Good questions to ask during Maternity Unit tour??

[Smittals]

I'm due to have my first baby in Dec at the Rosie Maternity Hospital, part of Addenbrookes in Cambridge. As I live outside their 'antenatal' catchment area, I only get the 30 min tour of the unit as my opportunity to ask questions about what the whole experience will be like there (I really mean the facilities on offer and their policies, Mumsnet brilliant for everything else!). Any suggestions for good questions to ask please? Feeling knackered again these days and brain not working!!

Do they have a pool?

Can you have a waterbirth?

How many partners can you have in labour?

What do you need to bring in - do they have a list?

Can your birth partner stay overnight with you?

If not, when is 'kicking out time'?

(If you intend to breast-feed) is a bf-ing counsellor available every day?

Good luck! x

where do you get tea!

Come and join us on the due in Decemeber thread. Look under antenatal clubs.

When are the visiting hours for partners and/or other visitors?

What's their policy on visitor numbers per patient?

Where are the toilets and showers ? do you have to take the baby with you each time ( or will they look after him/her for you), if so can you manoeuvre the cot on wheels in there?
What do they expect you to bring
Visiting hours
How long do they expect you to stay in
What facilities do they offer in the delivery rooms - balls, stools, pools - and pain relief options
What is their "routine" on admission in labour -monitoring, allocation of midwife (check shift times to try to avoid arriving when a changeover is due), straight into delivery suite or are you put in antenatal until labour is more established
Gaining admission to the unit at night .

ask to see the hospital menu just in case you have to spend a few days in.

is a bf consultant ( 'oh, all our midwives are trained to support bf is not good enough) is available night and day?

What pain killers/drugs they offer during labour. Mobile epidurals? - not everywhere offers this - my hospital didn't. Any alternative therapies if that is your thing - some hospitals apparentenly offer aromathearpy and homeopathy.

Thanks for all the suggestions and so quickly too! It's weird this pregnancy lark - like having to take some enormous exam without getting the chance for practising first. So much information. Keep thinking (when particularly knackered) 'oh sod it, what will be will be'. Then I read some gem of advice on here and it's back to wanting to make it as 'good' an experience as I can!

(...I should really just go to bed now and have that early night I promised myself at 9am this morning...)

here's one NOT to ask - what is the fishing net for in the birthing pool?

Is there an anaesthetist on call 24 hours a day (the only question I was interested in as I knew I was going to be demanding an epidural!)

HI Smittals. I had my baby at the Rosie and I had a great experience. Feel free to ask any specific questions you might have.

Foxtrot: soemone from my tour asked the same question re the fishnet! Are you from Cambridge as well?

HI Smittals. I had my baby at the Rosie and I had a great experience. Feel free to ask any specific questions you might have.

Foxtrot: soemone from my tour asked the same question re the fishnet! Are you from Cambridge as well?

Can't believe this one hasn't come up:
Car parking/drop off:
Where's the nearest place to the entrance you can be dropped? Does your dh/birth partner have to pay normal parking rates while you're giving birth or are there special parking spaces/a permit scheme for him while you're in labour? Is it the same out of hours?

Do they have private/side rooms? You don't always have to pay for them and they have their own bathroom and dh can stay!

Food is very important - and where dh can get food! Are you alllowed to bring in takeaways?!

If have section, you should be checked regularly - will you have a named midwife/support to help you about/pick up baby/feed etc?

And a question from me! Are they supposed to provide a bf consultant? Is that standard practise?

what kind of breastfeeding support do they have?

Message withdrawn

Hello,

I am 33 and currently waiting for my second child. Got 2.8 mm at nuchal scan and it was said that the risk for carring a baby with Down syndroms has increased from 1/400 to 1/87. We decided to take amniocentetis test in order to be sure. I was told the quick QF-PCR method could give result within 2-3 days. We did get result from lab, but it said that the result is not informative and they have to now go for the traditional cell culture method so we have to wait longer. Does this mean that our risk is higher? Tried to find more information about how often QF-PCR method could fail but found nothing, what is the reason for that?

Thanks!
Anxious mama

our pcr result was presented to us as 85% accurate, and it came back clear a few days later (we were checking for Edwards syndrome, far more serious a disorder than Down's which we weren't at a high risk of). wishing you the best of luck.

victors mum - can I suggest you start a new thread for your query - you'll get a better response if you have a more specific title.

Having said that the system is playing up atm but if you click on this link and the "Click here to start a new conversation in the Pregnancy section " which is above the postings, you should be able to do so. Hope you get some answers.

You are lucky to get a tour. They have stopped them at hospitals in Notts, Leics and part of Warks because of resource and infection issues.

I am finding that a lot of the questions I have are being answered at my antenatal classes. One of the key things for me was what do I do when I start to get contractions. I didn't realise that I am supposed to ring the hospital first and not go in immediately. I also wanted to know what happens when you get there - where do you go etc. I'd ask those sorts of things.

Hi Tugamommy,

Thanks for the offer - I'd be really interested to know what the post-natal care was like for you please if you have time. Reading other postings elsewhere, this is the part that seems to let most hospitals down so I was hoping to be discharged asap. If there's no reason to be worried about it I'd appreciate knowing now - can cross that one off the 'paranoia' list!

Just found out the inlaws think they are coming to ours for Xmas dinner - my EDD is 6 Dec so goodness knows when after this I'll actually give birth. They must have finally gone completely insane! Think I'll be working that 'wearing pyjamas all day' look and see if they get the hint...

Smittals, first of all tell your in-laws NO! You should be going to theirs for xmas, in your pyjamas!! My mother in law, my sister in law and my husbands 5 year old niece came to stay 3 days after my baby was born (we live in a 1-and-a-half bedroom apartment) and I still remeber it as a traumatic thing. I wanted to look at my baby all day and enjoy my baby blues by crying whenever I felt like it and instead I had to put up with a spoiled child who wanted to hold the baby all day and had a tantrum when not allowed (mother and grandmother never really told her off) and with my mil and sil who insisted on feeling my engorged breasts from the milk that had jus come in!

Anyway, I'm rambling. Back to Rosie> I had a quick and straight forward labour. Baby was born at 6am and at 2pm I asked to go home. It took around 1 hour for them to sort out the discharge bureaucracy and I was home by 4pm.
I have no experience about more problematic post-labour care, but I know a few people who had to stay there for longer for one reason or another. No one had anything really bad to say, but the advice I got when I was pregnant was to ask for help, don't wait for someone to come and help you. If you're unsure about breastfeeding, if you need help with changing the baby, etc, just ask.
Other things: food is bad; no one will look after your baby if you have no visitors and need to go to the bathroom for example, you have to trust the other ladies in the ward to keep an eye on him/her; it's hard to sleep, because you're alone looking after the baby (partner cant stay overnight), it's very hot and other babies cry.

This post is already too long.... but feel free to ask any other specifics

Point out to in laws that should you be two weeks over and have a c-section then you'lls till be in at christmas (well unlikely they get evryone home as quick as they can, esp at christmas but no need to go down that road...) and wouldn't it be just awful if they ended up with no Christmas dinner because you weren't there to cook?

failing that tell em to get stuffed

You could suggest you book a restaurant somewhere between you all geographically; that way if you skip they till get fed, and there's no feeling guilty when you want to go home early with your baby for a nap