Need Opinions on St. Francis in Federal Way

Because you're not the typical Mom and your child rearing a little outside the standard norm, you may want to consider a homebirth with a midwife/doula. Not all doctors have privileges at all hospitals, are you considering changing your ob to accommodate your delivery at St. Francis? You need to find a care provider and hospital that shares your philosophy, if not your experience won't be what you want. Again, check into a home birth and doula.

I had my little girl at St. Francis in 2003 and it was fine. I had my son at Madigan Army Medical Center in 2001 so my comparison is against those two hospitals. I did not have an epidural at St. Francis becuase of dililating so fast so I can't tell you about that, I did not have a room mate at St. Francis which was nice because I had a depressed mom in the room with me at Madigan. I was delivered by the charge nurse at St. Francis instead of the Doc and she did fine and her team of two nurses did fine too. The Doc did finally arrive in time to deliver the placenta and that was annoying because he wouldn't let me catch my breath. I do not know about any non traditional accomodations or keeping them from the first vaccination the baby gets right after birth, what do you feel about the drops for the eyes they give? If you are against all of that then go do a tour and ask them what can be done that isn't main stream? I liked my experience with St. Francis overall and would have another baby there if I were to have more children, but unlike you I believe in vaccinations, doctors, and well child check-ups.

St Francis and St. Joes are part of the same hospital system and adhere to the same standards of care. The difference between the two is that St. Joes is the main hospital for the system and is capable of providing higher levels of specialty care if needed. The rest of the hospitals in the system actually feed in to St. Joes.
If you are having a typical pregnancy without any complications, St. Francis should be fine.
St. Joes has the advantage of having an off-site birthing center (it's across the street) for women using a midwife. They also have a NICU for babies requiring a higher level of care at birth.
I'm an oncology nurse at St. Joes so for specialty care, I would go there, without question. I actually prefer St. Francis for emergency room care as you actually are seen in a much more timely manner. St. Joes has the second-busiest ER in the state, behind Harborview, and the waits can be hours.
It really is a matter of need. The majority of the MDs who have privileges at Franciscan hospitals have them at all of them. I would ask your MD what his thoughts are and make your decision based on that.

May I ask why you do not vaccinate? Are you thinking that if they get the Measles, Mumps or something worse, that that would be better than the vaccination? Just trying to understand your reasoning.

Also, I had no idea what your request was about until you mentioned epidural. I assume you're pregnant and wanting to know about the birthing center.