PrIncess Alexandra Harlow or Lister Stevenage

[quitcomplaining]

Help! I need to give my decision this afternoon. I had my dd at QE2 which is now closed. Does anyone have any experience of either? I'm equal distance from both....

I gave birth at the Lister two weeks ago. A rather mixed experience I have to say. The new MLU/CLU delivery suites are absolutely fantastic - I gave birth in the CLU via emcs and the experience was as calm and as supported as it could possibly be, the staff were so supportive. Other girls in my NCT group had water births in the MLU and also found their experience as good as they wanted. DD was also in SCBU for 5 days and the nurses down there were so helpful and friendly, I couldn't find a thing to fault and they were great at helping me and DP deal with having a poorly baby.

However the pre and post-labour wards haven't been revamped and I didn't have a great experience on either ward. The pre-labour ward failed to give me any cyclezine despite the fact I was throwing up for 8 hours and so I was in a bit of a state by the time I went to the CLU, and on the post-labour ward I was initially put in a side ward full of babies even though there was a bed available in the side ward for mums with babies in SCBU . I actually think it was because they are very busy since the merger with QE2 and seemed a little understaffed, which is a shame as the mw's really are trying their best.

Overall, if you had an ok delivery first time and have no reason to expect anything else with this baby, so you'll hopefully only really be in the delivery suites and will avoid long stays the wards, then the Lister would probably be a fantastic place to give birth. I really can't overstate how impressive the new suites are!!