Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns

We thank God for our new born baby Sergio Pablo. My wife and I had a great experience at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital, Margaret our nurse was great with us very helpful and patient. We really enjoy our stay specially having Margaret for 2 days as our nurse.

Thank you to all the nurses and staff that took care of me while delivering my baby. This hospital by far exceeded my expectations. Even with my long labor and stay at the hospital I was well looked after. The rooms are private and nice. My baby was taken care of and all of the nurses were so nice and helpful. Thank you Sharps!

I was very impressed with this hospital. My care was superb. The nurses really listened to me and my concerns, while allowing me to go at my pace. The only thing was the epidural was a little rough and being since I’ve had three other children I never really had it so rough. Other than that I had no complaints. Facilities were very nice and clean and all the nurses and doctors were great!

Be prepared for a $ 45,000 bill and a C-​section if you go here to delivery a baby. We could not get any clear up front answers about costs. Of course, after its over they will send you unbelievable bills. They have procedures in place so that they will cut you open to deliver your baby, even if you don’t want it that way. Its amazing the way they throw around terms like «emergency c-​section» when they create the situation, which is often not an emergency.
The staff was mostly great, except for one nurse who was awkward and unpleasant when I was in the most labor pain. The low rating is because they were not upfront that this is a c-​section factory and because of undisclosed exorbitant costs.

Had a great stay here, once we finally got admitted, but that’s another story.
The nurses, doctors and staff were all very competent, confident, caring, kind and empathetic. With so many births there, the whole MB team has the process down pat, which goes to show how well trained they are.
By hospital standards, the food was great. MB just finished a renovation, so the paint was fresh and bright. Almost every fixture and apparatus I encountered was functioning. Supplies were abundant. MB has the funding, staff and culture to provide a first class experience, and they don’t disappoint.
If you’re lucky enough to have insurance that allows you to use Sharp, you’re in for a treat!

Experience was good. The nurses were professional and nice except for one that i had during night time. I don’t really know her last name but her first name was Nicole from room 610. After birth, the nurses would take my temperature, breathing, and stitches (temperature and breathing for my newborn). But this particular nurse just came in the room and took records of how much waste my newborn had passed as well as how much he’s fed. I feel like if my newborn and i stopped breathing she wouldn’t have any idea because she was real unprofessional, awkward and lazy. By that i mean she would literally just hide behind the curtain covering by the door and write on her little paper of records. I advice Mary Birch not to hire nurses like her because somebody could die with her laziness. Everything was going great until ive encountered her. Horrible!

I was very fortunate to have a natural, unmedicated birth of my first baby at Sharp Mary Birch on 10÷5÷2015. Planning a natural birth in the hospital is interesting — so many people tell you how hard it’s going to be, or how the hospital won’t support your goals. People certainly say this about SMB, but I tried to tune it out and instead focus on the many positive things I was hearing about SMB’s reputation.
Honestly, the most important part of planning an unmedicated birth, hospital or not, is preparation. I read many books, did regular acupuncture, prenatal yoga 3x a week, and committed to a nightly routine of yoga and Spinning Babies moves at home. I also hired a private doula, who was instrumental in making our birth go as it did. Be careful when hiring your doula, there are many, many doulas in this town. My doula Debbie Shelton is extremely experienced, as a former L&D nurse herself, and she is also a monitrice, which allowed her to monitor the fetal heart rate at home, as well as check my dilation.
We labored at home with our doula until I was about 8 cm. When we got to SMB, I was very, very progressed, to say the least. I will say that the triage nurse was atrocious, so rude and almost seemed mad that I came in so far along in the process. My L&D nurse Aileen was absolutely wonderful and supportive. The OB on call was a bit prickly, but whatever, she did her job and did it well. I was surprised to learn after the fact that I was given pitocin to deliver the placenta (my birth plan said let’s not do that) but I accept that the hospital was erring on the side of caution, and wanted to prevent hemmorhage. I would have appreciated a bit of discussion before the pitocin went into my IV though.
All of the nurses we dealt with during our 2 night stay at the hospital were absolutely wonderful. I can’t say enough about how much we appreciated them. They are all trained in lactation, so they helped us get started breastfeeding even though our little guy was a bit slow to take to it. We also saw two lactation consultants on staff there, and they were tremendously knowledgeable and helpful. We are now successfully breastfeeding.
Our experience was almost all positive. If you want to have a natural birth at Sharp Mary Birch, it is absolutely possible if you do all your preparation, and ideally bring in a private doula and labor at home as long as possible before going in. My labor was about 6 hours total, and we were only at the hospital 1.5 hours before our son was born! There’s also a great degree of luck involved, in terms of not having any serious complications arise. We feel incredibly grateful and fortunate.

My wife delivered a baby on Aug 3^rd. We ended up in the triage as she was experiencing symptoms. They admitted her as she was having deceleration on the CTG and she was at term-​36 weeks.
The OB came and explained the reason for induction. It was late at night. and given the situation they were portraying we agreed.
Induction is done by IV oxytocin and topical progesterone. f one does only IV it significantly increases the risk of a C section. I don’t know why but the OB only started IV and did not wish to do the topical. Had he done so, the dilation would have been quicker and she would have been ready to deliver, most likely vaginally! I only wonder why he chose this unconventional route which is not supported by the literature. His reason was that it may put the baby in distress. If that is the case then take her for an emergency C section!
Well this did not happen. She continued to have severe labor contractions until she was exhausted and the baby continued the same.,
After a day she only dilated 6 cm. She was exhausted and tired and they decided to do a C section.
This was a totally uncalled for c section. the first baby was delivered normally through a C section.
The baby ended up going to recovery where his O2 sats dropped to 80 percent during the feed. There was no doctor available and a RN and Nurse practitioner pocked his nose and thought it was obstructed. By doing it over and over again, they caused inflammation and the nares were actually blocked. They took him to the NICU. In my opinion that was medical error and there was no need for that. The NICU was a total sham. the place is being run by nurse practitioners and RN’s.
My wife was in pain and I was out of the hospital. She wanted someone to take her down to the NICU for feeding and the nurse told her she should go as she is too busy
We had asked the triage Nurse that we would like to save the cord blood. that information never went through. and guess what, there is no cord blood.
Most recently I have noticed mild torticollis and I wonder whether the OB used forceps to extract the baby out of the incision. If so then this can cause damage. I will be looking into this. they want to change me 25 c per page so I can review the records. Have called patient relations and they are not calling back.
All in all I do not recommend Mary Birch Hospital. It is motivated towards profit and their systems are poor. it is a beautiful building the patient care is faulty. Underneath the icing the cake is rotten.

So, I had a 6 day stint here when my daughter was born a few months back. There are a number of things that I like about this hospital. Nearly every staff member I encountered were pleasant and helpful, save for a few. The food was actually decent. The room I labored in was large and comfortable. The facility is clean and modern. The room I spent the next 6 days in, while smaller than the first, was still nice with a decent shower and cable TV with on demand movies. I certainly felt that my daughter was well cared for. I even enjoyed the childbirth preparation class and hospital tour that we participated in before our child was born.
All that being said, the markdowns result from the epidural mishap that occurred. While it wasn’t explained to me, I later came to realize that the woman who initiated that procedure was still learning the ropes. I recall seeing her talking with the anesthesiologist she was shadowing in the hallway earlier on, as I was getting admitted into the hospital. I was in so much pain by the time she and the same doctor came into the room that I didn’t put much notice to the fact that she was the one putting that catheter into my dura space. I had asked the anesthesiologist about the risks, and was told that spinal fluid leaking was a rare occurrence. And then I felt the unmistakeable/​unforgettable feeling of fluid dripping down my lower back. So as to not write a novel, I will get to the point of my markdown.
Several hours and a c-​section later, I delivered my healthy baby. A couple of hours beyond that, when I first tried to sit upright, I felt an pounding headache and extreme neck/​shoulder pain like whiplash. It turned out that I had a spinal headache as a result of the spinal fluid leak from the epidural. The pain of this when trying to care for/​nurse a newborn on top of c-​section pain is awful beyond anything I can compare it to. What irked me even more, is that the same anesthesiologist resident (or whatever she was), came by to check on me multiple times and tried to brush it off, saying I should try caffeine. So i suffered for 27 long hours before her superior performed a blood patch procedure on me, which is supposed to rectify the problem/​stop the fluid leak. And it did, for about 30 hours. And then that headache returned with evil vengeance because that blood patch failed. So here again, I had to make my case of how this was not just any headache but the same one and that the issue was still there. So I had a second procedure by a different anesthesiologist 4 days after I delivered. This one worked. But my visit went from a 3 – 4 day to a 6 day as a result of the whole epidural mishap.

I have NOTHING negative to say about this place at all!
Friday morning at 2:50am I started getting contractions, and my scheduled c-​section wasn’t until monday the following week. I called the triage to get some advice on if I should go in or not, the nice lady I didn’t remember her name told me to wait around for 30 more minutes to see if they get stronger, and if they did to come in… Of course they got stronger and I was on my way to the hospital. Parked, got checked in and 5 mins later I was in a room being monitored, everything was done super fast and organized. I was 3 cm dialated and I was in labor. So they called my OBGYN Dr. Dale lapp. Who came within the hour or so. Got ready to go to the OR so I could have my repeat c-​section done and BOOM! My baby was out within 3 hours. The procedure only took 7 mins and 26 seconds.
RECOVERY ROOM& NURSES
beyond belief perfect.
Nicest nurses ever, full of information and very on point when it comes to requesting medication or snacks or anything… They make you feel as comfortable as possible.
I would definitely recommend giving birth here. I was told this was one of the best places and it was. They have a great hospital with greats drs and staff!
THANK YOU SHARP FOR AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE!

This hospital is absolutely AMAZING!
Where do I even start?
I came here on 08÷13÷14 because I was having mild Braxton Hicks (I was a first time mom, scared of everything!) So I came to Triage and got checked. The nurses were super friendly, caring and assured me everything was okay, just normal BH.
Came here again, around mid January because I was having a lot of pain, thought I was going into labor (I was due 01/​21/​2015) but turns out I had a kidney stone! Anyways, I stayed the night, had IV, and awesome pain meds and eventually passed a stone (which according to my nurse, was a huge one and asked to show it to the other nurses; I was amused by her and the rest of the nurses excitement) early in the morning. I got to go home a few hours later pain free!
Then I came back two days before I actually went into labor. I wasn’t dilating so I got sent home, boo! Came back two days later at 3 ½ cm, got checked in to L&D (finally! I was 10 days over due) an hour later I’m at 6, another hour at 10 and another hour and my son is finally here!
Throughout my whole labor, the nurse I had was very sweet and accommodating with me and my husband. He had his comfy bed too, but was mostly giving me apple juice while he helped me push.
My son had to be in the NICU for 10 days after birth, and while it sucked to not be able to take him home right away, the NICU nurses were absolutely amazing. I can’t describe my appreciation for every single nurse there. Just amazing! Lactation Consultants were also amazing, one even helped me get a breast pump rental while my son was there and helped any time I needed it. My son was a good latcher right away, so no issues with breastfeeding (still going, almost 8 months strong!).
So yeah, that’s my story. I love, love, LOVE this hospital! I will be having my second baby (whenever the time comes) here as well.
Also, the people that give you your food are nice too! There’s a particular guy that was very sweet, and always put more food on my plate than its supposed to have, and their cafeteria is sooo good too!

This is our first California hospital experience. Our son was born here a few weeks ago. From the moment we pulled. up with the screaming wife, up to the moment we left, the staff and facility were stellar.
Our nursing team was very helpful and great to work with. Everyone made us feel welcome during such an important event. The care during the whole process was great.
The only knock is the cafeteria. It leaves a lot to be desired. They do have an awesome coffee stand out front that opens very early!

I can’t rave enough about my Sharp experience at Mary Birch. As a first-​time mom, I was definitely nervous about what to expect once I went into labor, but all my concerns were assuaged by the amazing, fantastic, caring, thoughtful, experienced nursing staff. They are truly top notch and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to help me through my first birthing experience. I started out in triage, and the nurse I had there was so careful doing my exam and soothing as she prepared me for labor and delivery. From there, I was placed into the care of two incredible nurses — Tricia and Karlyn, who took care of me for their entire 12-​hour shift.
The two doctors — one was Dr. Farrell — performed my epidural and talked me through the experience. It was quick, fairly painless, and done with expertise and great care. They both were excellent.
I still hadn’t delivered at that point, so I was transitioned to Michelle who was equally fantastic. She stayed with me throughout the rest of my delivery and provided amazing support and care.
The post-​partum nurses that I had were were simply the best. I can’t name them all, but they just made me feel like I had all the help that I needed to survive my first few nights as a new mom. I wish I could give each one of them at least a hug for all they did for me and tell them how much I appreciate their great bedside manners, talent, and attention to patient care.
I wouldn’t want to deliver anywhere else.

I AM BACK! finally found some time to write reviews.
This hospital is awesome! the nurses here are the best! they are so kind and attentive to the point where I actually miss staying at the hospital. All the nurses took very good care of me. They are quick to your needs and they really wanted me to recover well. When the husband was not around, the nurses would help me with diaper change on the baby. They’ll help me walk to the bathroom. I just don’t even know how much more great things I can share about these nurses. Always friendly and on time with medications.
The hospital is clean and new. Each delivery room and patient room is private suite. This is what I even love more about this hospital — PRIVATE SUITE! you don’t need to share a room with a stranger! and you get the whole bathroom to yourself. Each room is very spacious too!
The husband had a nice sofa to sleep on. and the food is not too bad. You’d think hospital food is gross, but here it’s pretty decent.
I highly recommend this hospital. Doctors and nurses are 100% awesome! i cannot stress that enough!

NURSES.
That’s one thing I can say about how AWESOME this hospital is. THE NURSES ARE AWESOME!
12 hours shifts? Service with true concern for the patients? Always there to help? YES YES and… YES!
The Wifey and I came here one cold night when she started having contractions. Yup… Wifey and I made a little mini Unilocaler! We came here mostly because it’s where our insurance would let us, but i can tell you, it’s amazing!
The process:
Step 1: Think you’re ready to pop? Go to Triage! The nurses and doctors here measure your vitals, stats, and other things I’d rather not Unilocal!about just because it’s a little icky to some. If they think you’re «4 cm», you’re in the club like a hot college coed on here 21^st birthday. Well… except you’re also in pain and wanting any types of drugs necessary to reduce the pain.
Step 2: Push! Once you’re out of Triage, you get sent to a private room where you and your +1 will be until your bundle of joy pops out. The room is very nice with a private bathroom. There will be 1 nurse assigned to you who will be there to help and answer questions. The on call OB will also be there to deliver if needed. Pending no complications.
Step 3 (maybe) recover! Recovery room is not private but you also won’t be spending much time here. They do a head to toe analysis of your new bundle of poop– I mean um… joy and give it its shots and put some jelly in its eyes to help it reduce infection (I think)
Step 4: Recover MOAR!!! Once you’re done with the recovery room, you’re sent up to your room. This is where I was floored by the care provided. Imagine a hotel room with room service! Well, that seems to trivialize it all but honestly it’s amazing. The Nurses come in every hour or so to check up on the mom and baby. Making sure that there’s not health issues. Monitoring poo, pee, and food. They are there to answer ANY questions and show you how to do the things new parents don’t know how to do. The cafeteria next door brings food for mommy and daddy can fend for himself. You’re allowed visitors during visiting hours just make sure they sign in. Oh yeah, did I say that the nurses are amazing? They all have a mobile phone that you can contact them with any time… ANY TIME!!!
Step 5: Discharge. It’s like the last day on a cruise. You grow so fond of the nurses you see and fall in love with their care but you must go. They release you into the wild like a tiger cub nursed back from an injury to fend for yourselves. All in all, the people here are amazing.
Greatest possible way I could think of to let our new baby into the world. Oh yeah, the only reason a 4-​star? The food was pretty terribad.
TL:DR — Nurses are amazing here.

Met my Godson Liam Jordan!!!
Mommy and baby are doing good!
I can’t wait until LJ comes home in a couple weeks so he can meet his pretty godmother — - ME! Haha jk
Nurses here are friendly and nice. They greeted us from the minute we walked in and answered all our questions — makes me want to have a baby just so I can get a VS underwear they give out and a breast pump, haha jk!
Went into the NICU and the babies in there were sleeping like little angels. soooo cute! They’re we’ll taken care of and monitored by all the amazing caring nurses in there.

If you want to try for a natural child birth, go somewhere else!
I was recommended this hospital by a friend and was under the impression that Mary Birch was the best in the west. It was not. I had my son on September 9, 2011. My experience was traumatizing and it has taken me this long to share it because I hate to re-​live it.
Every stage of my labor and delivery was a mis to begin with. The nurses I was assigned to originally were rude and way too routine. When I made it to delivery my first nurse was ignoring my birth plan and about 10 min. in they had a shift change. The second nurse was worse. She was ignoring me when I was answering her questions… by the time I was 7 cm I was livid with my nurse. Finally another nurse heard me yelling and came to my rescue. She called the charge nurse and finally I was paired with a better nurse. Overall it was a horrendous experience. My sons birth was the saving grace.
If you want a natural child birth this is not the place for you. I wouldn’t recommend this place to my worst enemy.

I know that everyone seems to have really varied reviews and I can only imagine how everyone’s birthing experience might differ so it’s understandable. Personally, I had a really positive experience here and was very pleased with the care that I received from the moment I was admitted, the care my baby received from the moment he was born, and the attention/​customer service that my little family received during our stay (s) there. That’s plural because three days after we took our bundle of joy home he had to be readmitted to the NICU for jaundice treatment — an additional three days stay.
I could do a play by play of all the great things we experienced at Mary Birch but it seems sufficient to say that every nurse we encountered was extremely friendly and super helpful. I appreciated how they spoke to us and explained things to us to make us feel comfortable. Whenever we needed something or had a question, we received help quickly and efficiently. We loved our delivery room as it was extremely spacious and comfortable — it was one of the newly remodeled rooms! Our post partum recovery room on the other hand was on the smaller side and not as comfortable but that is pretty much our only complaint.
Mary Birch also has some great resources for new parents that you should take advantage of. All of the informational classes and free support groups are so helpful. The New Beginnings boutique shop has a lot of items in stock when you realize that you need something asap… like nipple guards or lactation supplements, etc. Ive seen people run in there for breast pumps, breastfeeding pillows, you name it… because when you need it during your stay… it’s often easier to just purchase it there. Yes, it’s a bit more expensive but hey, it’s convenient.
During the 18 hours I was in labor, we saw three different shift changes for the staff and we loved all of the L&D nurses who worked with us. We also had great nurses in the NICU which I really appreciated since it was stressful to have to readmit my newborn baby when I just wanted to bring him home. Overall, we felt pleased with the information we were given on what to expect and our actual experience here. I look forward to having baby #2 here… not anytime soon, mind you… maybe when this baby can at least walk and feed himself. :)

You hear horror, stories, complications, disgruntled new parents when it comes to a birth in am American hospital. However, this is not the experience I had at all.
From the moment of admittance, to the delivery to the post natal room, it was an absolutely awesome experience throughout.
The staff are awesome, friendly, experienced they do not get in your way, they do not disturb you in the middle of your night, we had our baby by our side the entire time on the first night. The post natal room is small but perfect for what you need. Even as a dad I had a comfortable night sleep, even their café/​hospital food is nice! The nurses were great, throughout on all shifts, obviously we had some that we favored more.
FYI we were blessed to have a natural birth, and our newborn son was home with healthy mom 26hours after been born. Absolutely awesome, I’d recommend Mary Birch for any expectant families. Honestly my Unilocal review can not put it into context on how grateful I am for this hospital and it’s staff.

I got one heck of a surprise when I went into labor 3 weeks before my due date and was generally having a mental freakout session on my way to Sharp Mary Birch.
Yes, I had been on the tour, but wasn’t very impressed. In fact, I was thinking about trying to deliver elsewhere because 1. It didn’t seem clean (the room we visited was still in the process of getting straightened up) and 2. One of the pregnant girls on the tour got dizzy, had to sit down, and NO NURSES were available to help her out (EEEEK!).
But luckily, my first impression was completely inaccurate.
I skipped triage because my baby was coming FAST and they got me into a room within an hour of arriving.
The delivery room was comfortable, and I didn’t have to share it (they are all private.) I had the greatest nurse of all time (Sarah) who was right there with me through every breath. The epidural man was pretty much my hero (can’t remember his name, he had an English accent and he was awesome.)
I watched Family guy and relaxed until it was time to push (oh, and you have control over the epidural button — BEST. BUTTON. EVER.)
Was in my bed at 1pm, and my baby girl was out by 6:30pm.)
They then moved me into a private recovery room, where they have nurses around the clock managing your comfort and teaching you how to take care of your newborn (and when I say «managing comfort», I mean they give you painkillers and make sure you have plenty of gigantic maxi pads and the finest mesh underwear.)
The nurses do wake you up in the night to check on you and baby’s vitals, but I found it comforting, not annoying. You’ve just expelled a living thing from your uterus, better safe than sorry!
The food was good, although I wish there were more vegetarian options (but whatever, it’s a hospital, not Whole Foods and was still pretty darn tasty.)
If your man stays with you, they have to sleep on a tiny crappy bench (which actually works in your favor because they can’t get too comfortable to sleep through the baby’s cries– HA. Suckers.)
They also have lactation specialists come through who are awesome. Just be warned: breastfeeding is HARD to learn and the hospital pillows suck, so bring your own breastfeeding pillow to make your life easier.)
All in all, I can’t thank this place enough for taking care of me.
Now if only it didn’t cost $ 16k for a 3-​day visit…