I was asking for information/​data to make an informed decision. I have been around the medical field for many years, and know better than to flat out contradict a decision for medical care, but I still wanted to know what my options were (did I have any options?), and the reasoning behind my plan of care.
All I wanted is to play a part in the decision making of my care, to be included as an intelligent, rational human being. It got to the point that my native New Yorker, cool with people that are rough around the edges partner, said «if she enters your room again, I will ask her to leave». I am very disappointed, and at this point, I would choose another hospital in the event that I chose to get pregnant again.
Also, I was forced by the nurse to take a chest Xray. After I refused, she told me I wasn’t allowed to refuse and brought in the radiology tech. If you are inclined to know the finer details, look up TB vaccine and false positive TB tests. A Quantiferon blood test would have sufficed, but unlike most hospitals in the Bay Area, UCSF does NOT carry it. Instead, they said «you have a baby, you cannot refuse the Xray». I had asked my OB while I was pregnant for that test, and wish she would have sent me out to an outside lab to get it, look ahead and prevent the extra radiation (which effects are cumulative by the way).
Just not delivering my next baby here again. Gotta give another hospital a try.

Excellent nursing staff, thorough doctors, and there is always someone who will try to meet your needs. I spent a two weeks (separately) here about a year ago, and I was consistently impressed with how thorough and dedicated the nurses were. If you have to be in the hospital, this is where to be.

My wife and I just had our daughter at UCSF and we could not have been more pleased. While not everything is perfect the important stuff — the people and the quality of care — were stupendous. A bit more detail:
We liked:
* Quality of care was very high. Doctors, nurses, lactation consultants, social workers… everyone. We never felt rushed or heard that «the doctor is busy» or had to argue or negotiate for anything. We felt like we were the center of the universe. And when they thought we had a delivery complication (false alarm fortunately) we were in an OR with (literally) 15+ doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, etc. in five minutes. I’m no doc but everyone seemed extremely knowledgeable and involved.
* Everyone is friendly, helpful and genuinely concerned. Nothing felt fake or phony; we just really felt like the people we met loved caring for newborns and their families
* UCSF biases towards natural childbirth and care. They aren’t pushy or preachy about it and were very willing to offer interventions but at the margin their philosophy is clearly that «women’s bodies know how to do this». We liked that.
* The post-​delivery care is very focussed on teaching basic care e.g., how to nurse, swaddle, sooth, etc. We are new parents and felt like the two days we spent helped us get started.
* Nice views. Yeah its dumb but there is something cool about watching your baby being born against a spectacular Bay Area panorama ;-)
We didn’t like:
* Its kind of an old building. The delivery rooms are large and very comfortable (with aforementioned great views) but the window film is peeling in places and it just generally feels old. But to be clear everything was was clean and safe. It just looked a little more 1980s than some other places.
* Food ain’t great. On the plus side its all organic, natural, etc. But its not that good, portions are small and you really need to order 45 mins in advance
We didn’t mind (but you might):
* Its a teaching hospital so you see a lot of different people. We didn’t mind because everybody was universally friendly and good. They seem to have a strong culture and way of operating that spans all the staff
* You do get visits from all sorts of people — social workers, birth certificate processing, lactation consultants, etc. We liked that we all those people were doing stuff to help us. But I could see people wanting a more «concierge» kind of service.
But net net. We were super happy and loved our UCSF experience.

It’s been a long road of recovery for me after my son was born in early 2013. I had a very difficult time pushing him out and was allowed to push for 5 hours. When I was just about blacking out, I was finally given an episiotomy and my son came out immediately. However, no one on staff caught the postpartum psychosis that set in almost immediately due to the traumatic nature of my son’s birth. After we were sent home, I was ultimately re-​hospitalized on a psych hold but was never told my diagnosis. It took multiple therapists and my own research to identify postpartum psychosis. I have been struggling to regain my mental health and heal my marriage (which was severely strained by my ordeal) ever since. Thankfully my son is perfectly healthy. I still feel that instead of congratulating me on my natural birth, the staff should have picked up on the warning signs (I could barely eat or sleep, I refused to shower, had difficultly breastfeeding, began having panic attacks, etc.). Earlier intervention could have saved me and my family a lot of money and personal anguish.

FOOD REVIEW
If there’s any part of a hospital that most closely approximates a hotel, and really benefits from a focus on customer service, it would be L&D — generally healthy, happy people, who are well-​enough to care about stuff like being comfortable and having entertainment (eg Internet access, TV).
Who knows what it will be like when everything moves in February to Mission Bay, but for now, the food service is pretty blah. They essentially want to replicate what is available at the cafeteria to what is available in room, but it makes the menu fairly disorganized. Charge $ 7/​meal for visitors.
The food itself is generally edible (which is positive for a hospital), but lots of problems:
–1 hour delivery to room
ORDER EARLY. at least they tell you on the phone it will take an hour, but they
really use at least an HOUR to get food to your room
–this meant our milkshakes where completely melted by the time they arrived
–lost half of our first meal. I was a little grumpy when my breakfast was lost after
being up all night for our delivery
–generally, food portions are very very small
probably sufficient portions, but they are pretty small
–beverage portions are TINY. Instead of a standard 8 oz glass, the juice is
provided in those tiny ?4oz plastic throw-​away cups, soda 8oz cans
–You have to remember to ask for condiments (eg ketchup, sugar, cream, etc)
–Mac & cheese was bad
Lots of work if they want to compete with CPMC for babies…
The important stuff was fine. We found the anesthesia and ob/​gyn residents, and RNs to be quite attentive and pleasant. Objectively, the epidural was started roughy as fast as it was at CPMC for our other children — door-​to-​drug time was about 1.5 hours. They navigated the complicated cord blood box we brought with us just fine.

I give my prenatal experience at UCSF at 2 out of 5, my experience with midwife Maria Iorillo a 5 out of 5 and my UCSF delivery and postpartum care a 4 out of 5.
The 2 out of 5 for prenatal care is due to the impersonal nature of operations (you never see the same nurse or doctor, for instance) and how anxious I often felt after leaving appointments. I decided to go with a personal consistent care model within the homebirth community, selecting Maria Iorillo with Wise Woman Childbirth Traditions as my midwife.
Though Maria can do testing, blood work and baby monitoring, I decided to continue my blood work at UCSF for consistency’s sake and also to have my 9 week and 20 week ultrasounds at UCSF.
Maria, my doula, my husband and I labored at home and transferred to UCSF for help when the pushing phase became too difficult and too long. Once transferred to UCSF with my birth team with me, I was able to get second opinions on interventions and felt that every decision I made along the way was informed.
I had an epic birth at UCSF — after a nearly six hour (total) pushing phase — with the help of their labor and delivery team. I am grateful to Dr. Lamar’s team of nurses (Winter was especially helpful) and residents for their patience and calculated support to help me push my baby out.
The 48 hours we spent at UCSF after the birth of our baby were very busy, but I did appreciate the lactation support and overall care. Many nurses there impressed me with their kindness and warmth. Maria did all subsequent postpartum visits after we returned home.
I feel like I had the best of both worlds with a planned homebirth; the concurrent care at UCSF during the pregnancy; laboring/​pushing at home; and the final delivery at UCSF with the technology we then required.
Thank you, UCSF team and Maria!

If you want a hospital that genuinely supports natural births and is sensitive to following the parents birth plan then this hospital is not for you. My birth plan was completely ignored and when my husband tried to intervene one nurse completely shut him down. The event was so bad that the next day, one of the attending physicians stopped by our hospital room and apologized.
Don’t be fooled by the pictures of the labor rooms with a city view. Within minutes of giving birth you will be moved to a regular room which will give you an opportunity to see what it feels like to give birth while incarcerated. Our room was so tiny that my dad had to crawl over my mother-​in-​law to get to the chair on the other side of the bed.
I do give two stars for a nurse names Winter who showed me at 3 a.m. How to properly breast feed my son. I was able to go home feeling confident I knew what I was doing after that experience.

This hospital was amazing. Yes it is old but they are moving in Feb to a new campus so I have a feeling with our next baby the hospital will be brand new. ;)
What made this place so wonderful was the staff. The nurses were pure amazing. I was in labor for 36 hours which means 3 nurses. Every time one was leaving her shift I would be sad but then I would find the next nurse just as wonderful. They all had something different to offer and met my needs in very different ways. I had a birth plan that didn’t pan out. As the plan was unfolding the nurses were beyond supportive and my personal advocates when it come to the Dr.‘s decision. They were physically & emotionally supportive. When it came to pushing it was just my nurse and husband up until 10 minutes beforehand. It was a very intimate and calm. Exactly what was needed at that moment. Then the Dr.‘s came in and took great care of myself and my son. The nurse helped to make sure myself & my son were comfortable and well taken care of. I walked away feeling very supported and cared for. My husband and I could not speak more highly of this hospital or the staff!!! I am very grateful for the care we received!

Great hospital for natural birthing! I knew I wanted a natural birth, and to use hypnobirthing techniques. I was also adamant about giving birth in a hospital «just in case». UCSF offered the best of both worlds.
First, and most importantly, the doctors, midwives, and nurses are top notch. The care I received was excellent, and I had utter faith in them if something did in fact go wrong (fortunately everything went smoothly). Because they are associated with a university, the are up on all the latest research.
The doctors were incredibly supportive of natural birth, having a doula, having a birth plan, limiting cervical checks and monitoring, etc. they actually read and respected my birth plan. My doula helped me labor in a number of different positions, and the staff had no problem with that. The room was certainly large enough. A midwife did the actual delivery. They have a policy against episiotomies. Overall it was an extremely positive birth experience. I don’t think it could have been any better had I been at a birthing center or had done a home birth.

WOW! The Medical Team here (mostly residences) are AWESOME! Top Notch and most come from the East Coast it seems. Most were personable and willing to help. I had a really terrible labor called «prodromal». Google it! There’s a small chance that you will get it and NO WHERE did I learn in any of my birthing classes and videos did I hear about it.
So with prodromal labor, it started on a Sunday night and I winded up having a C-​Section on Friday afternoon at 3pm! So you can imagine — being in labor for a week was terrifying! With a C-​Section, I had to stay 4 days so I was there for a total of 6 days.
So why 2 stars?
Here’s why:
— There are only 6 birthing rooms. Everyone takes their turn in that room. Yeah you get a view, but the tint on the windows were peeling and the rooms are decrepit. NOT WORTHY of picture taking since the tints were dried up. I’m not too sure who glammed the jacuzzi tub — but that thing was «slightly bigger» than a normal tub you have at home, but with jets and they were from the 1980s. I got to stay in my suite for 2 days vs the 6 hours a patient with a normal delivery would get. So get this… there are plenty of hospital rooms — they put you in a pre-​labor room when you arrive, then when you are about to give birth, they put you in a suite (maybe for 6 hours from what I gathered from the tour), then after birth, they put you in a postpartum room. Who the feck wants to move that much?!! Not I! Total musical chairs! UGH!
— ½ of the nurses were complete idiots or they were amazingly cool! INGRID was the one who I lost my cool with as she watched my baby (or take her to the nursery) so I can take a shower, only to return my baby in less than 15 mins. Which was unexpected and really got to me. You’d think after 4 – 5 days of not showering, I’d probably would want to take a LONG HOT SHOWER — which Ingrid insisted. UGH! One nurse (forgot her name) told me she was going to bring me a breast pump machine only to never return, so I never got to learn how to use a breast pump machine properly. Another nurse forgot to bring me my pain meds (you are so out of it during your entire stay, you could sleep and not know what time it is).
— The LACTACTION NURSES are NAZIS. They stroll around visiting patients and if your little one isn’t up, they are off to the next patient and never to return. The other Nazi nurse, Kate, judged me because I wanted to give my baby formula because I had been trying to breastfeed for 6 hours throughout the night and my baby wasn’t getting anything. After my baby got alittle formula in her belly, we were both able to sleep and rest to make up for the lost time. FOR THE RECORD KATE, I have implants — so not all of us can breastfeed!
— The food is disgusting. I ordered a turkey sandwich and this is what I got (pictured). You get a menu everyday and they just come in and put food on this table. I was so busy tending to everything, that I would forget to fill out what I wanted for my next meal, so they would bring you more shitty food. Here’s a note — expect LOTS of CANNED PEACHES.
— All the TV stations on their old flatscreens are STATICKY!!! Don’t expect fancy. The cool thing is that they have a Baby Channel and it will loop with different shows on how to take care of your baby. Did I mention that it’s staticky? It’s so unbearable to try to watch for more than 5 mins.
— This place is a revolving door. As soon as you close your eyes, somebody — ANYBODY, would just come in your room. Whether it’s someone from nursery, a resident, the doctor, your nurse, the food lady, the lactation nurse, the janitor. OMG… the JANITOR WALKED IN ON ME NAKED! Swear to God!!!
I would steer clear of this place or wait for the new Benioff Center to open in 2015 in Mission Bay. However, I’ve heard a lot of people who work at UCSF won’t be going to the Mission Bay location because of it’s location. Apparently, a lot of the staff live in Marin/​Santa Rosa, etc. and they would have to drive through the city to get to Mission Bay.
Your next question probably is: Why did you decide to have your baby at UCSF?
My insurance company (Anthem) gave me little choices in good quality hospital. I live in Oakland and my «triangle» was John Muir in Walnut Creek, St. Rose Hospital in Hayward and UCSF in SF. I wished I chose John Muir. My gf just had a baby there and her room was nice and she stayed put the whole entire time. No room juggling.
Also, I heard the view was amazing. My view was good if I turned my neck to the left all the way when I was on my bed. It was a great view to all the doctors, nurses and visitors as soon as they walked in to see you.
BTW, UCSF charged my insurance $ 100k for all this shitty service. I am so shocked that Marc Benioff would put his name on this hospital. So much for being a part of the Salesforce community and I am a huge fan of Benioff. He should have put all that money and renamed the Tenderloin District.

My wife just gave birth here after having our previous 2 kids at CPMC. All three were straightforward with no complications. Our experience at UC was a million times better! The staff was way more personable and friendly. They were way more open minded, didn’t rush our baby away after the birth. It was a substantially better experience.

I had my baby here in August 2013. The care here is pretty awesome. That being said, you don’t go to a hospital for a vacation, you go because you’re not well, so don’t go expecting it to be like a stay at the ritz Carlton, because it’s a hospital, not a hotel.
Some great things about delivery: the tubs are awesome, the rooms are nice and have a great view over the bay, the doctors and nurses on the night shift are super awesome (I saw some on the day shift during delivery too, but I was too busy pushing to pay them much attention), everyone is very respectful of the mother’s wishes and try to make sure she gets the delivery she wants. They also try to do everything they can to help you avoid a c-​section too. Both my anesthesiologist and primary nurse stand out in my mind as amazing, caring, smart people. The couch in the delivery room was fairly comfortable for my husband to sleep on when he got the chance.
Some great things about the post-​partum care: the nurses for the most part are amazing, they try to give you uninterrupted time to rest after delivery your first day (take advantage and sleep, even if you are too excited, try to sleep because the next day will be whirlwind). I was in one of the overflow rooms on the 12^th floor, which are bigger and quieter than the rooms on the 15^th floor because it’s an orthopedic floor. There were only 4 post-​partum moms on that floor.
Some things to be aware of when you deliver here: the birth center virtual tour video is out of date. Go take a tour, I wish had done a physical tour. There are no longer fridges in each room, but there’s still a common pantry stocked with food, juice, water, and ice for patients/​families. There’s also no longer the «mommy mobile» cart with breastfeeding supplies, so plan to get yours ahead of time if you might need something the hospital can’t provide, like a bra. I wish I had known they only will give you ice packs for 24 hours after delivery, so make sure you request them as frequently as possible during those 24 hours. The guest «bed» in the post-​partum rooms are super sucky to sleep on, so be prepared if anyone stays with you that they won’t get any rest either. That said, the night nurses only come in about every 6 hours if you don’t have any complications, so you will be able to rest if your baby allows you to. The food is so-​so, and I didn’t feel like I could get enough and had to ask my family to bring me more.
Overall, it was a good experience for what it was, but boy was I happy and ready to go home!

I didn’t realize there was a separate Unilocal page for the birthing center at UCSF. You can read my original review on the UCSF Medical Center page.
I came here and had both of my kids. My first experience wasn’t so great and I really didn’t want to come back to this hospital again, but my husband was born here and loved the care he got growing up so he wanted our daughter born here as well.
My second experience was a lot better then my first and I’m currently pregnant again and sad I won’t be delivering here. When complications arose in my pregnancy they were on top of it and handled everything really well. The communication was lacking at times and the students got annoying, but overall our daughters birth was a pleasant experience. The nurses were great, on top of everything, and seemed to really care. We saw Suzanne Seger and she was wonderful! Even now that I’m 3 states away I was able to call her with an issue I was having with my new dr and she was able to give me some helpful information and advice about the situation!

This review is insanely long (and uh, graphically detailed) but if you’re trying to choose a birthing hospital, hopefully there are some helpful details here.
Even before getting pregnant, I deliberated crazily between St. Luke’s and UCSF. I ended up going with St. Luke’s but ended up with a more complicated pregnancy (complete previa that moved very late and a chronic abruption throughout). At 27 weeks I was inpatient at St. Lukes and at 29 weeks I was inpatient at UCSF so I got to experience both beforehand and my experience at UCSF was phenomenal and I felt that I was in very good hands, so I switched at 30 weeks.
I’m quite glad I did. Info for any others doing a similar comparison: I did not care for the ‘Centering’ program at St. Luke’s at ALL but I hear the UCSF version is quite similar. You don’t have to join the program at either but there is some pressure to if you pregnancy is low risk/​healthy. Other considerations: St. Luke’s only has a level 2 NICU (UCSF has a level 3 which is a consideration if you are at risk of delivering prematurely) — because of this St. Luke’s doesn’t, with the exception of extreme emergent situations, deliver a baby before 35 weeks (you’d be transfered to Seton, UCSF, or somewhere else with a level 3). When it comes to labor, UCSF is able to offer a trial of labor more easily than St. Luke’s because of the resources they have when it comes to staff/​surgery/​anesthesiologists (important for women with a marginal previa).
Praises: my perinatalogist at UCSF, Dr. Gonzalez, was the first/​only person to suspect an abruption (instead of the previa) as the main cause of my complications and I felt that, after transferring, I got the best prenatal care I possibly could have. My labor ended up being induced due to PPROM (4 weeks early) and was complicated by lots of stuff but UCSF was so capable– I was able to avoid a c-​section.
Cool sciency stuff: they let me go a total of about 42 hours after rupturing– including 30 hours labor (antibiotic IV of course) and were able to do an amnio irrigation when my baby’s heart rate was dipping from cord compression (and it worked). My placenta was pretty low so I had lots of bleeding but they were totally calm about it. I do think that had I been anywhere else, they would not have been as comfortable with as much experience/​resources and I would have surely been sectioned. I felt that they were incredibly supportive of natural birth preferences. Some things I had searched for in the reviews and couldn’t find: yes, you can eat and drink during labor there unless you have an epidural (then it’s clear liquids) and when it comes to the jetted tubs, yes you can labor in them but it is pretty awkward if you are wearing the monitors (they aren’t exactly wireLESS) or hooked up on an IV, and they are quite small.
Overall, amazing prenatal and labor experience. Literally the only negative of the whole process was that they don’t have ‘private rooms’ for their preemies or «high observation» babies. This is pretty common and it basically just means that well/​healthy/​post 36wk babies get to room-​in with their moms but babies under special care have to go to the nursery full-​time and mom comes to them. I don’t know if the new facility they’re building will have different accommodations, just that some hospitals have private rooms (not sure which in the Bay area) and that it would have been really helpful. Basically, without private rooms you have to visit the nursery and feed on a schedule and, in my experience, this had a pretty significant impact on my milk being delayed (even though the nurses and lactation were REALLY helpful and invested– giving me TONS of resources, suggestions, support, and supplies) and later on my low yield.
Also, then, once you are discharged, if your baby is still under care, you have to figure out your own accommodations. For us, they were able to let us ‘board’ an extra day in our recovery room then let us camp out on a couch in a small room, but it is really tough to have a baby then 2 days later be without a shower, private bathroom, bed, etc. For families with very sick babies who are going to stay a long time or who live far away, you’d have to try to stay at nearby Ronald McDonald or something. Again, most families won’t have to deal with this probably at all (thankfully) and many, many hospitals have this very classic set-​up. I’m pretty sure St. Lukes and others are the same but it is worth asking about. It was just the only hard part of our experience, even though he was only there a week.
Overall, if I had to do it over, I would definitely have started and stayed with care at UCSF. You can bring your doula to the high-​science teaching hospital but it doesn’t work the other way around.

Had a great experience (well as great as labor can be) here. I chose UCSF because of the NICU, its progressive research-​based model, and its midwifery model. Although I haven’t gotten the bill just yet, I do not have regrets about my level of service there. If anything they were very cautious, even to the point I think some tests are not necessary but it’s a teaching school and following some protocol probably makes some sense. I loved the nurses and midwives there. I believe the way the model works is that midwives tend to you and your labor gets escalated to an OB who always backs up a labor. but the OB doesn’t step in unless there is a medical need to do so. I like this model because in order to get through labor, I felt I needed the patience and care of females who appreciate the beauty of the woman’s body, rather than rely on medicine to overly assist.
We’ll see if my review changed when the bills come in!

Great. Lovely rooms, wonderful staff, very knowledgeable and helpful in all ways. Highly highly recommended.

My wife and I had our baby here back in September. Overall, we were very happy with the experience. Most of the staff we encountered was great (with the exception of one night nurse who clearly didn’t want to be there), and they didn’t try to push us through too quickly. Actually, that’s probably an understatement, since we were in our birthing room for about 27 hours (the birthing rooms, by the way, are fantastic; very roomy/​comfortable/​well equipped). My wife wanted to make it through the whole process naturally, and they were very supportive. The staff also worked well with our doula.
Only major hiccup for us was that they put my wife on magnesium sulfate to lower her blood pressure, but didn’t tell us beforehand just how much that would slow down the labor process. When they started the MgSO4, it slammed the brakes on contractions, and eventually resulted in pitocin administration to get things moving again. More importantly, they didn’t inform us that the MgSO4 was likely to make the baby come out a bit limp and lifeless. Not something you want to be surprised by, and led to a fairly terrifying first few minutes. After the fact we learned that this was normal and that there wasn’t much actual risk, but it’s not fun to watch a team of medical people furiously tapping your newborn baby to try to get her to move her arms or legs.
I realize putting the above paragraph in here makes this review seems a lot more negative than it really is. The fact that this happened and I still give the whole experience 4 stars should indicate how good everything else was.
Oh, there was one other quibble: the daddy beds in the overnight rooms (which are pretty tiny) are amazingly uncomfortable. They’re made up of three separate parts that theoretically attach together to form a bed, but each of the 3 parts is at a slightly different height, and one of those parts slants at a 15 degree angle. I think they do this on purpose so that the dad has to experience a little bit of suffering during the process. Luckily, I was so tired that it didn’t matter too much.

Yes, you’ll get sweeping views, brand new boutique-​hotel style postpartum rooms, and friendly nurses. Above all, I found that UCSF was the place to be to deliver my son the natural, drug-​free way. Thanks to the amazing nurses and midwives (thank you Sara Flores, Sharon Wiener, Patty), my wishes for no medical intervention were respected. Even after the young risk-​adverse residents announced that I should be induced. Thanks to my «nurse-​ambassador», I got the respite I needed (1 night! just give me 1 night!) to start labor naturally. I was spared unnecessary doctors’ interference or otherwise heavy-​handed medical process, and given plenty of time for my body to do its work… naturally.
Sara was especially amazing, giving me all the support I needed, even taking over as my birth partner when my husband needed a break. After over 24 hours of labor, however, it became clear that the baby was stuck despite many attempts to shift positions etc. Patty had done a great job at keeping docs away, while having me under the supervision I needed (baby monitoring etc.). When the baby heart-​rate began to show signs of stress (after a last-​chance single boost of pitocin), the docs appeared in my room. The decision for a C-​section was made swiftly, smoothly and with no regret (the heartbreak was quickly overcome: I had been given full opportunity to try the best I could). In the days that followed, I was cared for by a roster of nurses who were all so very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, that I didn’t mind seeing a new face everyday.
Ultimately, and ironically, my healthy baby was born thanks to the surgeon’s intervention (5 stars for your impeccable skills, Docs!). I am extremely grateful for the whole experience. In fact, I can’t look up at that white building on the hill without feeling a pang of gratitude and… nostalgia for an incredible, memorable moment of my life with truly great people.

I gave birth to my son via section here in 2009. The experience I had with the doctors and nurses definitely exceeded my expectations. The anesthesiologist was my best friend during the c-​section delivery (yes, i even told her that. Lol). I didn’t feel a thing (no pressure or anything!) through the whole process since I was scared outta my mind just thinking about them cutting me open. Along with my husband, she held my hand and kept me calm the entire time. My labor room had a beautiful view of the city. The lady who delivered the meals everyday was also very welcoming. The only downfall about UCSF is their parking. I wish parking was free for patients… especially since we stayed a whole week. But hey… that has nothing to do with the staff at the Birthing Center, so I won’t deduct a star for that. :)
Thank you UCSF for the safe delivery of my baby and taking extraordinary care of us! Recovering from the c-​section was a whole different story though… so I won’t get into that. ;)

My recent experience was great. Personally, I wish they could have a place for you to park while you are «checking in».
our Doctor was really good and friendly. I wanted to thank few of the nurses that were overlooking us, not all, but a most of them for their understanding and comfort. They ones I liked were helpful, compared to a couple that never really seemed like they wanted to be there (paycheck nurses) or help out.
But for the most part, it was a great experience.