The Woman's Hospital of Texas — Local services in Houston

The nurses in the recovery ward were super sweet and helpful but that’s about the only good thing I can say about this place.

CHECKING IN- One week before my due date, my doctor put me on the schedule for my due date and told me that I would get a call from the hospital letting me know what time I can come in. All week went by and I didn’t hear from them until after 9pm on my due date saying I need to come in right now. It’s an 1.5 hour drive for me to the hospital so by the time we packed up the car and drove up there, it was around 11pm.

We got checked in at the front desk and were told to wait in the waiting room around the corner for someone to take us to my room so that’s where we waited for another hour before finally being taken to my room (now midnight).

DELIVERY STAFF I was in the delivery room for over 30 hours and was exhausted so I don’t remember all of the nurses that were in my charge but the last nurse I had I do remember and not for a good reason.

She didn’t seem to care that I felt like I needed to push nor did she offer any positions/solutions/encouragement for my situation. She would casually tell me to not push yet then walk out of the room.

When it was time to get the epidural (24+ hours after arrival) she made my husband leave the room so I had to get myself onto the bed by myself in the midst of heavy contractions. I could get myself onto the edge of the bed but couldn’t reach the floor to push myself further back and there was no way my arms were going to be able to lift up all of my weight to scoot back. Did she offer a stool to help me? No. Did she offer to lower the bed so I can reach better? No. Did she offer to help move me? No. She stood there and watched me try to wiggle myself as far as I could onto the bed while dealing with constant contractions.

DOCTOR- We chose the Women’s Hospital because we heard great things about them from people in our town. My doctor was nice but never explained anything to me so everything I knew about my pregnancy/ baby’s condition/ terms she used/ questions to ask were all from my own research.

All of the standard tests she ran (blood type, gestational diabetes, etc. ) she would order way later than the normal recommended timeframe then wouldn’t share the results with me until my next appointment or at all.

My chart was never updated in the app so I had no information to refer back to.

As I hit 38 weeks with no signs of labor, I refused a cervical exam at my appointment and was guilted for it. I was told that if I didn’t submit to the exam, there could be a possibility of a still birth because she wouldn’t have an idea of what’s going on in there. I was solo at that appointment and as a first time mother with anxiety, that terrified me but I had to keep repeating that I did not want the exam because she wouldn’t drop the subject and was pressing as to why instead of accepting my simple “No”. After the appointment I called my husband in tears and we highly contemplated not going to the hospital when I got called in. We were still on the verge of just walking into a different hospital ER when the time came just so we could avoid my doctor (obviously we didn’t do that).

I visited a counselor while pregnant to discuss preparations for postpartum mental well-being. She said that my doctor will be doing a mental screening when I go back for my 6 week check up but that never happened. 6 months later and still no one ever checked on my mental well-being.

DOCTORS OFFICE- The restroom always had used/full urine sample cups from other patients sitting out in the open.

OVERALL- I will not be returning to this hospital. This was my first baby and nothing about my experience with Texas Women’s left me excited. Instead they made me feel scared, alone, and unimportant. The nurses in the recovery ward were nice and informative but even their kindness can’t outweigh the negativity I was faced with before getting...

One month after giving birth, I’m still grappling with the trauma of my experience. It began on 07/25/2024 when I went to the women's hospital due to severe contractions. I was referred to OB emergency, checked for dilation, and despite being 3 centimeters dilated, I was sent home around 2 AM on 07/26/2024. They said it wasn’t time yet and advised rest and Tylenol.

The next morning, I saw my OB-GYN, Dr. Sameen Nooruddin, who confirmed I was still 3 centimeters dilated and told me I could deliver soon. The baby was monitored, and I went home.

On 07/31/2024, I had contractions starting at 4 AM. By 10 AM, the pain was unbearable, so I called my OB-GYN’s office, and they advised me to go to OB emergency. I arrived at 12:30 PM but wasn’t seen until 40 minutes later. The nurse said I was only 1 centimeter dilated, which didn’t make sense as I was 3 centimeters just a few days earlier. I informed them of my severe pain, but after an hour, the nurse only gave me Motrin, which did nothing.

Dr. McBride was called in, and without examining me, he said I would likely be sent home because I wasn’t 39 weeks yet, and the hospital was full. I pleaded for an epidural as I knew I was close to delivery, but he told me to walk around for 1.5 hours to dilate more, though I couldn’t even walk for 10 minutes due to the pain. Feeling desperate, I called my husband, and he listened in on the conversation.

I was on floor in the hallway, overwhelmed with pain, crying for help. The staff showed no compassion. I asked if my inability to have a bowel movement was contributing to the pain, and after much pleading, they gave me laxatives. By this point, I felt so mistrustful that I didn’t use it. My husband considered calling an ambulance to take me to another hospital.

I believed I was being neglected because I am Black. After over five hours of intense pain, a different nurse, Nurse Karen, checked and found I was actually 8 centimeters dilated. She was the first person to show compassion and assured me I wasn’t going to die, even though I was struggling to breathe. Just 10 minutes after being checked, my water broke, and I started vomiting. Only then did the staff rush to admit me.

I delivered my baby with just two pushes—one in the elevator and another in the recovery room—without any pain relief or epidural. Dr. McBride later apologized, saying he was glad I hadn’t been sent home in an Uber. His apology felt meaningless after everything I went through.

This experience left me emotionally scarred, and I am now receiving mental health treatment to cope with the trauma. I am thankful to God for surviving, but I remain deeply shaken by how my pain was dismissed and ignored, a reality that many Black women face during childbirth.

I am traumatized. I can imagine what George Flyod went through while pleading that he can't breathe. That was how I was been treated for hours pleading that I was in so much pains and I couldn't breathe much at some point, throwing up, crying and kneeling on the floor begging for doctor and nurses to save my life. Please avoid here at all cost. Life don't...

To sum it up. I was made to wait 45 minutes AFTER the baby had crowned and told NOT to push because the doctor was with another patient. They are bullies. If I could sue them, I would.

Other details:

The birthing suite - spacious, and seemed well equipped. You have a private bathroom and the sofa bed for your partner isn’t all that uncomfortable L&D / PPU nurses- mixed bag, some nurses are more encouraging, kind and empathetic. Others are there to get the job done. In any case, they periodically checked on us and responded if we asked for help. Special thanks to Angelica, Misty, Jerelyn and Catelyn who made me & the baby comfortable. My actual delivery nurse was an incompetent bully. She didn’t really want to listen to me, was very little help with pushing, wanted me to do things her way or the highway. And she told me to stop pushing at a point when all my body wanted to do was push. She was supposedly delivering life saving medication for code sepsis except my husband had to yell multiple times for them to check the IV because it wasn’t even dripping.

Recovery/post partum: room was pretty awful. Tiny and extremely uncomfortable. Laying on that bed probably worsened and slowed down my recovery a lot. It was extremely depressing and felt dingy, dark and claustrophobic - perfect to perk you up postpartum.

Food- decent choices and good service

Lactation Nurse- terrible experience. I asked and asked for help but she didn’t bother to show. She came in for 10 minutes before I was being discharged. Gave me a book to take home and told me that everything I was doing was wrong. A lactation consultant is a very important valuable resource for new moms and she was 100% legitimately awful. Cost- To be seen. But according to my OB, I can expect them to overbill.

Previous: This hospital has only caused me distress so far and pushed my already precarious preggo mama nerves to the edge. I know they deliver over 10,000 babies every year and that’s exactly what I’ve felt like so far, just a number on their long list. The two times I went to the OBED/ER, we were just made to wait without any communication, held for hours without food or water, released with minimal explanation and still received a huge bill.

I’m now 38.5 weeks with some medical complications. I’ve been on the induction schedule for a week (they’d told me it would be the 22nd) and every day there’s a different reason why I haven’t been brought in. My OB had placed me on the list for medical reasons but clearly the hospital doesn’t see it that way. I don’t know if my OB isn’t advocating enough for me, if the hospital is understaffed or if everyone in Houston decided to have a baby at once but I can’t imagine how a 10 day long delay is normal? I understand that other mammas may be needing more urgent attention but my baby and my pregnancy is critical to me. And if the hospital couldn’t handle the patient load, they should’ve referred me elsewhere. I’m now stuck in the system and it’s too late to...