Avoid C&W like the plague - I tell everyone I can and this is why. My sister gave birth there 18 months ago. She was induced, left alone for hours, then had 2 changes of midwife and then after a few hours of reasonable, supervised, active labour, the midwife could not detect a solid heartbeat. She did nothing for an hour, subsequently saying she thought the baby was just moving around. When she finally did start to realise something was wrong, she did not use either of the 2 emergency buttons to call the doctor - she left the room and got another midwife. They then took 20 more minutes to deliver and my sister's perfect, little boy suffered terrible brain damage and died after 36 hours. A postmortem found that he was a normal, full-term little boy and in all likelihood just compressed the cord as he moved. A professor at the hospital has said that if a doctor had initally been called he would have had an emergency delivery within 3 minutes and been most probably suffered no ill effects.
After the birth they could not deliver the placenta so left my sister alone (with her husband and baby in the NICU), without a call button in a dark room for an hour - subsequently stating that they thought she needed some quiet time - she could so easily have bled to death.
There has now been 18 months of investigation, numerous documents produced, 17 statements of 'substandard' care, yet no apology. The midwife involved has had 'time to reflect on her actions' in the words of one report and is still working there. My sister and her husband continue their quest for an admission of responsibility and changes to the C&W system.
Midwives have since told my sister about the dirtiness of C&W, the shortage of staff, the lack of post-natal care and advise anyone to leave as soon as they can.
The only good thing I can say about C&W is the counsellor my sister and her husband see every week in an effort to come to terms with the loss of their only child.