I am 12 weeks and having booking in appointment for DC2 this week. When I had DS, I lived in another area and wasn't aware that I could choose a hospital (not entirely sure I could then and in that area).

I need advice about which hospital to go to. I know I can change my mind later on, but I want to choose somewhere decent and feel as if I know nothing about the hospitals in this area. I have asked people I know but feel that Mumsnetters are my better choice for telling it like it is.

My default is George Eliot in Nuneaton, though this isn't the closest to me and I can choose where I want to go. I like the idea of a midwife led unit. Was looking at Birmingham Womens.

Arrrgh help!

No, I don't want a HB.

Whereabouts are you? I know the West Midlands very well. I was born at Birmingham Women's!

Had my son at Good Hope in Sutton Coldfield in December. Antenatal care was so-so, delivery care was brilliant, postnatal was so-so, breastfeeding help has been excellent.

I have had 2 children at Good Hope (plus my mum works on maternity ward there), and i have had one child at Birmingham Womens.

Tbh I couldn't really say that one was any better or worse than the other. At Good Hope, I felt quite looked after iykwim, whereas at the Womens I did feel a bit more left to get on with it. Perhaps that is because it was a larger hospital.

Right ok. Hmmm...thanks for your words. Am in Coleshill area and don't really want to go to George Eliot though TBH, am not sure why. I do wonder if maybe I should just pick one, just wondering if anyone had any cautionary tales...

I was born at Birmingham Women's as well

DD was a Russell's Hall (which is great) but is probably too far for you. Solihull is supposed to be quite good ..

What do people reckon to Heartlands?

Or "Heartlesslands" as its locally known ...

Have a couple of horror stories from there

worth a look

sorry - didn't realise the maternity unit from Solihull had now moved to Heartlands

LOL Tilly. It does look a bit grim and I've not heard great things in the past...but then you meet a few people who've had their children there and wouldn't go anywhere else.

Of course, they say..."Oh I'd never go to Good Hope"...and then you meet someone who had a great time at Good Hope who says "I'd never go to Heartlands" and so the cycle continues. Am starting to think I should pick from a bag.

Is the Midwife Led Unit at Bham Womens attached to a consultant unit?

I have worked at Heartlands, Solihull, Good Hope and Russells Hall. Did obstetrics and gynaecology at Russells Hall, so glad that someone rates it!

Solihull is very nice, and is part of the same trust as Heartlands. The only thing to bear in mind is that there is no SCBU at Solihull, and that if you suffer complications in labour you may have to be transferred or be in a seperate hospital to your baby (this is the kind of thing that I get worried about as a doctor, but I'm sure doesn't bother most people). Otherwise, I hear that the care is excellent.

There is a very good MLU at Lichfield, which a lot of my friends have used. However, it has a very high transfer in labour rate (40%) and the nearest place you get sent to is Burton as there is no on-site unit with obstetricians.

I would also recommend Good Hope. I have also heard good things about Nuneaton (I work in Tamworth, so quite a few of my patients choose to go there).

The Women's is good and heavily oversubscribed, but is probably more geared up to women who have complicated pregnancies. You will also face a heck of a lot of bad traffic and parking if you have to get there for your antenatal care.

I suppose your choice all depends on what is important to you.

Thanks for that link, am looking now. Am also looking at a Netmums links page <shame>

I also hadn't realised that the maternity unti at Solihull had moved- probably for exactly the reasons that I mentioned.

I personally wouldn't chose Heartlands, but that is my own prejudice based on having worked at the dump centre of excellence.

Wow, thanks emma. I had a straight forward pregnancy and birth with DS and should be low risk again, of course that can all change but there is nothing up front to worry about. Good point about the traffic at the Women's. Had not considered that TBH.

I would want to be somewhere that I could transfer from without a great travel as while I love the idea of Midwife Led care, I am a natural worrier and if I thought that there might be a long journey or complications coming from location it would stress me out.

It's very complicated. See, this is the thing, I don't want the choice, I just want what there is to be good enough for me not to worry.

I shall look again at Good Hope I think, 'tis not too far from us.

FWIW, I had consultant-lead care througout my pregnancy. However, I didn't have any doctors involved at all during my labour. I had a fantastic midwife and student who were lovely and very professional. The atmosphere was relaxed and very special. It all went so quickly I didn't have time to get in the birthing pool! The midwife who mended my tear also did a much better job than most junior doctors would have done! Good Hope is also very good at the baby-friendly stuff is breast feeding is important to you.

Yes, about the breastfeeding. I did BF DS but only for 3 months an never really got the hang of it TBH. I had DS in Coventry and they checked on me BF but never helped at all. These days I would have enough about me to ask.

The breast feeding support lady at Good Hope is a legend!

from the experiences my friends had i would say birmingham womens great if you are having a medicalised birth or caesarean etc. they were wonderful when my friend's prem baby was born. BUT i have a friend who wanted a natural labour there and they did not handle it very well. she ended up having a lot of intervention she didn't really want. i think they are so good/used to dealing with the medical side of it they are not quite as good wrt the natural side of things iykwim. hth

Meant to add earlier, that I only had my 3rd at B'ham womens due to complications. Otherwise I would have been more than happy to have him at Good Hope, infact I cried down the phone to my consultant at GH, because I didn't want my care transferred to the womens

Emma is that the lady who's name starts with J ??

Had both of mine in Good Hope and can't complain at all. We were treated brilliantly.

CrackerOfNuts- Yes it is (am allowed to say her name?). Anyway, she is lovely and runs a really good drop-in session on Monday afternoons.

Jackie ?

If so, she is lovely. She ran my antenatal class way back in 1997 when I had Dd1, and when I had Dd2 6 weeks early, she popped in to say Hi and sat and listened to me blubbing. Lovely lady.

Jackie Scott indeed

Yep thats her

I had both of mine at the Women's -dd1 with gas and air; dd2 with a birthing pool. It was absolutely fine both times. It does look a bit of a bomb site right now though, with lots of building work going on.

Am due with my second baby in 2 weeks and booked in at Good Hope. Heard mixed reports but I had my son there in the pool and found the experience great! Lots of support from midwives for breastfeeding. I would recommend it.

Have a friend who works partly at Solihull and Heartlands and wouldn't recommend either - mainly due to lack of SCBU which I have to say would really sway my if I was choosing. I want to be as close to all medical assistance as possible in case the need arises!!

Good luck wherever you choose. I'm sure there's pro's and con's with all, as well as good and bad stories. You're probably just as well picking somewhere 'out of a hat' so to speak!

"Is the Midwife Led Unit at Bham Womens attached to a consultant unit?"

If this means can you go to consultant led unit if there are complications.... yes!

Had my dd at BWH. I started off at MLU, then was sent up to birthing suites due to meconium. Ended up ecs eventually.

And in our family we call Good Hope 'No Hope'... and at least 3 members of my family have worked there (but not in midwifery/obs)

Had both of mine at BWH, DD1 in 2005 in delivery suite, DS1 in 2007 in Birth Centre. Both were great but Birth Centre is fantastic, in and out in 12 hours, lovely midwife, lovely room, perfect for me. It's not always entirely clear how to make sure you get to BC though - you need to ask for a suitability assessment at 37 weeks, if it's still the same procedure. I was under a consultant though cos DD1 pre-term, so maybe that's what made it more difficult. Even this doesn't gurantee getting in there though because if DS is busy, BC midwives have to go over there (not during a delivery, of course). It was so worth the slightly complicated process though.

ONly other catch is the antenatel clinics - they are soooo busy, I often had 3-4 hour appointments. Not fun on top of your long drive to get there.

Wow more posts, thank you!

This thread really confirms my thoughts about people's experiences. It can be very hard to choose somewhere if you have no personal experience of what is in your area as everyone has different expectations and experiences.

So, can you have tours of maternity wards then? And how would I go about arranging that if you can?

Not sure I can stomach the long waits at BW TBH. I have read quite a lot of people saying what you said, AnotherFineMess, I would have to take DS with me and there is no way he could wait that long.

Shall have to see what happens at my booking in, which is tomorrow! Thanks so much for all your help, think we shall be looking towards Good Hope, which I have heard (mainly) good things about and is nice and close.

I have got as far as LazyLinePainterJane asking about Heartlands, so if you are all full of horror stories after that I have not read them yet.
I had my first two at Heartlands with no complaints. DS1 was a difficult birth (he is 10 in a few weeks) long labour, epi and ventouse eventually. I would not have changed anything, they looked after me and kept me informed at all times, gave me choices all the time and kept to my birth plan as closely as possible even though it was not the birth I had imagined. I even had a 'debrief' with the midwife after at the post natal meet up.
The second was straight forward, more or less in and out, no problems.
I have already chosen it for my DC3 even though I am not due till Christmas, it would not have occured to me to pick anywhere else after teh other two.

I also wouldnt consider Good Hope
or 'Good Hope no hope ' as it is also known as

<cries with confusion>

I had my first 2 at GHH which I htought was ok until I had my third in the north west then I realised what a good birth was

Hi LazyLinePainterJane
I generally wouldn't go to GH for anything else, but the maternity unit is good. I've had two babies at Burton (shocking place) and one at Stafford. The care at Stafford was fantastic but they weren't prepared to support me with my last baby as I wanted a VBAC after 3 previous caesareans.
No matter where you choose to give birth, leave as little as you can to chance. What are the most important things to you during labour and delivery? Write yourself a birth plan and then go through it with the Supervisor of Midwives - remember that every decision to be made during your labour and birth is YOURS.
Every labour is different and I know that it's impossible to write a birth plan that will reflect exactly what is going to happen. But you can engineer a great deal of it yourself just by doing a little forward planning. And the more aware that the midwives are of your wishes, the more chance you have of having a really lovely birth.
Sorry for going on, but this is a subject close to my heart. There's no way I would have managed a natural delivery if I hadn't practised what I preach. Good luck, wherever you choose.

Most delivery suites will allow you to go on a tour.

Speak to your midwife about it. You will usually have to contact the delivery suite directly and book onto a tour (usually at weekends as it is less hectic). My husband (who is non-medical) found it really useful and stopped him being scared by it all on the big day.

Thanks, vbacqueen, you have given me food for thought. Not that I want to think about food right now <barf>

Shall look into that emma, thanks for all your advice on this thread

Agree withvbacqueen, I also wouldn't go to Good Hope for anything else but their maternity care though IMO is good, definatly on a par with Womens or possibly better.

Well, I went to book in today and said I wanted to go to Good Hope. I have to arrange my own visit as we are out of the area but I shall.

Thank you ever so much everyone!

I was out of area too - caused the odd glitch with my local antenatal clinic at my GPs but nothing major. Book your tour of the unit as soon as possible though as they fill up really quickly.

Hi I had DD1 by emcs at Heartlands 7 years ago & found the care to be ok.

I had DD2 at Solihull on 31/1/08 was supposed to be elective section but she has other ideas & arrived in quick 3 hour labour a day before she was due. I received excellent care both ante & postnatal. There is the worry of no SCBU or pediatrican on site but I think that some of the MWs have had specialized training. In fact My B/F gave birth there yesterday sadly there was a problem with the baby & she was transferred to Heartlands. My friend is coming home.

From a distance point of view I was glad I went to Solihull as I nearly gave birth in the car as it was wouldn't of made it further. I am just down the road from you in Fordbridge.

Good Luck with wherever you choose

Is your friend's baby ok JAG?

I think she is going to be ok. The muscles at the back of her throat have not joined together. I'm not sure if that is what they call a cleft palate. It was picked up when she had her first feed. She is still in Heartlands at the moment & has to be fed with special bottles. She will have an operation at 6 months which should correct the problem, she may have to have speech therapy & possibly have earing probs although I think that this is worst case.
Its going to be very hard for my friend, she already has 3 other young children (oldest being 6)& she doesn't drive either. I will be there to support her as much as I can.
I am just thankful that it is not life threatening.

I had DD at Womens Hospital and had fantastic treatment. HOWEVER I was induced, they broke my waters and I'd had one previous stillbirth (not in Birmingham) and I had obstetric cholostasis (sp?) - therefore because of all this I was allocated a midwife to be with me all the way through and was not left alone once I went to the labour ward.

It was clear that other women were being left alone and midwives were having to deal with a number of rooms at once. I was in the consultant unit for obvious reasons. Generally women seemed happy though and the staff on the wards were lovely

I have heard very mixed views about the womens, millie. A lot of quite opposite views as well, seems that people seem to love it or hate it. Can't be doing with the waiting at appointments though!

I haven't read the whole thread, but I can't recommend The Women's highly enough.

I had my first daughter born at 20 weeks, they kept me in for about 5 days just as long as I wanted and looked after my whole family in that time.

They took a lot of time to find out why I had my daughter - she was born alive so no PM as she must have been strong. They treated me for it and got me a referral to one of the best doctors for my condition in the country (who just happens to be at the QE) who's team I was also under during my pregnancy.

When pregnant with Tink they had me in every couple of weeks at the start, I was under three teams to cover all our needs. They took me in from 20-24 weeks for reassurance, listened to baby on the four hour checks and weekly scans. When I came out I had three scans a week. At one point I had strong BH so they had me in for five days to be sure.

Tink was born at 31 weeks under GA as I had to have an emergency section. They kept me in for two weeks to be close to her and made breastfeeding a priority. No one left unable to breastfeed who wanted to. When she came off the unit we spent a week on the ward to get used to each other.

The hospital is like a hotel, it is clean and comfortable. It is the only hospital around here that doesn't have MRSA or C-Diff.

I know people who have been under other hospitals whose experiences make me glad to have been under The Women's. I know who trains them in breastfeeding and they are all really good and very pro-breastfeeding, but they're also supportive to those who don't.

I have heard bad things said about TWH, but having spent a lot longer than most there I know that they are on the whole really good.

Is the Midwife Led Unit at Bham Womens attached to a consultant unit?

It's all one hospital, you will be seen and give birth all in the same place as anyone else - the Birthing Centre and Delivery Suite are separate but literally next door to each other - so there's always doctors on hand when needed.

I know a lady who had her baby while I was in for my long stay. She was breech and had a row on the staff for wanting to deliver naturally (4th child). Because she stood up for herself she did get her natural birth, entonox for pain relief and only a MW and student MW (she let her go with her because she was looking after us on the ward) there. If you are MW led you should have a better chance of getting a natural birth. Neither time was I pushed into pain relief. I had entonox first time and nothing until I had the GA the second time.

And in our family we call Good Hope 'No Hope'

Good Grief
Good God

The list is endless.

My dad worked at Heartlands, my nephew had a serious disorder missed at Heartless and ended up being rushed to The Kids to have emergency surgery when it should have been handled differently; my m/c was at Solihull (to the sounds of babies crying) and I wouldn't want to go to either to have a baby (or A&E or anything else for that matter. Dad found the dump comment funny)

Thanks, TM...

Someone upthread mentioned that BW is oversubscribed, do you have to be a higher risk to get in do you know?

Nope, my first pregnancy went straight there and I was a normal pregnancy, same with Lily-Hope, it was only Tink that was high risk. I don't think it's oversubscribed as in they have a waiting list, just that they are very popular and tend to be busy.

Just wanted to add a vote for George Eliot to the mix - I too live in Coleshill and had my son there 15 months ago. I'm due again in August and opted for GE immediately.

There were a few complications but thankfully nothing serious during the birth, and I have no experience of other units, but all I can say is that all the midwives and doctors were fantastic, and I feel positive about going back there again. Everyhing was 'done well', including the epiduraql and the episiotomy and subsequent stitching.

My sister is a midwife (she was at Russells Hall/Wordsley for a few years, before moving to London) and she was with me for the birth and also felt GE was a good place.

Also, they only use real nappies in the baby units/maternity ward, which I personally like - it gives people the chance to use real nappies and see how they get on with them. We have used the same brand they gave us at the hospital ever since.

I'm sure for my positive story someone else will have had a bad experience, so I guess you need to look at the practicalities of each option available to you

Hope all goes well