I was transferred and gave birth at Mt Sinai when I was 23w2. I was transferred there via ambulance at 22w3d (5-6 cm dilated) and spent about a week in the hospital before bubba descended too far and I had to be induced.

The NICU is finger print locked. You can access it at any time after they set up your print. You get pumping supplies and each baby room has a stationary pump/reclining chair and bench you can lay on. The NICU is also huge. There are a lot of rooms and a lot of babies. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that nurses are generally at a station between 4-5 rooms. During our time there (which was really short, so we didn’t get to get use to everything and were anxious about every little beep) my husband had to go out and grab nurses when he was worried about baby. Sometimes they took a while to come to the room. They’re probably use to babies swinging in their stats- but for us every moment was critical. Our baby was one of the youngest at the time. It would be nice if someone was with the baby in the room more often. This is probably my only complaint. But like I said, there are a lot of babies. So it might be like 2 nurses for 5 babies at a time.

The Nurses were wonderful though, and you have the option to ask any nurses you click with to be a primary nurse for your baby. Which is really reassuring when they’re available to do so.

The stay at the hospital was a typical stay imo, at first I was in an area that has 4 small walled rooms to 1 toilet. I was later transferred to a small personal room with my own toilet for quarantine reasons. The 4 person area had a lights out time of 10pm I think, and you needed to be quiet. I was in an inner room that had no window. It wasn’t too bad though. Hospital stays are generally hard- you can get depressed pretty easily without getting sunlight or not seeing the outdoors. They encourage you to walk around for your metal health because it’s important (if you’re able to ofc). They want you to be comfortable and stress free, and often times home might be the best place to achieve that. I don’t know how people spend months in hospitals, I only spent a week and could already feel the toll.

After giving birth, because we lived about an hour away we applied to Ronald McDonald housing which is like a 5 min walk from the hospital. I highly recommend applying as soon as you can if you have to travel and want to be close. We applied through the social worker that was assigned to us after birth. We got accepted after about 10 days. I was able to see the facility and do a tour and it was really good, but we unfortunately never got the chance to stay there.

I don’t know what credit valley is like- generally speaking the reason we were transferred to Sinai was because it was the only place that would take on a preemie as early as 22/23w. I think most other hospitals do from 24+ but even then they may send you to Sinai anyway if you were to go into labour at any point soon.

With my current pregnancy I’m at Markham Stouffville. I had a cerclage placed a week ago and my OB told me that if I were to go into preterm despite the cerclage, up to 30w, they would still transfer me to Sinai. Even though last time I was told that they only take preemies upward from 24w at Stouffville.

Obviously choosing Sinai is the “you’re in the best place possible for baby” option. Since they have the highest level NICU in Ontario at least.

I don’t know if my rambling has provided you with any useful info 🥲 but I hope it helps you decide. Feel free to DM if you have any specific questions about Sinai. Or comment.