Wexham Hospital Slough - anyone had / tried VBAC there??

[Bigmerlin]

How much support did you get?

Did you manage to stay mobile / avoid interventions?

Had dd there a few years ago by C-section. Had no assistance during first night when she was crying and I couldn't reach her (still couldn't move after spinal and had catheter and drip tethering me to bed).

I had a baby at Wexham park hosp, what's vbac though?

not been but had friends who gave birth there -it's got a new birthing centre, heard good reports about - v pro keeping mobile (no beds but beanbags!).

my experience was that they were great while I was giving birth, but the care afterwards was somewhat lacking. eg, they all disappeared for about half an hour for a shift handover meeting, and there was apparently nobody on duty on the ward. Also, they lost test results, didnt tell me important bits of information, looked as though I was a nuisance when I asked for painkillers for those nasty post birth contraction things (cant remember what theyre called) and generally came across as pretty disorganised.

Oh and, they criticised my sil for having too much food with her, and they didnt support her b'feeding - there was one midwife who was known to be "keen" on b'feeding, so if you wanted to b'feed, they would say Oh, you need so-and-so, she'll be on duty tomorrow midday!

do yuo have a choice, cd you go to ascot instead?

i had dd last year at the birthing centre, which was excellent and yes they are very pro moving around, but, you have to be a 'low risk' pregnancy in order to give birth at the centre.
I subsequently had to go to the maternity ward due to complications and have to say, felt like i was on a conveyor belt. staff, whilst were well intentioned, were there when i didnt need/want them and not available when i did want them!!! and from speaking with the ladies around me, all of whom had had caesarians, they all felt the same. i dont know that this helps, except that it may be worth finding out if the birthing centre would be made available for vbac?

Despite what people think a VBAC is not high risk, any thoughts of having a home birth, guaranteed one to one care from a midwife. Does not sound like you will get much help at the hospital. The ladies on this website are very knowledgable about VBACs etc, maybe worth talking to them, www.vbac.org.uk

Hello
I've been told I can't go to the birthing centre at Wexham (or Heatherwood) because of the VBAC. [Vaginal birth after C-section]. Apparently it "doesn't fit their protocol". Well, excuse me for not fitting protocol

Homebirth not really for me. The birthing centre sounded ideal, maybe I could start campaigning to be allowed there? After all, it's only down the corridor to the high-risk ward in case of genuine complications.

sounds like discrimination, do not know if they are allowed to do that, maybe go to www.aims.org.uk, they will know whats what.

I had both my sons at Wexham. ds1 was born by c-section and ds2 by vbac (Dec 2003). Maternity wards had been refitted in between visits and I thought things were much better second time around. First time was Xmas 2001 and it was really busy.

Mumbojumbo, I'd be really interested to hear how your vbac went. How much support / threats of a 2nd C-section did you get?