Horsham

[Kwini]

If anyone has any birthing experiences in W. Sussex - NHS, private, or otherwise - I'd be hugely grateful to hear your stories. I recently read that the nearest hospital (Crawley, I think??..) has one of the lowest ranking maternity units in the country - please tell me otherwise!

you can't give birth at crawley any more! haven't been able to for years.

your nearest will be east surrey, but obv there are places like worthing and stuff which are a bit further away.

east surrey had a bad reputation. I went there with ds1 and didn't want to go back, had a fantastic homebirth with ds2 and planning another for ds3.
however a friend in horsham went to east surrey last JUly and they have made a lot of improvements and she had a great experience there

Is the Princess Royal at Haywards Heath any good? I'm looking for a MLU next to a main hospital, if possible. Altho also tempted by HB...

tbh I don't think there's much difference between the princess royal and east surrey these days.
princess royal has a better reputation I think, but as I said East Surrey has done a lot to improve its mat unit in the last year or so (inc the new birthing centre bit and taking on 11 new midwives)

neither of them have a MLU.
there's a lovely birthing centre in Crowborough, but that's pretty far if you're travelling from Horsham

I have given birth in Chichester which I found to be really nice . They have a home from home room but no MLU .

A friend also had a waterbirth in Worthing which went well .

I gave birth at St Richards in Chichester (probably too far away for you), which was absolutely lovely - brilliant care, didn't appear to be too much pressure on staff/facilities etc.

East Surrey looks ok. One site seems to suggest that it does have an MLU, and I found this

"The Birthing Unit includes a large birthing pool room and three delivery rooms equipped with a birthing mattress, floor mats, bean bags and birthing balls with experienced midwives available 24 hours a day"

which sounds a lot like an MLU. Apparently all the rooms are private, which I'd absolutely want.

Chichester and Crowborough probably too far.

The other option I wondered about was hiring an independent midwife (with pool, in case the one at the hospital wasn't free or there wasn't a trained mw on duty) and taking that to the hopital if necessary - is this allowed, or do the hospital midwives take over?

kwini, yes that's the new bit I was on about. it's still part of the main delivery suite though afaik! so not a separate MLU, but still very nice.

Independent midwives usually can't work in hospitals because they aren't covered by insurance. so if you had one for a homebrith for example and then needed to transfer then your IM could go with you but you would actually be under the care of the hospital midwives, who would also be delivering baby.

if you can afford an IM though, i would prob be tempted to do that and have a homebirth.

I've not had the baby yet, but I had a minor bleed a few weeks ago and went to East Surrey, seemed nice, staff were very friendly but I did have to wait for ages to see a doctor. I'm provisionally going to Crowborough, all being well, but from what I saw of East Surrey it didn't look half as bad as I thought it would be!
You're not much further away from Crowborough than I am, maybe you should have a look around and try driving there once or twice before ruling it out? It does seem lovely, I'll be gutted if things don't go to plan and I can't give birth there.

Thanks for that, TIY! And AD, I shall definitely have a look at Crowborough, too!

Just had no.2 at East Surrey 3 weeks ago - was in for 3 days and was also admitted for 3 days at 30 weeks. Let me tell you, compared to my first birth at Mayday in 2006, East Surrey was a dream.... Over 6 days of care I didn't come across one midwife/ doctor/ orderly/ in fact anyone who wasn't polite & concientious & professional, couldn't fault them or their care at all.

I really have no idea why they get slated. Mayday however, now I found that a very different story. Won't go in to it here but found it very different. Good luck!

Thanks, pootle Glad to hear all went well!