Rosie Hospital or Princess Alexandra?

[cally0]

Hi ladies,

I have a choice of 2 hospitals - Rosie Hospital in Cambridge or Princess Alexandra in Harlow, and I'm completely flummoxed as to which one to go for!

My initial thought was to go for the Rosie as its recently renovated, a lot of the rooms have their own birthing pool etc, however I've read some awful reviews on the nhs website! People having to wait hours and hours to be seen, being neglected by midwives during labour and so on.

In comparison princess Alexandra seems to have more positive reviews on nhs website.

Would love to hear if any of you have given birth at either of these and what your experience was!

X

I had two superlative experiences at the Rosie - firstly at the CLU as DD was breech, and secondly at the Rosie Birth Central for a VBAC with DS. In the first case, I was going for a vaginal breech delivery and was a bit concerned that the doctors wouldn't be particularly supportive but they were incredibly supportive and didn't intervene u til they absolutely had to - I remember the registrar just standing there with his arms folded until it was pretty clear that things were heading south and 8 mins later DD was born by EMCS. Postnatal was a bit grim with DD, but I transferred up to the postnatal ward after DS and had a newly refurbished private room. Only in it for a few hours though.

The Midwives with DS were fab, and were able to stay with me even though we transferred up to the CLU.

If that kind of thing worries you, I think the Rose NICU is one of the best in the country, which would sway me a bit.

This was 2013 and 2014 BTW.

I had DD at the Princess Alexandra in September and had an overwhelmingly positive experience. The maternity unit is very busy (the midwife led unit less so) but the care is great.

Having had a somewhat complicated pregnancy and delivery, I would advise you go for whichever is closest to you. I had to visit the hospital several times in the month before DD's birth, and being able to get there quickly was a real plus.

Thanks for your posts! Both positive which is good! They're both pretty much the same distance to where I live.

The PAH is probably a little bit closer.

Food for thought! Thanks xx