Stoke Mandeville or High Wycombe experiences

[BoyMeetsWorld]

Hi,

Does anybody have any recent experience of childbirth at either Stoke Mandeville or High Wycombe? Ie since HW became midwife only.

I've got docs appt soon & need to be clear in my mind which of the 2 I'm asking for. Unfortunately I've heard horror stories about both. Would like to hear more experiences...

I have had positive experiences with having my daughter at Stoke Mandeville Hospital 6 months ago, I thought the (consultant led) Labour Ward was great. It felt safe, caring, well staffed and they handled an emergency we
had really well in my view. Of course this was only on one day and a "snap shot" into the unit but I struggle to think of anything negative.

My disappointment with my care was the community part, i.e. the bit from 8 weeks to 40 weeks. I had a community midwife who couldn't "get" that I wanted to deliver on the consultant led unit rather than the midwife led unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. It turned out because I had had a particular complication with the birth of my first baby I would have been "banned" from the midwife led units at Stoke or Wycombe anyway, so all the stress felt so unnecessary as I was a black and white "you can't go to a midwife led unit as you are too risky" case but I only realised this much later on when I saw someone else.

With regards to location of the birth I think it will be your community midwife at the booking visit rather than your GP who determines where you have the baby (ideally taken your wishes into account which did not happen for me). But I felt listened to in the end and I did get the location I wanted and I felt safe and well cared for. By the way the midwives at the Wycombe miwife led unit did seem lovely though when I went for postnatal check ups there.

If you go for the Wycombe Led Birth Unit do bear in mind that if the midwives pick up your baby is distressed in labour you will be transferred to Stoke Mandeville Hospital by ambulance before the birth, but if it is not realised or your baby suddenly gets poorly at the time of birth then there are no "baby" doctors (paediatricians) on site. (Although I think they still have childrens' clinics there so if you happen to go into labour during the day maybe there would be a 'baby doctor' to help if you were lucky). But there is no special care baby unit, all this is at Stoke Mandeville. It could be 30 minutes or more before your baby is transported to this unit from Wycombe and it could be very stressful for you. Sorry if that sounds a bit scary.

I can't give too much away without outing myself but I would t trust stoke mandeville to deliver a pizza let alone a baby!!

They were awful and IMO neglectful and the biggest mistake I ever made was walking through those doors :(

But that's just my experience I don't wish to scare u although i probably have and I'm
Sorry but I can't lie obviously :(

This was two yrs ago though

Thanks sky...stoke is my top choice too although wycombes closer. I had a bad 1st birth too resulting in forceps & episiotomy & am now terrified to be anywhere that's not consultant led.

I'm really worried though that I won't be listened to & forced to go to high Wycombe

Thanks caffeine - are you able to give any more details of why they were so awful?

There were just lots of things really. I had a home birth with dd1 so maybe my expectations were too high I don't know. But I Remember going to the bathroom and telling the staff on the way back that my waters had turned pink. When they had a look on the bed ( which incidentally I was left lying in a soggy bed) they said it was fine and it was just show.

When they finally bothered to check me over they pulled the sheets back and said " did u know u had been bleeding " well of course I bloody didn't :(

I repeatedly asked for g&a and was ignored til someone finally answered me and said I can't get it up here and we r full down stairs. funnily enough after the bleed they found room
For me.

No one told me what was going on at any point , I had no idea what hospital protocol was I'd never been for a birth and I was sat there utterly confused and petrified to leave my baby as no one had put a band on her
:( those amongst other things x

Please don't worry, my experience through my friends and people I know through toddler groups is that most people seem to have their babies at Stoke Mandeville (I have not met anyone yet who has used Wycombe led birth unit as far as I know). I live nearer Wycombe too than Stoke.

I'm
Just one person though, know others who's experience was fine. The one piece of advice I would give is Speak up. Don't wait around for what u think should happen to happen. U need to ask straight away x

Thank you both - that's really valuable info from both of you. I guess any place is going to have some bad experiences...I'm sorry your birth was one of those caffeine :(

Well hopefully Urs will be quick easy and handled beautifully :) I must have just picked a bad day to have her :(

I know plenty of others who had no problem at all x

For anyone who went to Stoke from High Wycombe area...how did you find the distance when in labour?

My friend went to Wycombe (a couple of years ago now) and the baby pooed so she had to be transferred to Stoke. Her baby was born in the ambulance by the side of the Wycombe Road at Bradenham so hadn't got very far.

I would, personally, go to Stoke at the first sign and ask to be put into the consultant led section due to your last birth being traumatic for you.

My niece is having the same dilemma, first baby so wants to be somewhere with help if anything goes wrong. She lives right the other side of Wycombe so may look into Wexham Park as it is closer than Stoke.

Good luck with it all - I had my babies 16 and 11 years ago and they were both born at Wycombe (well, the last one nearly came out at Morrisons as my DH stopped for the traffic lights....) so can't comment on recent births but from what I have heard Stoke is a good hospital.

I had DS at Stoke MLU 4 months ago and honestly couldn't sing the praises of the unit and the midwives enough. They were fantastic and I'm actually annoyed with myself now that I didn't write to the head of midwives after the birth to compliment them on the care we received. I had to stay overnight and the ward was packed but still got loads of assistance from the midwives.

The community midwives were also great. I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Stoke for number 2.

Thanks walking that's very reassuring! Did you have far to travel to get there? I can't decide whether to go literally at first sign of labour or hold off until sure...but the distance is a bit scary!