Anyone given birth at Gloucester Royal?

[taffywaffy]

If so what were your experiences. Good or bad?

Yep, I had my daughter in the delivery suit there just over 2 years ago. There is a midwife led birth unit as well and I imagine the experience there would be different.

It was a mixed bag - could have been better, could have been worse. A big part of it was I had a not so great student midwife involved in my birth which coloured the experience. Overall they helped get my daughter here and despite a few things that possibly could have been better I never felt like either of us were at risk.

Hi P1nk. Thanks for letting me know!

I’m the first of my friends to have a baby so I had no idea what to expect

If you want to know what to expect, they do offer tours - so it's worth going down there and having a look around and familiarising yourself.

One of the actual GRH midwives also runs a local NCT style group called the Bump to Baby Chapter, which might also be worth checking out.

It must be hard being the first - good luck!! I'm sure you will be fine xx

Following as I will be giving birth at GRH by ELCS. Currently 27+3, will deliver by 35 weeks.

Mine is a high risk twin pregnancy, complicated by pre-preggo diabetes & so far the support has been amazing. We go every two weeks for scans, diabetic clinic & ante-natal clinic. I also attended maternity triage with some concerns & the staff I saw were so understanding & reassuring.

Wish you well with your pregnancy OP, when are you due?

Following as I’m supposed to pick between Cheltenham and Gloucester Royal.

Ooo nice to know there’s a few Gloucestershire folks on here!

I’m not due until the 11th Feb but just looking at options

Depending where you live Stroud is lovely. It is a small midwife led unit. You can stay after the birth for ages, I had my own room for three days after DC3 and they are so kind. You can also go there after having the baby at Gloucester if you want and they help with feeding, sleeping, bathing etc.

Was induced with my twins in the delivery suite.. they were amazing. We stayed 4 nights on the maternity ward.. the staff were amazing but it was busy. Transferred to Stroud maternity would def recommend there too!

I'm likely to be having mine there and I've had a couple of positive reviews from people I work with.

I’ve had one natural delivery and one ELCS at GRH. I’d definitely pick GrH over Cheltenham as the birth centre is a ride in the lift to the labour ward if something goes wrong whereas if you start at Cheltenham you could end up getting ambulanced over to Gloucester which would be horrendous.

The birth centre looks amazing although I was in the labour ward so no actual experience of the birth centre!

I didn’t have a particularly good “natural delivery” experience at GRH but that’s probably because I had a difficult delivery but the ELCS experience was beyond excellent and the postnatal care was really good too.

Had my son there two years ago. Overall a good experience- found all staff helpful and supportive and the midwife led unit is pretty nice. I ended up in the delivery suite and then the maternity ward, which was more run down and not especially comfortable for the post-birth stay, but that was a fairly minor grumble. I'm having my second next year and will go back without hesitation.

It was good enough for Zara Tindall.

I had both of mine there and then spent a week there when D's was.a couple of days old (re-admitted due to weight loss).

The staff were amazing, the hospital was clean and I was well looked after.

DH stayed in with us (private room) for the week I stayed in.

They also have a birthing pool on the labour ward as well as in the midwife led unit.

Would highly recommend.

With ds 1 I had to be transferred from Stroud to Gloucester after long labour and D's being distressed. The ambulance ride was horrendous which is why I went straight to Gloucester for ds2.

I had both of my DC on GRH delivery suite, in 2013, and 2017.

Both times I felt really well looked after, bar 1 midwife who was a bit snotty on the night shift. She wanted me to lie on my back, but I had such bad back pain I refused until it subsided. She wrote in my notes that I was uncooperative

Other than that the midwives I had were friendly and really empowering. I also had a great 2nd year student midwife, and a med student on the first day of O&G placement.

I was induced both times so didn't get to experience the lovely looking birth unit.

Stroud birth unit is supposed to be great, and I've had many a sweep there as it's local, nice staff. Though if I weren't induced I'd have still chosen GRH as delivery suite/theatre is in the same part of the building rather than being blue-lighted if baby or I needed additional help.