Moving to Birmingham at eight months pregnant - don't understand English nhs

[Runningbutnotscared]

Hi,
Looks like I'll be moving from Scotland to Birmingham at eight months pregnant.
I'm at a loss of where to start with finding a good hospital, with water birthing rooms that isn't over-crowded. I've heard horror stories about people being refused entry to birthing suits because they are full and being transferred while in labour.

How would I know if a hospital had had a recent outbreak of c-diff or a really bad reputation? I live within the same city I grew up in and know all the hospitals here.

I'm also worried about the amount of 'private finance' required for nhs in England. I've read that within the English system you pay for scan photos, private rooms and prescriptions, so do you have to pay for other stuff that I would have expected to be 'free' (inverted commas because I pay tax!) ?

I am considering driving back to my mums at nine months pregnant so I can use the hospital I planned to (and used for my ds). It's only five or so hours, I was in labour for 38 hours last time so I'm pretty confident I can make it (I wouldn't be driving though).

Any help / local knowledge you could give would be much appreciated

Birmingham Women's is good. My friend had her DC there and said it was much better than her previous experience; very good nursing and well equipped.

Driving to Scotland from Birmingham in labour??? 5plus hours in a car contracting, potential to get stuck in traffic, road closures, and being a second baby probably quite a bit faster so risking giving birth on a motorway.

If you have to have s scan this late in pregnancy they won't give you pictures anyway as you can't really see anything (had a presentation scan at 37 weeks).

You probably need to check about formula milk if you aren't planning to breastfeed. Some provide it, others don't.

Driving to Scotland from Birmingham whilst in labour is insane. The M6 is the last place of even want to give birth. And you will only do it in 5 hours if you conveniently go into labour around 11pm.

Google quickly throws up lots of NCT etc facebook pages in the Birmingham area. Find the one local to where you will be and ask on there?

Agree with other posters that you have some funny ideas about English hospitals. Not really any different to Scottish ones in your circumstances.

Whereabouts in Birmingham are you moving to? I had dd1 in the birth centre at the women's hospital and it was fine. I wasn't allowed in the birth centre with dd2 so had her in the main hospital, which was also fine.

You won't need to pay for anything. I think you would be unlikely to get a private room (unless they have made more of them in the last 7 years!)

My hospital has just installed free WiFi so I brought my laptop and watched a film on netflix. I could also facetime

Look on the website of the care quality commission. Search for any hospitals you are considering - their maternity and gynaecology services will have been specifically inspected and rated (it's possible that some (BWH for example) have not yet been published - but all NHS acute trusts will have received their inspection by the end of this month). This is the report for Good Hope for example. www.cqc.org.uk/search/site/Good%20hope?location=&latitude=&longitude=&sort=default&la=&distance=15&mode=html

Your second labour could be anything from 30 minutes up. The length of your first labour is pretty meaningless. Please dont jump in a car when labour starts and head to scotland! I didnt even get to 10cm with my first labour (ended em c section after 2 days) and my second labour i only just made it to hospital in time!

Have you thought about just staying in scotland from 38 weeks though?

Hi
I've just moved from Scotland to England and am 7 months pregnant
I live a couple hours away from Birmingham.....
I can't really give you a good comparison as this will be my first child , although it seems a wee bit different according to my friends /family who've recently had babies in Scotland
You've had some pretty good advice from others so I'll not repeat them
My advice would be to phone the midwife at what will be your new gp practice and explain to them your story and ask all the questions you need to (hopefully your one is more helpful/forthcoming than mine)
Then you could visit the maternity depts of your new local hospitals when you come down.
I did this as I know no one at all where I've moved to
Hope this helps , good luck and be prepared for your new locals to look at your Scottish notes like foreign currency!!!!! Take care X

I'd take a small amount of money with me, for parking . .

I'd question "small". Our local hospital car park charges £10 for anything over 6 hours - don't know whether the clock resets every 24 hours, but I suspect it does as they offer a £10 concessionary weekly ticket if you have an authorisation letter from the ward..

The serenity centre in city hospital is really good. I would highly recommend it. You can ask for a tour before hand

I agree about good hope. It is terrible. Worst experience there.

BWH is quite busy and if u r not in catchment I doubt you would get space there

I found the Which? website has some useful info about hospitals to give birth at on, you can just google it. Personally I wouldn't go to the women's again as I was left with physical and emotional trauma following the birth of dd and it was the result of staff blunders not a difficult birth. If you're moving to the south of the city I recommend crossing the boarder into Worcestershire, I've received excellent care from the teams in this county so far. It's like an entirely different world. I have also been told Warwickshire is very good too. I suspect we all have different horror stories and positives about different places though. It is a tough choice as you can feel very vulnerable during and after childbirth and you want to be comfortable. Make sure you phone for hospital tours too as someone else said.

Scan pictures are extortionate in the area and parking is too, but I always put aside extra cash for a hospital stay as it is expensive especially if dh can't fend for self for a night as someone else said you just need to send your form in for free prescriptions and dental care for up to a year after dd is born too.

Good luck with your move and delivery x

I'm giving birth at a really busy, oversubscribed hospital (RVI in Newcastle) and was worried about there not being room in birthing centre and not getting a pool, but midwife said in the last 2 years she has only known of 3 women who couldn't get a pool when they wanted one. Not sure about Birmingham but don't assume the worst just cause it's a large city like I did :-)

Likewise - I was concerned because our local birth centre only had two pools. The MWs we spoke to said that they'd only had two or three experiences where they were fully occupied and someone else wanted to use them.

Presumably your DP/DH will drive you to the hospital? Stick £20 ,in the glove compartment that can be used for any unexpected expenses. Do it in plenty of time so it's not reliant on you remembering in labour.
You are unlikely to get scan pictures at 8 months pg anyway. You'll need to find out which GP surgery to register with before you move and find out if you can book in with the midwife in advance of your move to make sure you're in the system.

Driving from Birmingham to Scotland whilst in labour?
I wouldn't even risk driving from Birmingham to Sutton Coldfield!
Which part are you moving to? As that is how you determine which hospital you'd get.

I don't know where in Birmingham we will be moving to.

So that must be another difference between Scotland and England then - at your booking in appointment here you are asked which hospital you would like, you can pick any. I didn't pick the closest one to me, but one that suited for other reasons. I thought the same would happen if I register with a GP in England and didn't realise I would be assigned one on the basis of proximity.

Thank you everyone who has replied, you've been very helpful

You can book where ever you want here too in the way of hospitals to give birth at. If you couldn't I'd be free birthing this time round! Make sure your GP asks you though and doesn't just assume where you want to go.

The majority of GP surgeries are oversubscribed in Birmingham and you will have to do some calling and checking if to see if you're in their zone once you've identified your closest (you can do that through the NHS website with your postcode). In our area their are two surgeries across the road from each other and the one wouldn't take me as I lived outside their zone although it is actually a tiny bit closer to my house. I had to register across the road instead.

I think it's always easier to understand a system once you're in it, so don't stress about it now, it's not good for you or baby, you won't be left out on a limb not sure where to go if you get everything rolling with your new GP. And if you don't they can't turn you away when you're giving birth at the hospital.

When I first booked in in England, I was asked to choose hospitals as there were two close. When I moved, the automatically booked you in the closest (sae town) but you had a right to request another.
At my local hospital you get okay food, and women who have given birth are recommended to ask for big portions. The cup of tea after you give birth is wonderful too.
I'm in the crowded SE, so you can't always get a private room (even if willing to pay) or a water birth room. In a real emergency they will admit you, but others will be sent home to "wait" or sent on to the next nearest (eg. 25 minute labour you are in, the start of 24 hrs+ they will send you on if full).
Giving birth and the procedures vary from place to place, not just Scotland to England.

How pg are you now? How long have you got to sort this?
As people say, getting a GP place is tricky in some areas at the moment.
Is this your first baby? May I recommend not driving/parking when you're in labour? Could your partner or a friend take you, or get a taxi?
Some first labours going for days, and you may not be able to drive home after the birth.

I was thinking of keeping registered with my gp here (not sure if that's legal or not). I really like and trust him and then my current hospital will be expecting me. I don't want to muck up their workforce planning!

What about the workforce planning in England!? I have no idea about current maternity provision in Bham but expecting everyone to accommodate you with only one month's notice is asking a bit much.

Like pp, I have also heard bad things about No Good Hope hospital.

Certainly in Lonson I was free to choose any hospital I wanted. People normally pick the closest one for the sake of convenience but I have not heard of this being imposed on anyone. I booked into one on the other side of London from where I lived when I first began antenatal care, because I was about to move house to a new area. I self referred directly to the hospital and they did not bat an eyelid when I gave my address. I did tell them voluntarily that I was moving closer but they didn't need any sort of proof.

The NHS Website will explain all this. Seriously, England is not a terrible awful scary place compared to Scotland where healthcare is concerned!

I didn't have a water birth in birmingham womens I had a csection because of medical issues I was not allowed to go into labour, so I can't really comment on the natural birth experience in BWH.

I was in BWH for nearly 3 weeks and the wards aren't very good. When I was there it was very busy, in the middle of a heatwave abd with no air conditioning. The showers were continuously on the blink and because they are split between rooms I had to go from room to room on the ward looking for a working shower.

The paint was peeling off the walls, Windows are far too stiff to open, in my part of the ward it usually took 2-3 midwives to open a window and getting hold of midwives was hard when the ward was full I kid you not.

BWH takes emergencies from all over the place via helicopter and I was on nil by mouth for 3 days for My 'planned' csection because there wasn't the facilities or staff to cope with the number of emergency and planned csections.

However the staff were on the whole really great, but very much under pressure and there is a lovely restaurant in the bottom floor (under the ground floor) the food was delicious there so I sometimes opted to go down to the restaurant which was pretty cheap but very nice.

Parking you can get help with if you ask at reception of Birmingham women's hospital, I'm not sure how it works as I didn't deal with that but I heard it made parking fees a lot cheaper.