Rosie Hospital - anyone been there?

[MizZan]

Hi - we're moving to Cambridge in about a month and I'm due in November with DS2. Does anyone here know much about the Rosie Maternity Hospital? Good/bad experiences, reputation? Any tips? Thanks in advance!

Bump this up tomorrow, some of the Cambridge MN's might see it then.

My actual birth midwives were brilliant - had a student and she was fantastic (African and chatted to me about her birthing traditions, held my hand all the way through my stitches and was just fantastic)

The postnatal midwives were varied - the nicest one was a person who didn't usually do that ward and the one who made me feel uncomfortable was the "boss" so to speak - but saying that the majority were wonderful and they like to encourage BF if you are up for it. I didn't feel scared or unhappy at all.

Good luck, hope all goes well xxx

bump!

Hi

Had a very poor experience in labour, but I think it highly unlikely it will happen to anyone else as staffing levels are now much improved and apparently the midwives are being much more careful since our formal complaint(!).

The Rosie does have a good reputation in general, and has some reasonable facilities (birth pool, their own theatres, 24 hour anaesthetist for epidurals). They suffer from the same problems as most birth units these days: too few midwifery staff and a very wide geographical area to cover so they are often overstretched. Most people I know feel that the care they received there was medically sound, but I think if you are hoping for the midwives to be part of the 'birth experience' with you, you may be disappointed.

Having said that, they have recently opened a midwife-led unit where they aim for a much better ratio of midwives to patients, with the option to transfer upstairs if you need an epidural/have complications. This might well be a good option.

My couple of tips would be:

1. take your own pillow - they don't seem to have many! 2)take a hand held mini fan (you can't use a plug-in one unless it has been tested by the hospital electricians) . Addenbrookes is always hot but the Rosie is about ten degrees above the rest of the hospital!
2. ask for pain relief AS SOON AS YOU THINK YOU NEED IT, and send your husband out to follow up, follow up and follow up again until someone comes (though hopfully you won't need to do this)

A couple of things to add to tips:

4. the shower near me on the post-natal ward was AWFUL. I would recommend taking wipes of some sort with you (I actually found it quite hard to wash in that shower!)

5. the food on the ward was pretty good. And they have cereal, sandwiches, yoghurt, fruit etc. that you can help yourself to. But I wasn't up to walking so getting drinks after my husband had to leave at night was hard (and I didn't like to ask the staff as they were busy). So get your husband to leave you with plenty of cartons or squash /bottles of water.

Just looked at my last post - 'hopfully'?? Sorry about the spelling!

fluppy and libb, thanks for the thoughts.

fluppy, can I ask how long ago your "poor experience" was and what the issue was,if it's not too personal?

I am a little new to all this since DS1 was born at a private hospital in London and the care there was fantastic. I was a little concerned by a stat I saw about the Rosie saying only 15% of women giving birth there knew the midwife who helped them through labour...so I am not sure if they're still quite understaffed, or what the story is. I think we'd be going for consultant-led care but I'm not even sure what that means - does it mean you see the same consultant for your check-ups and for the birth as well?

MizZan hi

I had the loveliest midwife when i had dd and in general felt really well looked after. I also felt quite well supported by most of the ward staff when it came to breastfeeding (though sadly i did fail in the end)
I didn't find that food fantastic tho and dp had to keep bringing me supplies!
The midwives were quite stretched tho, and had dp not insisted on being there pretty much around the clock, i may have a felt a little "alone" at times.

So bring food in with you, lots of water and (lucozade was an essential for me as well) and bring some painkillers as well. Like i said the midwives can be busy and it can sometimes take time to get pain relief on the ward, a couple of paracetomal made the world of difference for me

Oooh and i agree 100% about the fan! The Roise really is very, very warm!

Good luck

Hello MizZan

My experience is a bit out of date (3.5 years ago) but I had reasonable care throughout labour, albeit I certainly did not know any of the midwives concerned.

Postnatally, and with hindsight, I think things were not handled well. There was no communication between shifts, so new midwives were telling me things I already knew and not telling me things I needed to know. We didn't establish breastfeeding properly and although they tried to help us do it, they didn't make any suggestions (that I remember) about how to carry on trying to establish feeding once we had left the ward and didn't notify our community midwife that this was an issue.

Temperature=hot (although bearable in Jan when I was there) and food=crap (I could not believe that I was being lectured on how to establish a good milk supply when dinner was a small sandwich, a piece of fruit and a yoghurt at 6.30!).

On the plus side, when DS was readmitted to NICU a week later (partly as a result of their poor communication outlined above) the NICU was an outstanding and brilliant example of how postnatal care/breastfeeding counselling should be done. Made me realise how average the first time around had been.

In summary, if I ever have another child I am going to attempt a home birth, but if I do end up in the Rosie I won't be panicking - I'll just make sure I get out of their postnatal wards asap!

I had ds by elective c-section in Jan 03 - very calm. Four of us on in my post-natal bay, very hot, paed care excellent, midwives nice but rushed.

Re-admitted three weeks after birth (maternal complications) to maternity ward to keep my baby with me, again everyone very nice but busy and if it doesn't directly affect your womb your chance of diagnosis goes down...

Going back in August to have baby no2, but I don't know whether I'm going for VBAC or repeat section yet. I have shared care, which means two consultant appts and the rest done by the community midwives. Last time I had GP/MW led care until I became high-risk at the end.

The lack of communication between shifts is par for the course - I had different mws visiting me at home after the birth and none of them had had a chance to read my notes before ringing the bell.

I have a choice of the Rosie or Hitchingbrooke and am quite happy to go back to the Rosie. HTH

Hi I attempted a VBAC there nearly 3 years ago and found them very pro monitoring and not very keen on 'natural birth' Going for antenatal appointments were tricky - they keep you waiting for ever and then don't listen to what you want. I ended up with another section, because they didn't support my wishes and because we weren't clued up enough.

Next time around I went to Hinchingbrooke (we live in Cambridge) a 40min trip each time up the A14. Much better, got my VBA2C. This time around am going for a home birth.

So my advice, don't go there! Sorry to be negative, this only my opinion but thats what you asked for!

Lu

Its fantastic - had both girls there - DD2 was born in their pool. Both were natural no need for anything, despite me pleading for epidurals (which I really didn't want, but you get to a point where it doneds't get any worse but you think it might) anyway midwives encouraged me to do without thank god. Good after support too - esp. if you want to breastfeed. I have also loved my community midwives and HVs. Oh and the Rosie has just opened a midwife led unit - so no doctor if you don't want one. Having said all that I now 4 people who have had babies in the SUBU their and have found it to be very supportive.

Food crap (were isn't it) and take a pint glass - i was so thirsty and thoswe tiny plastic cups were tooo small. Also on the ward later on other people's babies crying kept me awake when my own was asleep - should have gone home. They do let you go home after 2 hrs if you wish, but dp wasn't having it.

Ohh and I loved the showers - hot and powerful!

thanks to everyone for your insights. fluppy I did see your message before it was withdrawn, that was helpful, thanks. certainly sounds like it is a bit luck of the draw whether one has a good experience at the Rosie or not. Food for thought, though I'm not sure whether I'll have any alternative (other than a 2 1/2 drive down to london, but since labour was only 4 hours first time around and started very unexpectedly nearly 3 weeks early, this seems rather a risky strategy...). Bad food and overheated rooms I can live with, but obviously the concerns about standard of care are a lot more worrying. Hmm.

Glad you got to read it!

I would suggest you take a look at the new midwife-led unit. They are keen for it to do well (so lots more resources than usual) and there is always the option to transfer to the main unit in event of complications/need for epidural.

All in all it wasn't bad but my experience was straight forward and I was out within 30 hours - the food is dire! (and I happened to watch a documentary about poor hospital food just two hours before my waters broke - that will teach me!) I had forgotten how warm the Rosie was until everyone mentioned it!

DS is my first and the experience wasn't bad at all - mind you I am a go with the flow type and could've sent to the nearest barn without a grumble!

Just seen this. I've had two planned caesareans at the Rosie (in 02 and 05) so can't comment on the labour ward. The surgery bunch are extremely good though!

Postnatally:

they're very keen to advocate formula top-ups at the slightest hint of a problem

they forgot to give me my medicine quite often, and it wasn't just painkillers either

getting out of the hospital is hard work - they can take all day to discharge you (although you can just leave, of course). Second time round, we told them we were leaving at 8pm, and they managed to get their paperwork done...

NICU staff are excellent and they have a donated milk bank.

they lost my notes sometime between dd and ds. They borrowed the ones I'd had copied and sent to me!

with dd I thought the food was bad but with ds I just enjoyed the fact that I hadn't cooked it

if you're stuck there for a while the hospital concourse is ok to walk around and they provide prams so you can take your baby

i had 3 of my children at the rosie, the first 2 were 14 and 11 years ago and i couldnt fault the care, i wasept in for 8 days with my first because i had problems breastfeeding and they wouldnt let me go home until i was relaxed and breastfeeding well, the support was excellent, however when i had ds2 4 years ago, i had a very diff experience, they had shut daphne ward which was now day asessment and epu and were obviously under a lot of strain, i couldnt fault my care during labour, however when i got down to postnatal ward, it was awful, i had just had an epidural, yet when i asked for some help to walk to the toilet, i was told, you can walk there yourself, io had a miserable 24 hours and i was given a morphine jab, then just as it was working, a hca tried to make me feed ds and when i couldnt shouted at me! im sure its prob better now but i did put in a formal complaint and im sure its the reason i developed pnd, with dd2 i went to hinchingbrooke and was very impressed, i was even allowed to stay 2 nights, despite it being baby number 4!

Mizzan, had your baby yet? Had very good experience at Rosie/NICU in Dec2003. Came in 3cms, and with strong contractions planning for water birth, but baby was discovered breech, so ended up with em-cs . Midwife staff was very supportive (I have bad needle fobia!!). Baby boy developed resp. distress after birth so had to stay 1 week, with 2 days NICU: staff there very friendly and caring, both midwives and docs. Going in for VBAC any day now (38w today), so hoping for good experience 2nd time around too.
Lulu68, was a bit shocked to read of your VBAC exp. Hope my exp. will be different!!!

I had a VBAC in August at the Rosie - all very straightforward, though they were keen on monitoring. I went home within 8 hours of the birth, so spent hardly any time on the ward. Just as well, as the only bed available was in the ante-natal section with the long-term pg patients.

Nome, did you do a birth announcement? I was wondering how it went for you? Hope you are all well.

No, I just added to the August stats thread. It's kind of you to remember.

Rosalie Genevieve was born at the Rosie by VBAC weighing 3900g. It was all quite fast and by the time I asked for an epidural, it was too late.

Thanks for updating me! Glad it went well and welcome to Roaslie - beautiful name.