delivery information--midwives/hospitals--for a new Oxford resident (Iffley Village)

[GreatScotts]

Hello mums!

My family will be temporarily moving from the US to the UK (OxfordIffley Village) in September so that my husband can do research at the University. We have a 2 year old daughter and will likely get pregnant before our move. As you imagine, I have tons of questions about pre-natal/ante-natal care in general since it will be quite different (and from what i head better!) than here in the States. Specifically, I have questions about anyone's experience with midwives that service our area and hospital deliveries (Spires at JR hospital). I delivered our daughter without medication and would like to do the same with our next childso any information related to midwives/hospitals that are supportive of this would be great as well.

Thanks for any & all information in advance!
Take care!

You'll love it here! Midwife led care is the norm for low risk pg. Shouldn't think you'd have many probs booking a home birth if that's what you want. The JR is also more than ok. I had a lovely low tech birth there. I also received excellent care when things weren't so straight forward. Hope you enjoy Oxford! PS babies are birthed, pizzas are delivered :)

I live near Oxford (used to live very close to Iffley Village, although sadly in somewhat less lovely neighbourhood!) and have given birth twice at the JR. There have been a few threads about it so if you search you will probably find lots of opinions.

Spires is the MLU at the JR, I gave birth in the CLU as was high risk but even so I really couldn't fault it. I had the same mw in with me all the time (I think I just covered her shift!), she was very unobtrusive and despite being quite "medicalised" (I had continuous monitoring and a cannula) I ended up just using TENS and a bit of gas and air towards the end. First birth was planned cs - again, everyone lovely and care great.

Not so sure about the post-natal care, but if it is your second dc then you probably won't need much help. The mws on the ward were still lovely and very helpful, but run off their feet, so not much time to sit and help with bfing etc.

motherofsnortpigs: ha! i have never heard that expression but YES you are right--babies are birthed not delivered. very funny! thanks for all the good info. i would love to do a home birth but am a scaredy cat after having post partum hemmorhage and retained placenta. eeks! everything ended up ok but has left me a bit nervous about that aspect of giving birth again. spires unit sounds like a great compromise!

liegeandlief: thanks for you comments! i have read a bit of the reviews/comments on mumsnet about JR & the Spires unit. Seems quite good overall. I think, as you said, I won't need much follow up regarding breastfeeding (still breastfeeding my 2 year old--so we have that down!) but just concerned about making sure I am healed up ok. I was shocked with the lack of follow up here in the States. You don't see or hear from a medical professional until 6 weeks after giving birth! In my case, that was terrible, as at 5 weeks when I called to ask why things didn't seem to be 'getting better', they determined I had retained placenta & had to have DNC asap to remove it. Yikes! Would have been nice to have worked that out earlier. So, long story short, seems like I might be in better hands in the UK than in the US. Thanks again for comments!

Oh no that sounds awful! They were pretty good about that - I was in for 4 days after my normal birth (not standard, I had pre-eclampsia), was asked plenty of questions about how I was doing and had my stitches checked. I think if you were at home you would get at least one mw visit. I had an hv visit pretty soon after we both got home who went over the same questions again to check I was ok, although it was mainly about dd.

You would typically expect a few visits from a community MW after the birth and you have a number that you can ring 24hrs a day to ask questions if you're worried about anything. Plus I was only discharged from the MW service once I was happy to. At that point you get passed over to the Health Visitors who you can see quite frequently if you want to (normally one home visit and then drop in sessions).

I'm now in the US and 11 weeks pg with my second, I was not happy about the pap test and internal they did. He couldn't understand why they don't do them in the UK (obviously they do paps, just not while pg).

I had both my children in the JR CLU (1st before the Spires opened) and also found them to be very hands off with my (low-risk) labours. With the first I had the same midwife throughout the roughly 7 or 8 hours I was in, she was very unobtrusive and though she suggested things I might like to do she was quite content to sit quietly whilst I ignored her and wondered around with the gas and air. Second time they put me in a room when I wasn't in labour to see how things went and then popped back an hour later as I was just about to give birth so very hands off! The midwife who came in for the birth was excellent (and would have been available had I pushed the button, I just didn't realise how quickly things were going). I was out two hours later.

I would say the general view (and my experience) is that the JR (inc spires) is very good for the birth and have no interest in intervening if you are low risk (quite the reverse) but not so great post-natally if you need help. The community midwives will look after you after the birth when you are home and will come/make contact several times in the initial days until you are discharged to the health visitor on about day 10. It's then up to you what you do but you will have a postnatal check with the GP after 6 weeks (if you want one).

Do you know which GP you will use? If you are low risk then most of your ante-natal care will be with the midwife attached to the practice.

You won't see a doctor at 6-8 weeks unless you make an appointment sooner for any worries.

Thanks all for your very helpful messages!

Catz: Did you say you were out 2 hours after the birth? I did wonder how soon one could be discharged if everything was uncomplicated-especially since I will be anxious to get home to dd! I don't know what GP I will use yetwe will not move to Oxford until September. Truthfully, I didn't know I would get a choice, as I am unfamiliar with how the NHS works. From what I've read, I must register with the local health center (Donnington Health Centre) upon arrival and I just assumed from there I would be assigned to a GP. Are you (or is anyone) familiar at all with the Donnington Health Centre or their GPs/midwives?

Thanks again for all the helpful information. Again, I am feeling more confident about birth & follow up care while in the UK than here at home!

I have given birth at the JR twice; the second time was in the Spires (it wasn't open when I had DC1). I had a great experience there - I was lucky that it was a very straightforward labour, and DD was born within 2 hours of my arrival. I had a choice of rooms and had the sensory room - it didn't have a bed, but had beanbags, a soft padded area (I think), and mood lighting! It was a very tranquil place to labour and my midwife was just lovely. I stayed in overnight and had my own room (it had 3 delivery rooms and 3 bedrooms).
This was when it was fairly new (had only been open around 3 months) and was just over 2 years ago. At the time though it wasn't always open as the staff sometimes got called downstairs to the labour wards if they were particularly busy - but this may have changed now. I don't know the Donnington midwives but I have only had good experiences with the JR ones.

Hi again. Yes we came home after two hours, which may have been slightly early as the family then all decided to visit... but it meant that my DD hardly knew we'd gone. As all was fine with us and baby, after the birth and clear up the mw helped me latch on, showed me where the shower was, gave me some tea and toast and said let us know when you're ready to leave. I guess we could have stayed longer or asked to go to the post natal ward but there didn't seem much need and I didn't want to block a delivery room for longer than I needed to. If you have a quick discharge the GP will come and do some checks for you the next day to listen to baby's heart etc.

Don't know the Donnington midwives but the community midwives I've met have all been very good (if busy).