Birthing options, Royal Alexandra Hospital or Vale of Leven ????

[jacquiemccloy]

Hi,

I am just wondering if anybody has given birth in Paisley Royal Alexandra Hospital, the midwife led unit there, or the Vale of Leven midwife led unit recently?

I am 16 weeks with my first and those are my options as i don't want a home birth.

I know that the Vale of Leven is about 15 mins drive from RAH and I was concerned about if any complications arose during the labour it would take a while and a lot can happen in 15 mins. My husbands mother had to have an emergency c-section and my mum and her sister had to have planned c-sections due to complications so it's gotten me a little nervous and i felt i would like to be at a hospital where the doctors are incase of any problems. I know that the midwife said they only let you give birth in a midwife unit if they don't think theres any risk but still ocassionally things are missed.

However having said that i see positives in a midwife unit. I've been watching some of the shows on childbirth (to be honest they actually help me, although i know alot of pregnant women avoid them!) and it looks like in the hospital you're put in a room and they just check on you now and again and only stay once the pushing phase starts. My midwife has told me that in the midwife unit you have 2 midwifes with you at all times which i think would be benefitial. Also the midwife units use very little intervention again something i would like, i don't want an eppi and want to try to do it as natural as possible, with gas and air and water birthing so this would suit me.

So i'd like the benefits of both a hospital and midwife unit. My midwife said there is a midwife unit that is part of RAH so it would be the best of both worlds so this i am considering to be my current front runner. Although i've read some not so nice things about RAH and wanted to see if anybody has any experience with either of these 3 locations?

Sorry it's a bit of a long post!

Oh also, my husband often gets a taxi to work right now with me needing him to do stuff or midwife appointments and we've just moved house, so the drivers recognise him and one told him yesterday that his wife was advised to use the midwife unit and they were going to then at like 30 weeks they were told you aren't aloud to with your first baby anyway and sent them to RAH so i don't actually know??

Thanks in advance for any advice :)

I'm in the same boat! I've heard loads of great things
Of both places and bad things of both as well. Would like to
Just go upto the Vale for easiness (live in Dumbarton and all antenatal appointments are currently there) but scared incase something goes wrong and would need to transfer last minute! So I've just settled for Rah for now. Only 16 weeks gone also so plenty of time to get advice and recommendations then decide x

I think i want a water birth so I'm worried I'll have to decide soon for availability as Vale of Laven CMU only has one birthing pool from what I've read. I don't know how they book them with due dates being hit and miss as they are though .

What's your edd? I'm 29th November

I'm due the 27th and wanting a water birth too, think we will be fighting over it! Lol as far as I know it's a first come first serve type of thing haha most things I've read generally say u can't really book them, just whoever turns up at the time which is a bit worrying as I have my hopes up for a wee pool birth! Good friend of mine had a pool birth at the vale and she couldn't fault the place at all

Vale of leven is far more than 15 mins away from the RAH! I live between the two and it would take me about half an hour to get to vale of leven.

I don't know much about the hospital itself though. I gave birth to all my children at the RAH and all three times it was awful. The staff have a horrendous reputation around the rest of the hospital for their terrible attitudes. But sadly there was nowhere else to go to that was any better.

I don't drive and my timings are awful to be honest but I was told its about 45 mins between Vale and RAH and when I expressed concern over this to the midwife and suggested I'd prefer to be where the doctors are she looked at me like I'm daft and said its only 15 mins. I think she thought that would help but still to me in an emergency 15 mins is too long. I just don't know how practical RAH is being so far away and we recently got rid of the car so it's not like DH can drive me anymore

Oh god. You don't want to ask me. The RAH broke dd2 and we are four years into a medical negligence case. To be fair, they did go on and stop her from actually dying, so she gets to live with the brain damage. The special care unit is quite good, god forbid you should need it. The obstetrician told me we were lucky, as they had broken a babies neck the month before with a botched forceps delivery. This was supposed to make me feel better about my daughter's lifelong disability.

And they say bedside manner is a lost art.

I have no idea about the others, but I wouldn't touch the RAH with a barge pole, despite the fact I am eternally grateful for the paediatricians and the scbu. Dd2 was term and 9lbs btw. Dc3. Vbac2. She wasn't prem. and as a vbac, they failed me utterly and broke so many NICE guidelines I lost count. I suppose if you work on the theory that they learn from their mistakes, they might be okay...

Sorry, I realise that's spectacularly unhelpful. There were some great nurses, and I'm sure dedicated midwives. Our issues were with unsupervised student midwives and no monitoring.

I am from the islands and wanted to have my baby in the Oban midwife unit. I lived away from home on the mainland from 38 weeks for 4 weeks (DS was +14 ) As it transpired, I ended up at the midwife unit in labour at 2.30am in the morning and they sent me away to drive the 96 miles to RAH! The pain relief they deemed to give me was 2 paracetamol. I felt extremely pissed off that I was forced to stay away from home and plan my water birth at the unit. Upshot of it all was a horrific drive around Loch Lomond and a crash emergency section at RAH as baby was in a lot of distress. The birth was NOTHING like I expected/planned with my midwife. The staff at RAH were amazing and like the poster above the nurses in SBU are angels, they could not do enough for me (and all the other mothers/babies). When i was first admitted I was in a private room with a midwife there all the time and the consultant popping in every half hour. I think the best thing is to be very flexible re your birth plan and be prepared for it to go right out of the window!

Oh god prissyenglisharriviste that's awful! Good luck with the negligence case, I studied law so I know how long these things can drag on for .

gregorsmummy I didn't have a clue where Oban was but DH google mapped it and that's ages from RAH!! No wonder you were distressed! I'm totally flexible about things like, I know there's reasons why you can't have a water birth some times, or different pain killers etc. But I would be so angry if they sent me to a totally different hospital so far away when it came to it! I don't think DH would leave, he'd be too busy giving them a piece of his mind haha!

Is the PRMU an option for you? I found the staff there to be fantastic?

KatoPotato I'm not sure to be honest but I will look into it, I am also going to have a look at Queen Mother's as somebody suggested that. I was only given option of RAH or Vale by the midwifes but they also told me it's 15 mins between the two and it's not as i google mapped it earlier today. So i think i'll have to find a lot out for myself .

Charlenek123 DH found this earlier www.nhsggc.org.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1231_2_3
it is some videos about RAH facilities incase it helps you make your decision. It's made me a bit cross actually, i'm not over happy with the way they operate a few things. Deffinately going to look at the others as i still would like to be where the doctors are rather than just CMU . Main problem i think still comes down to distance, i cannot believe how little there is in this area, Paisley feels so far away with these things...i mean not just pregnancy, anything, there's no A&E!

I don't know anyone whop has had a good experience in any part of RAH.
I didn't have DD there, I had her at the Vale 12 years ago when they had the full maternity unit, but RAH is where everyone gets sent now.
I developed a disability as an adult and have many hospital admissions. The first one was in RAH, five different wards, awful treatment on all and I was bullied in ITU.
I've since had all my care moved to Glasgow, and won't even go to A&E at Paisley, I insist on being taken to the Western.
I'd look into other hospitals altogether if I were you especially if you don't drive, as you know Paisley is a nightmare on public transport.

I think the Queen Mothers has shut now?

Yep, i just found that out. We have only recently moved to the area from Ayrshire so i was working off what i had read/been told else where. Unfortunately my problem with RAH seems to be policy with all the glasgow hospitals