South Wales hospital choices

[MissPepper8]

I'm with Royal Glamorgan currently for antenatal however since having DS they have closed the unit pretty much due to an inquest and I have to chose a place to give birth.

Choices are Prince Charles in Merthyr and the Heath (not really fussed on Princess of Wales, Bridgend but if anyone has any experiences).

If anyone has experiences of Merthyr, I'm really interested to know as I've been scared off a bit by DF as he has heared things.. But I get to keep my Dr and community MW.

Then the Heath (my original choice) I'd have to transfer everything up there and I was told today isn't following up patients properly with Thyroid problems so they're very behind and I might not get proper care I need.

I'm really stuck and flapping a bit as if I want Heath then I need to say in the next 2 weeks.

I had my little boy in PCH three weeks ago... antenatal care also at RGH.

I felt much happier going they having been for a tour, it put me at ease as the facilities there are fab.

I was induced, but didn't need the pessary, so went straight to the labour ward for my waters to be broken. The staff were absolutely outstanding, talked me through everything, respected all my wishes and couldn't do enough for me and I feel I got the birth that I wanted despite the induction.

The post natal ward was a little busier, but again, staff really helpful.

My only complaints are the food was awful... but I'm sure that's pretty standard for any hospital 🙈 and I didn't rate the breast feeding help, only one midwife made a difference for me having been struggling for two days.

Overall it was a really positive experience, and I would go there again :) happy to answer any questions if you have any

@sianya Ah thank you so much for replying :) .

That sounds really postive and what I needed to hear. My dad has heared things and has been involved in the past 2 years with Prince Charles and he scared me off a bit. I think I do need to go there to look so ill ask how I do that.

Oh wow sounds so straight forward for you, with DS in RGH my waters leaked a week before my due date and they told me I weed myself. So when I went in a week later I had a scan (as it was part of my thyroid care) I was induced as DS had barely enough in there. But I was pessaries, put on drip (won't even begin on what the mw did to my drip) ect and ended in section at 5cm as consultant said I should if been induced when my waters went a week ago.

Yeah RGH wards were the same, I had one lovely trainee mw who helped me BF when she was there but I got very little help when others got quite a bit. And food was crap at RGH too lol.. I was off food, but I just got sandwiches and my nan brought me in loads of food 😂.

I don't think I can think of anything else, it was just what we're people's experiences there. I think it might be the place to go as I can't risk my thyroid not being checked with baby.

I would definitely go and visit PCH and Heath and I'm sure you will get a feeling about which is right for you :)

And don't be afraid to chase the midwifes for the care you need afterwards, I nagged for about 24 hours for them to follow up with my anti d and got there eventually I was definitely more empowered doing it second time around as I knew the standard of care I should expect if that makes sense!

@sianya No I totally get what you mean, this is second baby and Im kinda more aware now what is going on and what to expect and when to say no. All admit the first time I was so naive and I had no idea what was going on x

It looks like it'll have to be PCH but maybe it'll help seeing it. If I goto Heath everything has to go up there including community MW :(.

I had my little girl at PCH in July last year. My waters broke but I failed to go into labour naturally so I had to be induced. There was positives and negatives. Probably the biggest negative was that it was so busy that I had a pessary that failed on the Monday and they couldn't take me down to the labour ward to start the drip until early hours of wednesday morning because they were so busy. Also my pessary fell out a few hours after being put in but because again they were so busy they didn't put another one in so in 2 days literally nothing had happened at all. But the midwives were fab during my labour. I had a student in with me as well as I had been one of her case studies and she followed my care through from the beginning which was nice. But I didn't rate the breast feeding assistance at all, I was discharged and my dd wasn't latching properly and she ended up coming back in a day later with dehydration and querying sepsis. we ended up on the childrens unit for almost a week. So my experience wasn't exactly a great one but not all was the fault of the staff