The Rosie, Addenbrookes Cambridge

[Larksway]

Hi,
Has anyone got any experience of giving birth at The Rosie, Cambridge? I am a little bit nervous about what to expect!

[DaisyMooSteiner]

Bump for you (I'm interested in the replies too!)

[SummerLightning]

That depends if you call having him whipped out by emergency c/s "giving birth"

They were fine with me, and I think everyone I know doesn't have a bad word to say about the staff or treatment there, even if their birth wasn't as hoped.

Postnatal ward was great too (I was worried about this as I'd heard it was a bit busy and you got a bit neglected).

Oh and they gave DS a little christmas top as he he was born on Christmas day! And I got Xmas dinner, sprouts and all.

BUT the Midwife Led Unit was full when I went in and apparently this is often the case.

[ByThePowerOfGreyskull]

Have heard scarey things BUT everyone I directly know who has given birth there has had a positive experience.
I live just outside Cambridge and it is our local maternity unit.
I can't give idrect experience as I had both my boys at home with brilliant community midwife support.

[BakewellTarts]

My sister has just given birth there and was very well looked after.

Best of luck.

[SummerLightning]

The city community midwives have good reputation too, if you want a homebirth. I was meant to be having one but it didn't work out.

[bfpthismorning]

[ByThePowerOfGreyskull]

my friend had a planned c/s there due to apparent large baby, iirc she had a good experience, her little girl is now nearly 3 though so not sure it is relevant.

[Libra]

I gave birth there, but it was 15 years ago, so may have changed.

It was fine.

I would give it a B plus.
This is because I am comparing to my later birth in Aberdeen, which I thought was a more homely atmosphere and had the possibility of a water birth.

At my time, Rosies did not offer that - or at least not to me - but then it was a loooong time ago.

[DaisyMooSteiner]

The Rosie has two birthing pools now - one on the MLBU and one on delivery unit. The one on DU is much bigger.

I had a planned CS there, which was fine (and certainly much better than my previous planned CS experience at a different unit) I also had an ace homebirth with the community midwives.

Oh, and delivery unit stocks the cutest little individual pots of Marmite to go in your toast after the birth

[Libra]

Ooh I remember the toast.

The toast is good. Best piece of toast in my life. (Although that may be more to do with the whole just-given birth thing than with the quality of the Rosie's toast-making)

[Deaconwood]

Didn't give birth in the Rosie as had a homebirth, but all my ante-natal experiences there were very positive. If you are thinking of a homebirth, the Ely area midwife team are excellent and I can't recommend it enough.

[Poledra]

I've had 3 births at the Rosie in the past 5 years - an emergency c-s, a forceps and an induction. I have no complaints about my medical care at the Rosie. The food was blardy atrocious the first two times but had improved considerably by the time I had DD3 on July last year. And the freedom to make your own toast, get some yoghurt etc from the kitchen was great (I only ever managed to get out the hospital within 24 hours with DD2 - with the other two I was in for at least 5 days).

I haven't been in the MLU there, as it wasn't open when DD1 was born and she was the emergency c-s, so they wanted me in the obs delivery suite. They do try to help you keep active, and they were very pro my VBACs. In fact, with DD3, they were originally supporting me labouring in the pool using telemetric CFM (didn't happen as I had to be induced but at least they were willing to give it a try).

If Anita delivers your baby, tell her I love her still . Any other info you want to know, give us a shout.

[ChasingSquirrels]

I had ds1 there 6.5yrs ago. No issues at all.

[BoffinMum]

Spent some time on the ante-natal ward in Jan due to a pg complication. I think it would be fair to say they were absolutely rushed off their feet and had problems staffing all the delivery rooms, as many women were left in my bay to labour collectively, flat on their backs, with paper curtains pulled around them, even though there were single rooms free whenever I went past. There also seemed to be a shortage of monitors.

However:

Food quite edible, with a fridge to raid if you miss meals
Spotlessly clean
Staff were unfailingly kind and helpful
Smashing hi-tech electronic beds that are very comfortable
Very nice bf room with gliding rocking chairs and videos on bf

[hedgepig]

I have had both my sons there, DS1 5yrs ago and DS2 6 months ago. It is a large teaching hospital and can get busy but the advantage of its size is that you have experienced staff who can deal with anything. I haven't used the MLBU but delivery unit were great with me for both births. My 2nd was a VBAC and as Poldara found they were very supportive of VBAC delivery.
With DS2 I found Lady Mary (the standard postnatal ward) a bit busy but DS2 had some feeding problems and we were sent to Sara Ward for help with that. Sara is much quieter and we got a lot of help with trying to get him to feed. Good luck with your birth

[mamadoc]

Have also given birth there 2 yrs ago.
MLBU also closed when I was there (lack of staff) and I believe this is not uncommon but I had good care on the main DU and this seemed to be 1:1 at least for the later stages when I needed it.
Cannot really fault the delivery bit although it did all go a bit pear shaped later for us.
DD was IUGR and we had to go to Sara ward where staff were all v nice but not IMHO as supportive to bf as they could have been (why do you want to bother to express at night you have your rest and we'll give her a bottle sort of stuff).
Agree ward was clean, food fine and staff nice but be prepared to know your stuff and stick up for yourself if you want to bf and if your birth is uncomplicated just go home asap!

[neolara]

I didn't have a great experience at the Rosie about 4 years ago.

When I went into the Rosie I waited for 2 hours to be seen by a midwife. This would probably have been ok in most circumstances but I had a very quick (first) labour and by the time the midwife finally arrived arrived I was fully dilated and ready to push. My dh had been running out of the room frequently in the previous 2 hours trying to get someone to come, but all midwives were apparantly busy. The receptionist had run me a bath but no-one had shown my how the gas and air worked. Also, and this is the bit that is really not good, when my dd was born, she was not breathing. The midwife whipped her away immediately and told us to press the emergency button, which we did repeatedly. It took between 5 and 10 mins for anyone to come to assist, and then someone finally sauntered in, asking if we needed help. Fortunately, my dd was fine by then. Also breast-feeeding support in the post-natal ward was pretty appalling.

We had a home birth with my second baby, and this was a completely different experience. The midwives were fantastic, I felt supported throughout. It was brilliant. Again, my baby took a few minutes to breath after he was born, but they took that in their stride.

I'm now faced with the dilemma of what to do again as I am now pregnant with number 3. If it wasn't for the fact that both babies had difficulty breathing when they were born, I would go for a home birth again like a shot. However, now I'm a bit freaked out by it all and wonder if it might be safer in the Rosie. Maybe we just had a particularly unlucky, crap time first time around. I really don't know.

[BoffinMum]

Neolara, can I suggest you get an appointment with one of the consultants to discuss this as they might be able to give you tips on how to achieve a home birth and peace of mind as well?

[ellingwoman]

Ooh I'd forgotten the lovely toast

[DaisyMooSteiner]

Poledra - if you see this, would you mind emailing me - nappymad @ yahoo.com

[rek21]

Hi there, I had my daughter by planned c-section in the rosie in october 07 and will have dd2 there in may. My own experience and that of many others I have spoken to is that the medical care is excellent but the lady Mary postnatal ward is awful particularly breastfeedibg support. It's not the staff's fault, there just aren't enough of them to go round. This time my plan is to make lots of fuss and insist on help, and discharge myself after the first night!

[childrenchildreneverywhere]

Another bump, as like Daisy I'm interested too ;-) LOL.

I would fight hand over fist to get into the MLBU rather than the DU and if I didn't get into the MLBU for whatever reason, then I'd be asking for an MLBU midwife to attend me upstairs. I'd also remember to ask for the infant feeding coordinator to visit me PDQ if I ended up on Sara Ward!

[Bella73]

I had both my dds there (dd1 2 years ago and dd2 in May last year). I wanted MLBU for both. I had a really positive experience with the Rosie and have nothing but good to say about the staff. I would strongly adivse that you can discharge yourself if all is well and just get home, I wanted to do that with dd2 but a combination of a bad tear for me and meconium in the waters for her meant I didn't stick to my guns and insist. If I have another one, I would be happy to discharge if all was well like that.

DD1 - I started in MLBU but waters had been broken over 48 hrs and I was not progressing after 2 days of contractions 5 mins apart so ended having to go upstairs to the DU for induction. However, I had 1-1 care the entire time I was there and I loved my midwife (male).

Even though we ended up with ventouse (one chance to push before they moved on to an emcs) because dd1 was in distress after the induction started, I genuinely feel happy with the birth experience. I was encouraged to stand/find comfy positions, they were really trying to do the kind of epidural that would allow me some movement towards the end (not possible because everything became a bit of a panic in the end but they were very positive about it). They left us together to bond as a family for a couple of hours, with just offers of toast, tea and bf'ing help if required.

DD2 - I wanted the MLBU and when I first rang at 6am they had space, but then when I was ready to go in at 9am they were full. However, what they offered was MLBU treatment iykwim, just based in the DU.

So I had 1-1 care, in my own room, very very good care where I was able to choose what I wanted. I had a deep bath (the pool was busy), was asked what I felt about pain relief and managed (what I wanted) to do the whole thing with only a couple of puffs of gas and air at the end. My mw was with me the whole time except in the bath when I was happy for her to leave me. I was actively encouraged to be up and about or in the bath and to labour in non-lying down positions.

As others have said, Lady Mary Ward is very busy. Everyone else in the ward with me had had a cs so needed a lot of help with lifting/feeding etc. However, if all is well with you and with the baby, you can discharge if you are happy to do that and as I said, I would happily go home and be in the hands of the wonderful community midwives if I have another. I might even consider a home birth but am personally more comfy with being in MLBU/Rosie.

[BarrelOfMonkeys]

I had a good experience on the whole, staff were pretty communicative and I had a fab midwife.

My one tip would be make sure they observe your first feeds. My baby latched momentarily after birth but then I had a haemorrage and they whipped her out of the way and she never latched properly after that for weeks. Being my first I didn't know that general sucking (no latch) and coming off quickly wasn't right, which was all she would do, and it took nearly 2 days for them to pick it up. Poor bubs ended up syringe fed and all sorts of trauma I suspect could have been picked up earlier or avoided ensued.