Choosing a hospital - Harlow or Cambridge?

[TrufflePig1]

Hello!

We've been lucky enough to conceive at the start of trying and are now looking to get the various ducks in a row.

One of them is telling the doctors' surgery our birth preference location.

We live in east Hertforshire and realistically have a choice between Addenbroke's Hospital in Cambridge and Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow.

Any thoughts or experiences that might point towards either of those would be very welcome. We're inclining towards Harlow as it's slightly nearer :)

*sorry, I meant Rosie Hospital, Cambridge.

I can’t speak for Harlow but the Rosie is outstanding - they have everything from a midwife led birth centre to full on NICU. I had both of mine there - one of which was a complicated delivery that resulted in an EMCS and they were great.

That's helpful to know - many thanks.

A Care Quality Commission report from May 2023 suggested there may not be enough staff at the Rosie RGT01 Addenbrooke's and the Rosie Hospitals (cqc.org.uk).

That wasn't something you noticed? Assume not if they were great during the EMCS.

I had a baby at the Rosie in 2022 and will have another there later this year. I wouldn't be too alarmed by the CQC report, i think many many maternity hospitals get a similar rating/report, staffing issues are a national problem. The Rosie is a very busy hospital, due to large population but also because a lot of complicated pregnancies/or where they expect the need for complicated neonatal care are transferred there because the NICU is really outstanding.

My experience, a busy delivery ward which did cause me one problem (lack of equipment for epidural, literally all the kit was in use) however otherwise the care was excellent and adequately staffed. The postnatal ward is not great - very busy and you really are left to get on with it, although i had a 5 day stay and other than breastfeeding support (which wasn't adequate) I couldn't really fault them.

No idea if it would be better elsewhere but i wouldn't hesitate having another baby there x

Rosie is the obvious choice surely?

One more vote for the Rosie. Had both my babies there and it was wonderful. My only complaint was that the new(ish) bit, with a bed big enough for DH to stay, was full so he had to leave after DS was born.

Caveat : I know absolutely nothing about Harlow.

Just wanted to mention that the Rosie gets very busy, so much so that you can be diverted to a different hospital. So you could opt for the Rosie and end up in Harlow anyway. I opted to go to the most local hospital to me reasoning that if I needed the expertise at the Rosie, they would get us in there.

I had my little one at Harlow just under 2 years ago. I started in the birth centre and moved to consultant led. I got an epidural within an hour. I felt safe and was happy with my care there, and would go back if I had another. The postnatal wards are grim, but think that's fairly standard!!

Avoid PAH. Just avoid.

Could you access Lister at Stevenage?

Rosie!

I really wouldn't go here - they're in special measures and apparently the culture is bad. I know people who've birthed here recently and had a bad experience.

I am in your area and had mine at the Rosie in 2020. I had a good experience and would recommend, but know people who’ve had babies at PAH and been happy with it. I chose the Rosie as it was my second birth and I knew I’d be consultant-led, I was pretty sure I’d need a planned section and I also had a very high level of anxiety after previous birth trauma. The consultant was fine, but the staff on the day were superb and I actually had a really positive post-natal ward experience.

I would say the Rosie is a better hospital overall and is where I’d go for a birth centre birth or planned section, or a birth where the odds of it being less than straightforward were higher than average. I would have more confidence in their ability to deal with medical curveballs than Harlow. And I bet they have more operating theatres if an emergency section is needed. It also has better basic facilities in terms of, say, being able to source refreshments out of hours (I’m sure some food court facilities are open 24/7, not the case at Harlow).

It is more of a slog to get to the Rosie if you end up with consultant-led care and with more frequent appointments.

My one concern would be that if you went into labour and things were progressing quickly, the Rosie is further away. If the M11 is at a standstill, you might just have to go to PAH or risk birthing on the hard shoulder - make sure your birth partner has driven to the Rosie on the non-motorway route at least once so they won’t be blindsided if they have to do it on the day. Now, this won’t be an issue for most first births, but I’d say you could end up in an uncomfortable and/or dangerous situation if the motorway is closed or you get stuck in a jam. I appreciate that sounds neurotic but I live in this area and I know the roads!

As for the Lister, I can’t comment on the hospital but the community midwives who deal with you in East Herts if you’re booked at the Rosie or planning a homebirth are based at the Lister and I think that’s where they’d transfer you into if necessary during a homebirth.

Please avoid Harlow. Horrendous experience there in 2020.

It’s worth firstly looking into where the midwives who will care for you before and after work for. If you are being looked after by Harlow midwives, they may not be able to access your test results from the Rosie very easily and vice versa. It’s a real problem in this country and one that doesn’t cause big problems very often, but can make everything that little (or sometimes a lot) bit more difficult for you. Your GP surgery should be able to tell you who your local midwives work for x

@Bumblebee413 , that’s a great point - the community midwives didn’t have access to the Rosie systems so there were some real gaps there. But I’m not sure how it works if you choose Harlow - not sure if it’s the same midwives from the Lister and same problem.

If you read the CQC report for Rosie you’ll actually see they don’t have enough theatres for demand, so I mean possibly inconveniencing yourself location wise might not make much sense on the capacity front. They are just serving too many people. But if you really need specialist care the other hospitals will get you there if it is the best place.

Two bad experiences at PAH. I'd avoid

Bare in mind that at the Rosie, one of the consequences of not having enough staff means that babies are sometimes born on the antenatal ward (happened when I was there), women are left screaming in pain (I heard it), planned inductions are not always done when planned and you are hanging around for days which is a pain when you live an hour away, and then when you get to the labour room they are so rushed off their feet that you don't even get offered gas and air. Just saying.

Applies to PAH as well, I'm sure.