Frimley or St Peter’s hospitals for birth?

[Excited86]

Hi all

Some of the posts on this are quite old. Any update feedback/opinions on choosing hospital for childbirth please?

I gave birth in St Peters 5 weeks ago. I'd wanted to use the birth centre but my waters went as soon as I started contracting meaning I was booked in for an induction 24 hours later as I didn't progress past 3cm. By the time I arrived for the induction I was fully dilated and ended up giving birth naturally but that's another story!

Couldn't fault the care I received on the labour ward, the midwife who delivered me was fabulous. I had a severe post partum haemorrhage and spent 2 nights on HDU and then 1 night on Joan Booker. The individual midwives on JB are lovely, but overstretched and if you need help you have to shout quite loudly (figuratively!) to get it.

Because of the large traveller community in the area, the midwives are reluctant to stick rigidly to the rules around numbers and timings of visitors on JB. I found this the most frustrating aspect of my stay, having partners in the cubicle next to me very late and lots of children running round the ward during the day.

I had ideally wanted to give birth on the MLU and dealt with the midwives there at the beginning of my labour. They were lovely, caring and sympathetic but very process driven and unwilling to offer any pain relief or help because I was only 2/3cm. I found this stage of labour more painful than being fully dilated and pushing DS out! They also refused to admit me because I wasn't having 3 contractions in 10 mins that were over a minute in length and getting longer and stronger. I had a baby without fulfilling this criteria, as did 5/7 ladies in my NCT group. While I was waiting to be seen they were timing my contractions from the room next door as proof as to why I couldn't be admitted. By the time I made it to the labour ward it was too late for any pain relief and on reflection, I wish I'd pushed harder for help. Overall a positive experience and I would return there for future DC but it is a big and busy maternity unit and the midwives are busy and frazzled.

I used the MLU at St Peter's nearly 2 years ago, and hope to use it again for my next birth in a couple of months. My experience there was really positive and laid back.

I arrived in quite advanced labour and gave birth within an hour of arriving and had gas and air only, so can't comment on the birth pools/other analgesia. The lovely midwife never left the room, and stayed an hour after her shift to do my suturing so that I wouldn't have to move to the labour ward. Things like skin to skin and delayed cord clamping are routine there, so a lot of the things I had down on my birth plan were done even tho I didn't have time to ask about it. The specialist feeding midwives are excellent and are trained to cut tongue tie if needed.

The rooms are en suite, spotless and massive. We had plenty of space for over 10 visitors at one point (we're not travellers, just a big family!) and the rooms are very soundproof so we didn't feel like we were interrupting others and likewise didn't hear any other families despite several being in the unit.

My sister-in-law had a very long delivery with ventouse and episiotomy at Frimley, but was still very happy with her treatment there, so I think given every labour is so different it is worth thinking about which hospital is quicker/easier to get to for you at different times of the day and whether you are low/high risk etc (I think St Peters has better intensive care facilities)

I gave birth to my baby 4 months ago in the birth centre at St Peters and it was amazing! I look back at my labour with such happy memories and I think it was down to the beautiful room and the lovely midwives! The midwives are so friendly and laid back, not only do they try to make you feel as comfortable as possible but they were lovely to my partner and my mum who were my birth partners.