Just before the New Year, I posted here about the speculation surrounding Beyoncé’s delivery of her long-awaited baby; back then, it was widely believed that the beatific diva would give birth at New York’s St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in one of that institution’s high-end maternity suites. She and Jay-Z were meant to have rented out at least half of the units for privacy on what turned out not to be the big day.
Over the weekend, the baby—reportedly named Blue Ivy Carter—finally arrived, but the delivery took place at Lenox Hill Hospital instead of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt. According to Rolling Stone, Beyoncé rented out an entire wing of the Upper East Side hospital for $1.3 million, sealing the area off and redecorating it for the occasion.
In my original post, I wondered what would happen to other new mothers and families with all of the hospital resources reserved for a celebrity. Would regular women be turned away in favor of the star-baby? According to spokesperson Nancy McCarthy of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt, “the hospital will not turn away a patient in distress,” so while Beyoncé might have had dibs on the best rooms, the staff would always accommodate any woman in need.
While Lenox Hill undoubtedly has a similar policy, this doesn’t mean that the preferential logistics don’t cause any problems. One new father whose newborn twins were in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at Lenox is claiming that Beyoncé’s occupation of the hospital caused him to be barred by bodyguards from visiting his children. The hospital administration has yet to comment, but Taiwan’s Next Media Animation has already created a helpful video about the situation:
Thanks to Katy Waldman for her research assistance.
