MU Women’s and Children’s Hospital

My wife gave birth at Women’s and Children’s in December 2014. We were really pleased with our experience. It started with a tour of the recently renovated delivery rooms … they’re huge in terms of a hospital room, complete with a couch for family, a rocker, the bed, a private restroom with shower, and lots of floor space. The room is very natural setting rather than your typical green-​tint «hospital white».
On delivery day, my wife was given a pretty spacious delivery room with as much of a ‘homey’ feel as could be expected in a hospital. We came in with a full entourage, including her parents, a doula, and a prescribed birth plan. The doctors and nurses generally worked with us rather than against us to help my wife have the best possible experience. It helped, of course, that we were able to use my wife’s general practitioner/​family doctor as her OB/​GYN.
The birth went about as smoothly as can be expected. There were some bumps along the way, but what birth doesn’t have a bit of excitement? Everyone on the Hospital’s staff was very professional, compassionate, and helpful to a pair of first time parents (and grandparents).
The post-​delivery/​recovery rooms were significantly smaller than the delivery room. Having more than 1 or 2 guests was essentially impossible. There seemed to be significantly more storage space and space to move in the delivery rooms. However, the natural, relaxing feel was continued into these rooms.
The nurses did come in several times during the night and woke us or the baby up … I understand that’s standard protocol, but they didn’t have to knock on the door every hour to make sure we didn’t need anything. It was 3, 4, 5 AM … if we needed them, we’d have called. Still … when your staff is being *too* helpful, you know you’ve got a good staff.
Overall, we were extremely pleased with our experience and look forward to using their services again if baby #2 comes while we’re in Columbia.

My wife gave birth at Women’s and Children’s last year. First, the good…
Everyone we encountered at the hospital was great. We felt welcome and comfortable. The nurses, especially, were wonderful. The private post-​delivery rooms were a great way to settle in after a long birth. In the months following the birth, we’ve had to go to urgent care a couple of times, and the staff there was also very good.
Now, the bad… and since this is an emotional issue, I’ll be brief and to the point: my wife suffered an uncommon injury during childbirth. She believes the injury was entirely preventable. She believes the injury wasn’t properly attended to while she was in hospital.
Finally, we’ve had a lot of problems with the university billing department. It started soon after birth, when the hospital forgot to apply insurance adjustments and insurance payments against our bill, resulting in an effort to collect thousands more dollars from us than was actually due. In another case, the hospital nearly sent a bill to collection because it wasn’t paid. Well, it wasn’t paid because the bill didn’t appear on our statement, and the only attempt to inform us of the bill was the call my wife got right before it went to collection. It’s important for the hospital to provide accurate statements, because as anyone who has given birth knows, you get a LOT of bills for various services. Just recently, my wife received a letter from a collection service demanding payment for a (different) overdue bill. Again, this bill does not appear on our hospital statement, nor does it appear on any of the statements provided by our insurance company.