So what hospital did you give birth in?

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Following on from the epidural thread and seeign that sometimes your level of care can depend upon the area you live in, I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on which hospital you have given birth in, or are going to give birth in and any comments ie - good, bad, excellent, etc

I often wonder if women get a rougher deal if they live say for instance, in a bigger City. I remember looking after a woman a few years ago who was having a ELCS after a really traumatic delivery in London and her after care on the wards made me so sad for her. She moved to the country and her next baby was born here, and she said it couldnt have been more different.

So fire away

St Thomas' - London
Care for the most part was bloody awful. Felt like a piece of meat for the most part.

Kingston - Surrey
Fab care throughout, felt nurtured, treated like a human being.

Hmm, doubled up on "the most part" 's

Grimsby Maternity Hospital. Standard of care was second to non. Lovely midwives, own rooms throughout. Stayed in 5 days whilst we established feeding. MWs felt like friends.
I had an epi and was given it within the hour.
It has an amazing reputation, it is a brand new facility

St Georges last time. Will be Royal Surrey in Guildford this time. Really hoping for a different experience.

DS1: Kings College Hospital, London, 2.5yrs ago
Pre-natal care was out of a clinic a train ride away, different midwives every time, hospital was generally always overcrowded and appointments ran hours overdue, c-section was fine but the ward was heavily overcrowded and my post-natal care was pretty crap , failed BF, etc.

DS2: Mayday Hospital, London, 3mths ago
Consistent care via my GP surgery, hosital was much better, VBAC was great and midwives were brilliant, much better experience all round

Kings College Hospital before the shiny new Jubilee wing was built. The care from my midwife was very good but she was a community midwife from my GP practice not a hospital midwife. The care may have been as good from a hospital midwife but going in with my own meant she all mine IYSWIM. I was given an epidural when I asked for one. No complaints at all.

Kings College London - 2x. Varied care depending on who (which midwife) was giving it. Some fab, some not.

Don't think it has anything to do with being in a big city though. I know plenty of women who've got horror stories from smaller units to equal those I've heard of in bigger city hospitals.

Also it might be good to add if you ahd seperate Midwives in community, and the labour ward so in effect you dont know who will be looking after you in labour/postnatal.

Where I work we do a team approach. So every MW employed by the hospital is divided into teams and we cover X amount of GP surgerys, and we also work on Labour ward as well as AN/PN ward.

This way we work in all areas equally. So for instance this week I have done 2 labour ward shifts, 1 PN ward shift and a day on the community.

We tend to meet a woman at booking (8-10 weeks) and then see them in the pregnancy at the surgery. If we are working on LW any women admitted in our team we look after, so most of the time we have met the woman at some point.

I do find this way of working lovely, and the women tend to like it too. I do feel it gives continuity, and you get a feel of what a woman does/doesnt want in labour and it helps greatly with a working relationship in labour.

N&N, Norwich. Twice.
Had to stay in before and after both times.

Staff are brilliant. Basically completely happy with everything. Post-natal midwives (hospital and community) absolutely wonderful.

Didn't ask for epidural, so no idea about that.

That first sentence of my last post didnt make sense

What I meant was basically what some of you are saying anyhow!

Nevill Hall, Abergavenny - would recommend it.

In Monmouthshire there is a choice between Caerphilly (never been so can't comment), Royal Gwent in Newport (absolute shithole, no way was I going there)or NHH in Abergavenny.

Care was excellent, I went in at 41+4 and spent 2 days on the prenatal ward - this was ok apart from lack of sleep, excessively heated wards etc that you get in any hospital.

The delivery team were fab, as was the after care. The post natal section of the ward much nicer, (and cooler).

TBF I had a really good experience there.

DS1&2 - Transferred from Swansea to Worcester Royal infirmary due to lack of neonatal intensieve care beds. Midwives there were lovely and my care was excellent.

DD - Singleton hospital, Swansea. Generally ok, asked for epidural but they said no as i was 8cm and they reckoned it'd put me back for hours. Good BF support after birth.

DS3 - Birth experience was fine, but didn't have any aftercare as they thought i knew it all as i already had children.

Lister Hospital, Stevenage - was admitted 5 years ago this evening and DD arrived at lunchtime the following day .

I didn't see any of the community midwives whilst I was in (4.5 days in total) but I believe that they do work across both labour ward and antenatal appointments.

Care was so-so. I had a fab midwife for the first 12 hours of my labour, followed by a complete witch, and a cascade of interventions that resulted in failed ventouse / eventual forceps delivery, epi and 3rd degree tear. DD was whisked away from me (she was fine, no need for SCBU) and I didn't see her for another hour after she was born.

Breast feeding support was very poor, not helped by DD screaming in pain everytime a midwife grabbed hold of her head to try to position her correctly. Poor wee soul was given Calpol at a day old "to try to help her headache", and I reluctantly switched to formula at 3 days old as she had latched on just once and I felt a complete failure, coupled with being desperate to get home. On hearing of my decision (literally an hour afterwards), the so called Breast Feeding Counsellor tutted, told me that I'd be in agony due to engorgement, and stalked off . In reality, I never experienced any engorgement at all, so wonder if there was a physiological problem as well.

To balance this, lots of friends have given birth at the Lister as well, and nobody had as bad a time as me, so maybe I was just very unlucky. Needless to say, DD is 5 tomorrow and will remain an only child.

Norfolk and Norwich also. Terribly understaffed, discharged 12hrs post emcs as they needed the bed. Took years to talk about the whole thing without crying.

12 hours PN

Thats Awful.

I stayed at St Micheals in Bristol postnatally and it was awful, really really bad. Apart from 1 Midwife the care was sub-standard. I was told off for asking for pain relief after my CS, as I was never about when the drugs rounds were being done (Baby was in the NICU there) and ended up sending OH out to a chemist to get my own. It wasnt very clean either.

Bath hospital Princess Anne wing.

S.h.I.t.e.h.o.l.e.....

I had two midwives in Chippenham hospital for most appointments but couldn't have ds there because of suspected pre eclampsia.

The two midwives on duty during 12 hours of labour in Bath were great. The fucking silly bitch trainee doctor who shoved....yes shoved her hand up me mid contraction got a kick in the side of the hide. Midwives told her to get out!

Epidural didn't work, but all methods of painkiller were offered. A spinal got me back to life after I went a bit grey with exhaustion after 4 days on the ward being induced. I felt completely out of control the whole time though. They just wanted the baby out. Queen Amidala had a more personal birth.

Back on the ward ds had a suspected fractured skull, it was midnight and I didn't want dh to leave me as I felt sick. There was one midwife on duty for 40 women and one aux. Breastfeeding support upstairs....midwife stormed in, thrust a syringe on to my nipple and squeezed it and put it in ds mouth, tutted and walked out. I demanded that dh stay I was so traumatized, had 14 stitches was in total distress. We asked to pay for a room if that would sort it. They made a huge fuss, as my husband couldn't stay in the larger ward ( although when I was in one it was fine that a dad sat there phoning his mates at 2 am to brag about how big his new born Oliver's testicles were...

When my husband went to get a drink the aux came in and told me that I was being selfish as the room was reserved for parents that had given birth to a dead child!

As soon as the x rays were done we phoned Chippenham to ask if we could come for after care and I left in the car in my nightie.

Chippenham was like the Royal, warm, personal and full of caring staff. You were nurtured and cared for the midwife in charge was calm experienced and wonderful. That turned the nightmare birth experience right around.

oh god! that's awful ShowOfHands....

#1 Royal London - dreadful place, understaffed grotty, horrid midwife & generally terrible experience.

#2 Royal Surrey home from home unit - couldn't have been better, lovely supportive MW.

#3 St Thomas's - wonderful wonderful staff and very decent Drs.

but I had three hugely different births and I don't know how much of my experience was governed by the "type" of birth I was having.

Worthing - had amazing experience there. Was meant to home birth but waters broke and didnt go in to labour so had to induced eventually. All ended in EMCS but the care was really good and got my own room after traumatic birth. Plus they took my DS away both nights to allow me to sleep. On top of that had good breastfeeding support. Midwives very caring and got an epidural when I asked for one.

Had both my dds at Liverpool Women's Hospital. The care was excellent both times. First time round I was in for 4 days because I got Gastroenteritis, but they took good care of me. Second time round was out the next day, both normal births, had all the drugs under the sun though. Midwives were different from the community midwives I saw, but still lovely.

Princess Anne Sothampton for both DD1&2

Blackpool Victoria for DD3

Whipps Cross, East London. All I'll say is 'DON"T'

Birmingham Womens Hospital. Care during labour/birth was excellent both times. Post natal care on the wards afterwards was absolutely shocking.

It's hard not to let the fact that it's only £39.50 extra to add me to my husband's insurance colour my view tbh.

I do though believe it's the same as judging by age, job etc. You're lumped in with others of the same category without any personalisation.