Has anyone asked to have antenatal care at one hospital but to deliver at another?

[RTchoke]

I am in London and my work is near one hospital but I live near another. I am thinking of asking for all my antenatal care to be at the one near my work because otherwise I will miss loads of hours at work schlepping across town for appointments, but asking to deliver at the one near my house so I don't have to travel far in labour.

Can this be done?

[PurplePidjin]

I'm on a county border. Hospital 1 - where i see the mw - only has paediatric services, no maternity or scanning facilities. Hospital 2 is the one they refer to normally (large city teaching hospital) with a midwife led unit out of town in beautiful countryside. I want to give birth here, and if i do i get the same team i see for ante natal care.

Hospital 3 is 10 miles away in another county, but is scans and MLU only, hospital transfers are to 35 miles from my house. H3 is near a big shopping centre and i know where the free parking is (well, the price of a coffee in the cafe ). Guess where i had my scans :o

Mw just switched me over at my 25 week check (first pregnancy) with no hassle. I'd suggest you see the same team for antenatal as will be at your birth if you can, though, mine are lovely and i feel like i can trust them to look out for me. Not sure I'd be so relaxed with strangers!!

[RTchoke]

Thanks Purple.

The thing is in London I am very unlikely to ever see the same MW twice even if I don't change hospitals. This is DC3 for me and with DCs 1 and 2 I never saw anyone twice and that was totally normal. If I thought I could get that kind of personalised care I would stick at one hospital but as it does not exist around here I am not worried about swapping from a care perspective.

[RTchoke]

Thanks Asmy. The two hospitals are Chelsea and Westminster and Queen Charlottes so I think they are both in the same health authority. Certainly people where I live are offered either to deliver at but I just don't know if you can chose one and then swap.

It is a good point about oversubscribed MLUs and pools etc. Sadly I will never be allowed MLU or pool due to a horrendous heamorrage after DC1 so I will only be after the medicalised delivery which most people want to escape from!

[RTchoke]

Yes with DC2 I had a cannula in throughout and the syntocin drip to contract my womb as soon as she was delivered. I still bled but I didn't need transfusions which was a relief. I hated that transfusions the first time and would do anything to avoid them.

[sparklekitty]

Not quite the same but all my antenatal care has been at a MLU, I was due to deliver there but had some problems and now have to deliver at local hospital. I'm still having my antenatal and postnatal care at the MLU tho so I would imagine it's possible.

[MoragG]

I am in Glasgow, and have my antenatal care at the hospital nearest to where I live, but will give birth at another hospital, as only the latter has a labour suite. Ironically the hospital I will give birth in is nearer to where I work, but your antenatal care seems to be based on your home postcode! So theoretically it's possible to have antenatal care at a different hospital, but this seems to be down to the set up in your area rather than actively being able to choose this option. I would ask anyway though - they might say yes!

[minipie]

I don't see why not. However, a few things to bear in mind:

• There are quite a lot of antenatal appointments in the last few weeks, when you will presumably no longer be at work and also you'll be huge and tired! So at that stage you might prefer to be having antenatal care at your "home" hospital, even if the earlier appointments are at your "work" hospital.
  

• Some antenatal appts are at your GP or a community midwife office rather than the hospital - so you might find that this isn't all that convenient for work anyway.
  

• I have found most of my appointments have been either at 9am or at 4pm (and quite often they can give you a choice if you book far enough in advance) so I haven't missed too much work even though the appointments are near home.
  

• Personally I'd rather have the same hospital throughout just because it means I get more familiar with the hospital, even if I never see the same MW twice! However you may already be familiar with the hospital if this is DC2 for you.

[GingerDoodle]

My antenatal care and scans have been at Crawley hospital. However they do not have a maternity unit and I was unhappy with East Surrey which is where I ppl 'normally' go so have booked to birth at St Richards in Chichester. I switched at around 28 weeks and just had to visit the once to book in.

I've also been to UCL-H for monitoring as I was at work and it was round the corner when I was concerned. They saw me without hassle or problem,

[Bluegingham]

I did this. Had all my antenatal at my local hospital. Also had 2 private appointments and transferred to private care in London at 37 weeks first time and 34 weeks second time.