Anyone given birth at Stepping Hill Hospital?

[littlemel]

If so, any advice/what was the hospital like??

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I didn't like it at all, but i'm sure every experience of the place is different. Wasn't a good week for them i don't think, very busy and understaffed.

Had both my boys there and found the actual births fine-especially ds1 who had a really magical birth.I had low intervention births, using the pool for labour first time round, and going drug free second time round.
I had no problem with the cleanliness of the place either. The food is terrible but think that is the case is most hospitals.
Not too happy with aftercare, and was delighted to get home and be looked after by my lovely community midwives.
Also think consultant Tom McFarlane is FAB!!!

G - I was present at ds1 birth and I know they were wonderful and allowed to do whatever she wanted - they advised but she made the decisions.

DS2 - she had elected another epidural but they said she was too near delivery and it wasn't required however she was screaming for an epidural which they were in the process of giving when her waters broke and there he was!

DS3 - was again wonderful for her - they offered her the 'big ball' (?) which she was very sceptical about but found absolutely fantastic.

She has no complaints about Wythenshawe at all - so you can add 3 good experiences to your stats!

When I had ds1 3 yrs ago, 2 girls in my NCT group went to Stepping Hill and said it was hideous - dirty and standard of care/attention terrible. They both went to Wythenshawe for their 2nd and said there was no comparison - far better. Some also had theirs at Trafford General and that came out poorly too.

A few friends from work in Bollington had babies at Macc - again, bad!

Obviously these are individual experiences though and not a RCT!!

I had all 3 at Wythenshawe and could not fault them in any way shape or form. It's a large teaching hospital and the midwives are beyond compare imo. 2nd two births I had a huge room, beautiful decor (if that really matters! ) and my own en-suite wet room. I had totally natural labours/deliveries (small amount of gas and air right at the end only) and was out in 3 hours - didn't even go to the ward. Three other friends did the same this year - domino births.

Sorry, I'd recommend Wythenshawe any day of the week based on both my own experiences and those of the many mummy friends I have who have birthed there.

littlemel here, but not used this site for ages and cant remember what my password is so changed my name to bigmel (dont ask) to post on this thread. sorry i have only just seen it.

Overall, i actually had a really positive birth experience at stepping hill. I was in too much pain to notice the hygiene so i cant really comment on that. My midwives were absolutely fantastic - team 6 - and I coulndt have asked for anything more from them. To be honest my positive experience was probably down to them rather than the hospital. I would recommend it, and before giving brth was adamant i was having no more, but if i could be promised the same experoience i now definitely would.

the only problems i had were.............
the parking situation is shit, but whilst i was there they were in the process of upgrading the car park and making more spaces.

the food was pretty dire, but i got my mum and dp to go to sainsburys, just across the road and bring me food.

the aftercare wasnt as good as the giving birth bit, i did feel like i was there for an unnessasary amount of time, and it took them from 8am when they told me to get ready as i could go home, until 3pm before they actually discahrged me.

they told me at teh first 6 hr check up that dd had a slight murmur on her heart and i would have to wait til the following morning for them to check if it was still there, and the doctor didnt come back til the morning after the following morning - so as you can imagine i was very worried and wanted to know what was going on, but they were too busy.

but apart from those points, in general i was happy with the hospital. hope that helps!

ps sorry, i didnt mean to swear on the other post, just habit.

i had my baby at stepping hill - all in all was fine, although my waters broke before i got there, and when i got there the midwife said they hadnt broken and i had just wet myself. anyway as i was about to start pushing, the midwife tried to break my waters and said they were really tough and was really hurting me trying to do it - when the doctor came to have a go, the doctor confirmed that they HAD broken whilst i was at home and that it was my babys head they were trying to break! not impressed!!

Congratulations on the birth of your dd, bigmel - I'm glad you came back to tell us and I'm glad your experience at Stepping Hill was better than mine

I think it probably depends on lots of factors - busyness, staff who are on duty etc.

I think that the time of day (or night in my case) really does make a difference to your whole experience. DD1 was relatively quick for a 1st labour approx 8 hours and while she ended up with one shoulder stuck and the cord around her neck hence the failed ventouse then forceps delivery (complete with episiotomy ouch!) the staff, especially a trainee midwife called Karen were fantastic and we could park right outside the door as we got there at 4am. The A6 was deserted too.
I decided to have DD2 in the middle of the night too (well she did! 4 hr labour from twinges to delivery) and was in a new ensuite room with fantastic mw's who let me walk around until I nearly fell over, then DD2 came out like a bullet (according to Dh). The food on the wards is blurgh, but the auxiliarys make fantastic cups of tea, and as someone who never says no to a cup of tea being made for me, it was great. Overall it was fine but I still wanted to get home and would seriously consider a home birth if I was going to have any more children. Sorry this was a bit long - got carried away.

I had heard lots of dodgy stories abour Stepping Hill, so had my first child in St Mary's and my second at home. However I did end up being admitted to the maternity ward and thought it was really good, I was pleasantly surprised!

Both my son's shoulders got stuck and he had the cord around his neck, wasn't breathing for 5 minutes. But because I was at home had a normal delivery, only gas and air! ow!