Evanston Hospital: My Review

I'm going to use this space to talk about the experience and facilities at Evanston Hospital's labor and delivery and postpartum units. I will not get into the delivery, as that's a whole different story, which you can read HERE.

To begin, let me say that Evanston Hospital is one of the best hospitals in the country. I owe them so much for the health of both myself and my beautiful sons. Anything negative I have to say is certainly outweighed by the fact that I owe the staff my life.

Let's start with labor and delivery. Because I'm paranoid and because I was pregnant with twins, I was admitted to Evanston's labor and delivery four times before I actually went in for induction. Of the five times I was admitted, three times I was admitted immediately. One time I had to wait for about half an hour in the waiting room, and the last time I was told over the phone to wait at home for three hours until more rooms opened.

While this waiting was fine for me, my mom sat in the waiting room for hours and said that there was one woman there who was legitimately in active labor but for whom a room was not yet available. While I was in recovery after my surgery, another woman was being admitted in the recovery room in a tiny cubicle with a cloth curtain for a wall. A few of the times i was there, nurses and doctors apologized for taking a while to get to me, saying "things have been crazy". Overall, I get the idea that Evanston Hospital is a little too popular for its own good. It's certainly earned its popularity, but from my multiple experiences, I found myself wondering if they might not benefit from building an addition to their popular and proficient women's hospital.

Other than the busyness, I'm a big fan of the L&D at Evanston. The nurses are excellent and some were so personal that they actually remembered me between visits. The residents are also incredibly caring, and you have plenty of hands and eyes on you, all of which feel knowledgeable and invested in your health. My only complaints are that I felt like they should've been checking my cervix more frequently during my labor and that I didn't have much faith in either anesthesiologist I saw, but otherwise the staff are excellent and make you feel informed and cared for.


Facility-wise, the rooms in L&D are almost unnecessarily roomy, and a comfy, reclining chair is available for dad. The bathrooms are accessible and close to the beds. TVs are present for prolonged labors and monitoring, but the audio isn't exactly theater quality. This is, obviously, totally unimportant. One of my favorite features of the L&D is that a television screen by the bed tracks your fetal heart rate (rates) and your contractions. This screen is easy to read and certainly helped to keep me calm during my labor.

Since I had a csection, which was a totally awful experience thanks to the anesthesiologist, I was in the operating room for delivery. The OR was fine, as you'd expect an OR to be, but I was definitely impressed by the number of hands available during the delivery. I definitely felt like there was adequate support for both my babies and myself.

After my surgery, I was taken to recovery for about an hour. I was pretty out of it, so I can't exactly review it adequately. I was a little shocked at how exposed it was--kind of like an ER with rooms separated by curtains, but you're really only there for a brief period of time.

Now on to the postpartum floor--where you'll spend the majority of your time at the hospital. The rooms here are smaller than the rooms in L&D, but ours also felt smaller because we had two babies and all their stuff rather than just one. Once your baby is rolled into the room, I wouldn't count on having more than two people besides you and your partner without feeling incredibly cramped. Some of the rooms may be larger than ours was though.

The bed in the postpartum room is comfy, and a recliner is also available for your partner. My husband slept here for four nights and seemed fairly comfortable. A television is available with a host of channels, decent audio, and a small selection of complementary movies. We personally found the music channels to be useful in soothing both the babies and ourselves.

The bathroom is fine, and I took a couple of showers while I was there. My only problem was that the soap/washcloth shelf in the shower was way too low to reach after undergoing a cesarean. It would be helpful for them to install a shelf a little higher up. There is also no shower seat, but I think you can ask for one if your surgery has you unable to stand while bathing.

While in postpartum, expect to have your room invaded at least once an hour, probably a lot more. This is obviously helpful and necessary for both your health and the health of the babies, but it also makes it difficult to establish a schedule or bond fully with your baby. Nurses and patient care technicians were the most frequent visitors to my room, and they were all so kind and friendly. Obviously some stand out more than others, but overall I'd say that the excellent nursing staff is Evanston's backbone. They made a difficult delivery and recovery way more bearable. Feel free to ask them anything and pump them for as much free advice as you can before you go home.

You'll see a host of other people while you're healing up in the postpartum room. Your pediatrician should visit once a day to check on the baby (babies), and your obstetrician should come by once a day to check on your healing. On your last day, you'll need both of these doctors to release you. On our last day, they both came pretty early for which I was very thankful.

You'll also be visited by the lactation consultant. We were very thankful for their help, as we had trouble getting started after our boys came up from the NICU. One if the lactation consultants was more helpful and friendly than the other (I think Helen was my favorite) but they were both a blessing. A woman also came by to help us with the breast pump and to arrange the pump rental. She was very nice and personable.

Lastly, room service and house keeping stopped by multiple times per day. I always ordered my meals over the phone, but they were so good about checking on you that you could have just ordered every meal in person. Another friend who delivered at Evanston in 2011 said a photographer came by, but we never saw one.

Back to the room service. The food is pretty good, and even with dietary restrictions (I'm a vegetarian), I was able to eat with a reasonable amount of variety. My only complaint is that one of the nights they outright lost my dinner order. When my friend called on my behalf to inquire what was taking so long, she had to completely reorder and it still took an hour to get up to me. Even when it did, my drink was missing. That must have just been an off night, however, because I had no other problems, and the service staff were all pleasant and personable.

Visiting hours in postpartum ended at 8:30, but on at least two of the nights we had people in our room past nine and no one said anything. Even when staff came in to the room and saw extra people, they were reasonable and didn't try to rush us.

At night, the staff try to leave you alone, but you should still expect someone to be in your room every couple of hours, even if it's only to check your vitals.

While at the hospital, you have the option to send your baby to the nursery at night so that you can get some sleep, and the nurses will bring your baby back for feedings. Initially I thought I'd never do this, but I quickly changed my tune. You'll have plenty of time to earn your sleepless parent badge once you head home; use the nurses while you can. The last night we sent the boys to the nursery and I sent pumped breast milk with them. This enabled us to get packed up and to head home with some quality sleep under our belts.

Checkout from the hospital was, by far, the most frustrating part of our stay. We were ready to leave over an hour before we were allowed to because we had to keep waiting for a member of the nursing staff to check us out, walk us out, etc. I'm not sure what we could've done to speed up this process, but I imagine stronger self advocacy on my part might've gone a long way.

When you leave, the nursing staff will tell you to take all of the disposable items from the baby cart on which the baby has been staying. Take them up on this even if you don't think that you'll use it. You can always donate unused diapers and formula. Having the extra diapers, wipes, and circumcision bandages made our lives substantially easier once we got home.

Lastly, parking at Evanston is pretty far from the women's hospital; you certainly don't want to walk it during your labor. Instead, have your partner drop you off in the back if the hospital. A valet is even available there during daytime hours. When it's time to check out, you can leave your car in this area to load it up.

While it wasn't flawless, we were incredibly blessed to deliver and recover at such a well staffed and proficient hospital.