المخاض والولادة

The question most expectant parents actually want answered is simple: who will be in the room, and where. Here are both answers, before anything else.

Dr. Adeeb Alshahrour personally attends the deliveries of his own patients. You are not handed to whoever happens to be on call at the hospital that night. The physician who has followed your pregnancy from the first visit is the physician who delivers your baby. In an era of large group practices and rotating call schedules, that is unusual, and it is the single most important thing this page has to tell you.

Where you will deliver

Dr. Alshahrour holds admitting privileges at two Chicago hospitals, and your baby will be born at one of them.

Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital, 2233 W. Division Street. A 361-bed acute care hospital on Chicago's near-northwest side, part of the Prime Healthcare network. Obstetrics and midwifery are among the services it provides, and it has served this part of the city for over a century.

Resurrection Medical Center, 7435 W. Talcott Avenue, Chicago, IL 60631. Also part of the Prime Healthcare network. It offers maternity care alongside emergency, inpatient and surgical services.

Choosing between them

Which hospital you deliver at is not assigned to you — it is decided with Dr. Alshahrour, and it is a conversation worth having early in pregnancy rather than in the last few weeks. What goes into it is practical: which hospital you and whoever is driving you can reach without difficulty, anything specific your pregnancy needs, and which hospital your insurance plan actually covers.

Check the hospital with your insurer, separately from checking us. A hospital can be out of network even when your doctor is in network. The two are contracted and billed separately, so confirming one tells you nothing about the other. Call the number on your insurance card, name the specific hospital, and ask whether it is in network for delivery. Do that before the decision is settled, not after the birth.

Holding privileges at two hospitals in the same network is a practical advantage for you rather than for us: if one hospital does not work for your coverage or your circumstances, there is a second option, and you do not have to change practices to use it.

We will tell you at your prenatal visits exactly which hospital you are going to, where to go when labor starts, which entrance to use, and what to bring. Ask early rather than at 3 a.m.

What we handle

Routine vaginal birth, including induction of labor when there is a reason for it
Cesarean delivery, planned or unplanned
Vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), discussed individually, since suitability depends on the type of your previous uterine incision and your obstetric history
Twin pregnancies and higher-risk pregnancies, with referral for maternal-fetal medicine input where that is the right call
Immediate newborn care and support for feeding in the first hours

The last weeks of pregnancy

From about 36 weeks you will be seen weekly. Those visits check your blood pressure, the baby's growth and position, and your cervix if that is useful. Group B strep screening is done between 36+0 and 37+6 weeks, because it determines whether you receive antibiotics in labor. See prenatal care for the full schedule and your complete guide to prenatal care for what each test is for.

This is also when we talk through your preferences: pain relief, who you want in the room, skin-to-skin contact, cord clamping, feeding, and what you would want if a cesarean became necessary. A birth plan is a useful conversation, not a contract with biology — the point is that you have already thought about the decisions before you are asked to make them quickly.

When labor starts

Call us. Do not wait to see how it goes if any of the following are true.

Your water breaks, whether or not contractions have started
Regular contractions roughly five minutes apart for an hour, closer together and stronger over time
Any vaginal bleeding heavier than light spotting
Reduced fetal movement
Severe headache, vision changes, upper abdominal pain, or sudden swelling — these can indicate preeclampsia and need same-day assessment

At the hospital you will be assessed, monitored, and admitted when labor is established. Labor is not a fixed timetable. A first birth commonly takes considerably longer than a second, and progress that is slow but steady is not a problem needing a fix.

Pain relief

You will be offered choices, and you can change your mind at any point.

Epidural. The most effective option available. Placed by an anesthesiologist and adjustable. It does not increase your chance of needing a cesarean.
Intravenous medication. Takes the edge off rather than removing pain, and is timed carefully relative to delivery.
Nothing pharmacological. Movement, position changes, breathing, water, counter-pressure and continuous support all genuinely help, and many women deliver this way by choice.

Choosing an epidural is not a failure, and declining one is not recklessness. Both are reasonable.

If a cesarean becomes necessary

Some cesareans are planned, for a breech baby, placenta previa, or a prior classical uterine incision. Others are decided in labor because the baby's heart rate pattern or the progress of labor makes it the safer route. It is major abdominal surgery, usually under regional anesthesia so you are awake, and recovery runs longer than after a vaginal birth — expect about six weeks before full activity, with no heavy lifting in the interim.

If a cesarean is recommended to you, ask why now, what the alternative is, and how urgent the decision is. Except in a true emergency, there is time for that conversation.

After the birth

Most families go home one to two days after an uncomplicated vaginal birth, and two to four days after a cesarean. Bleeding for several weeks is expected and should taper.

Call the office or seek emergency care for bleeding that soaks a pad an hour, fever over 100.4°F, a severe headache with vision changes, chest pain or breathlessness, calf pain and swelling, or thoughts of harming yourself or your baby. These are all reasons to be seen immediately rather than to wait for a scheduled visit.

Recovery is not a single six-week checkbox. See postpartum care for how follow-up actually works and what the first three months involve.

Cost

We do not publish delivery prices here. What a birth costs depends on your insurance, how you deliver, and the hospital's own billing, which is separate from ours and issued by the hospital. A headline number that turns out not to apply to you is worse than no number. Call the office with your plan details and we will go through your specific situation.

Talk to us

Medical disclaimer

This page is general health information, not medical advice for any individual. Decisions about induction, cesarean delivery, VBAC and pain relief depend on your specific pregnancy and are made with your physician. If your water breaks, you have heavy bleeding, reduced fetal movement, severe headache with vision changes, or upper abdominal pain, contact us or go to labor and delivery immediately.