I just had my first child here couple days ago and have to say this was an AMAZING experience . Throughout my pregnancy I received care from dukes women health primarily brier creek and loved all my doctors especially Dr. Meredith Hoover who eased all my worries and overthinking and over googling lol . Once I went to labor and delivery I had awesome nurses who answered all my questions and made my stay comfortable and relaxing from start to finish . The nurse who helped me deliver Ms. Agnus was the best nurse I could ever ask for . She has YEARS of experience and coached me through my vaginal delivery with the most support and love ! She made me feel strong and empowered and helped include my boyfriend in every step of the process. The rooms for labor and delivery were spacious and nice . The postpartum rooms are small but we still had a great experience there as well especially with nurse Heather who was very encouraging during my breastfeeding and very personable!!! I would highly recommend Duke birthing center and prenatal care to anyone ! read more

I had a good experience here. Especially with the people at the NICU. My baby was very well taken care of (and spoiled. They let her hang out in a mamaroo.) They offered help with breast feeding, and baby classes. Being a new mom, I appreciated them teaching me baby CPR, how to give baths with the umbilical stump still attached, and helping me with feedings. We had 2 nurses that stood out. Rachel who took care of baby, and Renee who took care of me during labor. Rachel made sure to constantly keep me updated on my baby's condition She didn't make me feel like any of my questions were dumb. She once even came back in during her lunch break to make sure I was ok. Renne was a ray of sunshine. She came in every few hours with a very positive attitude. She made jokes and would even sing a little. So why not 5 stars? Well... My epidural wore off and I kept bringing it up to a nurse and she blew it off. She said no one was available to refill the medicine. It took my bf literally screaming for anything to be done. Next, the guy who did my epidural the first time didn't realize I had scoliosis and put it in wrong so I had to have it done again. Much like the other reviews, the post-partum rooms were HORRIBLE! There was a small little love seat they expected my 6-foot tall boyfriend to sleep on. The tv only had volume through the remote like you would probably see at a nursing home. I kept hearing the person in the room next to me coughing which worried me. (People who are staying in the rooms don't have to get tested for covid only the mom does which is BS. I had a family member who flew in that day. She doesn't even live in this state, stayed with me, and didn't have to get tested) I also got no sleep. Between the nurses coming in all the time and the damn helicopter landing and shaking my room. read more

I had a very mixed experience here. Labor and delivery were amazing once they admitted me, which wasn't when I first called and was instructed to come in. I had a dedicated nurse during the entire labor, which was awesome. Epidural was done right and worked like magic as well. The delivery ob was great. However, once they wheeled me out of the delivery room into the recovery is when hell started. First of all, the room is tiny. I'm not a large person, but I spent much of my time moving table and the bassinet cart around just to get around. It was quite frustrating and not conducive to recovery. Some nurses were great while others treated me and my baby as objects. They came in at all hours of day and night to do this or that procedure. I asked one pediatrician to check my baby for tongue and lip tie, and she was very condescending about it, brushing it off as a non-issue. Lactation consultant didn't show up until day 2 and was quite useless, except for the part where she referred me to actually good consultants that I was able to see once discharged. I feel like she was there just to have a box checked. I would not return here and will advise everyone to look into other local hospitals to make sure they make an informed decision. read more

Came to Duke for my 3rd baby after delivering the other two at a smaller hospital. I had bruises all over me from nurses trying to do blood draws. Half of them obviously had no idea what they were doing. I already had a fear of needles, but it has gotten way worse since this. I had a panic attack every time they would come in for a blood draw. The doctor told me to wait to push, because she needed to go deliver another baby. Which I get babies are unpredictable, but have another doc available and do not tell a woman in labor to hold on, especially when she needs to push. The anesthesiologist allowed a trainee to do my epidural, that guy messed it up, it only worked on one side and started wearing off. So the trainer came in to redo it. That guy didn't numb me so I felt that needle go in and hit a nerve had terrible pain shooting down my leg. Instead of removing the needle he decided to keep trying as I am screaming in pain begging him to stop. Somehow he got it in my back and I knew something was wrong. I could feel the medicine in my spine. Remind you, this is my 3rd I know that wasn't right. They kept coming back and messing with the dosage, but still ended up not working. Numbed my legs some, I could still move them. And wasn't numb anywhere I wanted to be. I do have some nerve damage in my back. I had a bad labor & delivery all together, but I do feel like Duke contributed to that. Some of the nurses and anesthesiologist had absolutely no business being as hands on as they were. read more

I do not like how not all recovery rooms offers sleep sofas. Can you imagine being a tired dad or support person and have to sleep in a recliner? I think it is tacky of this hospital to even offer that. I hope that I do not end up with a recliner for someone to sleep on again. read more

Duke Birthing Center is located on the 5th floor of Duke Hospital. My room left no reminders that I was in a hospital setting. The best part is that all the rooms here are private. I had a Whirlpool tub, shower, tv, recliner sofa for nervous daddy, a huge closet, another big couch, and nurses waiting on my hand and foot. My plans were to go med free which the birthing center accommodated but alas, I wanted drugs. I just wish I would have done my research on meds because they don't do walking epidurals at Duke Birthing Center. Once they stab you with a needle and shove tubes down your back - you have to stay kaput. I don't have any medical background but I think this is why my labor didn't progress and I stalled. They do encourage the baby to stay in your room and even have a mini crib set up for your little one when they come out into the world. The nurses will make their rounds and wake you up when the munchkin needs a feed. Of course, you always have the option to leave the baby in the nursery. You're allowed to bring your own Doula and Midwife. I wont go into the details of my labor because it was pretty craptastic. I did end up passing out due to blood loss from a rare complication (lucky me). My mother and husband describe Duke Birthing Center's reaction time as immediate and outstanding. I awoke to about 4 doctors and 6 nurses. It was a great reminder that this was not your average birthing center with limited medical staff - I was also in Duke Hospital! read more

It wasn't a good experience for me. Most doctors are very young and still practicing.

No matter what do not come here to give birth. The one star goes to the Nurses (student nurses) everything else was a mess. Keeps coming in and out every hour and they expect the new mom to get some rest, no shit! Keep poking her and didn't even put alcohol and bandaid afterwards. They keep checking her wound, pressing on it like they expect my daughter not to feel pain even though she's crying the whole time., what a bunch of morons! You better read this carefully, if you are nursing and need food to recover, you may want to bring your own food or order it 3 hours in advance. And you would think a patient let alone a nursing/lactating Mother would get a tray automatically (breakfast, lunch and dinner). No, you had to order it and when you do, prepare to wait 2-3 hours for your food to arrive or if you're not lucky it won't arrive at all. And the most stupid thing ever., when we were finally able to leave the hospital., they wont let us put and prep the baby in her car seat., they want my daughter to carry her baby while being wheeled out of the hospital in a very windy 30 degree weather. We had to rush covering and putting the baby in her car seat and assist our daughter in the car while in excruciating pain. What's with all that propaganda BS., they didn't even care about the health of the mother and the baby. read more

My husband and I recently delivered at Duke Birthing Center and had a great experience. The nurses, midwives, doctors, and anesthesiologist helped us bring both of our babies to the world healthy and safely. There was one nurse from triage who stayed with me the entire time as my labor progressed. Things happened pretty quickly for us and having her there to help coach through the contractions was such a huge help during the process. We truly appreciate the fast thinking and decisions made to get us into the OR quickly. During the entire time I felt comfort in knowing we had some of the top medical staff in the room with us. The care afterwards was thorough and each doctor/nurse was very detailed with us and answered all of our questions. The lactation consultants were hit and miss. There was 1 really helpful consultant out of the 3 that came to visit. The other two just talked at us when we were already sleep deprived. The 1 consultant I really enjoyed worked with us, watched our babies feed, offered tips, and spent a decent amount of time with us during an actual feeding session. read more

I had an overall OK/good experience at Duke Birthing Center. I would give them 3.5 stars. I don't know that I would lose my mind shouting their praises or anything, but they did the most important thing, which was to get that baby out safely and quickly so that we both were as healthy as possible. You really can't complain a ton when you're handed a happy, healthy baby boy and a few pain killers every so often for a few days, right? My husband and I went to the Birthing Center orientation and even took one of Duke's prenatal classes to get ready for the labor and delivery of our first child. The classes were good, they walk you all around the birthing center and explained the rooms, and processes, policies, etc. Give you a chance to ask questions and meet some of the staff. I was having some complications and had to go in before I was in full-blown labor and was sent away twice (!!) after being told by them to come in because they had a room for me. This was mildly annoying but not that big of a deal. I can labor at home as easily as I can there, but I was really, really ready to get the baby out. So when I finally did get admitted everyone was very nice and accommodating. We had one specific labor nurse assigned to us. She did a good job talking us through what was happening and was very nice and totally OK with me not doing pain meds. She was also calm when she did a reading that was clearly not good about 6-7 hours into my labor and just said that she needed to 'check with the doctor on something and would be right back'. She came back with the doctor in a sort of run/walk. They did a bunch of readings and announced that I needed to have an emergency C-section ASAP. To say that I was displeased to hear this would be an understatement. I fought with them/my husband about it for a minute because I was in a lot of pain and not wanting to do it. In the middle of this debacle my water broke. So yea, that was awesome. Anyways, I was pretty much told this was my only option. I'm not sure if that was true or not, as I have a healthy distrust of institutions, but I'm not granola enough to have a baby on my nice hardwood floors or anything. I just accepted my fate and mentally prepared myself for the end (of the pregnancy. possibly my life. I'm a little dramatic). The C-section went amazing. They wheeled me in there. The operating room filled with people. Everyone introduced themselves and walked me through what their 'job' in surgery was. Which I thought was cute, because honestly, I did not care, JUST GET THE BABY OUT OMG. I'm not sure if it was the epidural (it might have been the epidural) but it really wasn't that bad. My husband and I got to see the baby come out, they handed him right over and laid him on my chest and we did skin to skin and I nursed him. We even have cute pics of all us in gowns with blood and fluids on us, so I feel we got the whole experience despite the facts. The post-partum care was a little 'hit or miss'. We ended up being there for like 3 or 4 days and we had nurses that were AMAZING, really hands on and sweet and helped us with the baby and made sure we ordered food at the right times and nurses that came in, threw meds at me and then left... sooooo.... there's that. My major complaint would be that people (docs, nurses, lactation, peds, etc.) came in ALL HOURS OF THE NIGHT. Like, Jesus H. Christ, it's 2am and we've been asleep for 45 minutes can you please go the F away?! The food was really, really delicious for hospital food and I got a menu and could order whatever I wanted which was fun because it was like low brow room service. But yea, between the unfriendly 40% of the nurses and the people stomping in at 4am and turning the lights on to poke at me or the baby I was really ready to leave. Also, some of the insurance billing wasn't done for over 30 days after I checked out and I had to fight with them/my insurance company about it which was annoying, but I was on maternity leave so I had all day to be on hold. I'd probably have a baby there again sometime... read more

My wife and I did not have a good experience at Duke Birthing Center. We were fairly familiar with the facility before going into labor, but we were very disappointed with our interactions with the majority of the personnel during our post-labor care. The actual birth went well. The birthing side was great! And that's where the good times ended. Post labor, we were able to relax for an hour or so in our birthing room, admiring our new child and trying to rest from the loooong birthing process. The nurses were preparing to move us to a post-partum room where we could stay the remainder of our term, but it was getting close to dinner time so we asked the nurses about dinner. They provided us a menu with a number to call to order dinner, advising that dinner would take about 45 min to 1 hour to arrive (seems long time, but we understood). I spent 30+ minutes on hold with the food service line, but the order was placed. After advising us on the food service, they informed us that they would shortly be moving us to our new room. My wife and I then voiced our concern that our food was on its way and we were going to change rooms. TWO nurses on TWO separate visits informed us that "Yeah, it's no problem. The food will get to you." Perhaps it was our naivete that caused us to trust in these "professionals" with this information. This was our first child, and so we were none-the-wiser on how the food service works. Long story short, we were moved to our new room and our food had never made it to us 2 hours later. Our first nurse was very kind and understanding and gave us some vouchers to use in the downstairs cafeteria. We really enjoyed this nurse, as she was the most helpful, kind, caring, and professional. From there on out, it was downhill. Every subsequent nurse treated us poorly, with very little caring, support, etc. Again, we were monitored and checked on frequently, but this time it felt like a "check them and get out of here" situation. The doctor never visited, but I feel like it this was standard operating procedure. Finally, our doomsday discharge. It's time to go home. Our discharging nurse (our absolute least favorite) let us know that we would be getting discharged at about 2:00pm, so we decided to call in for lunch, thinking that 2+ hours would be plenty of time to eat before discharge (how foolish of us!). Lunch service ended at 2:00pm, so we wanted to order plenty of time ahead (our meal on the second night after birth took 1.5 hours to arrived - well outside the 1 hour window told to us). Here is a timeline of our lunch fiasco: 11:47am - I call down my wife's lunch order: a pizza with fresh fruit cup, chocolate pudding, and chocolate milk. The call recipient seemed to take our order no problem. 1:37pm - I call the food service line to check on the status of our meal (I gave them some time because our previous night's meal was late). The call recipient informed us that our meal was "still sitting on the line", meaning that it had not yet been assembled. Basically, they neglected our order. She informed me that she was going to place our meal order again and that she would have it rushed up to our room. 1:53pm - Food still not arrived. Call food service AGAIN, checking the status of our meal. AGAIN, no idea where it is. I am informed that the food is on its way. 2:11pm - Not discharged yet, and STILL no food. Keep in mind that my post-partum, breastfeeding wife is minutes away from discharge. I call the food service line again and ask for a manager. I speak with the food service manager who asks me if I want her to put the order in again. NO I WANT THE FOOD I ORDERED 2+ HOURS AGO. My wife is running on empty, and yet she's supposed to take care of feeding this child. The food service manager offers basically no help, concession, anything of use to the situation. She tries to explain that the food may take a while because the pizza (the longest cooking item on the menut) would take 6 minutes to cook. 6 MINUTES!!! 2:15pm - While speaking with the manager, our transportation comes to take my wife and our newborn baby to our car. I hang up on the manager, thanking her for nothing, extremely frustrated, upset, hurt, angry, and just disappointed in our situation. While we are being wheeled down the hallway, we see a nurse with a food tray approach our room, notice that it's empty, and walk away. I literally see our food coming 2.5+ hours after ordering. We get to our car and get out of there as quickly as possible. We see our final nurse at the nurses station as we pass by. She sees us, but offers no "goodbye", "good luck", "enjoy". No acknowledgement whatsoever. Duke should be ashamed at how they treated a new mother and her child. It should NEVER, under any circumstances, take 2.5+ hours to get food to a patient. They treated us very poorly, and given the chance, we will never visit this facility again. I recommend this place to nobody. read more