help needed on deciding on which hospital to give birth at

[sab001]

Hi Bishops Stortford Ladies,

I'm very early stages of my pregnancy but i have to decide which hospital to use. I have a choice between Harlow and Cambridge, but have no idea what either of them are like. I asked the midwife, but nothing very helpful. Does anyone have experience of either? Does anyone know how i get hold of performance information on the two hospitals?
Thanks

I had dd1 at PAH and dd2 and dd3 at The Rosie. The Rosie won hands down - friendly, bags of keen students, treated as a person not as an inconvenience etc. This is nearly 20 years ago though! Hopefully someone with more recent experiences will come along soon.

thanks for that. i was beginning to favour the rosie so its nice to hear that you had a good experience, even if it was 20 years ago!

s

I went to the Rosie, and it was fine. good breastfeeding support, especially in comparison to what I heard of friends' experiences at PAH.

the drive up the M11 in labour is not fun though!!

The Rosie here too for both of my children. First one was an emergency c-sec which saved my son's life and the second was a planned c-sec which the consultant was very supportive about me having. This was in 08 and 10 so pretty recently.

ditto the M11 drive tho!

Good luck!

Hello,

I had my baby in Harlow last March. It was an emergency C-section at 2:30am. Things went wrong and the consultant came at about 4am to see me. Everyone was really really great. I also had to make that choice of which hospital prior to mine. What they told me (friends in Cambridge) was that the Rosie tends to be overcrowded and that they can turn you away. I have nothing but words of praise for everyone at Princess Alexandra. Also, if you are interested Harlow has a good birthing centre with 3 birth pools. Also, what I've been told from friends is that if you have a c-section the Rosie tend to send you home earlier. With mine I stayed a good 4 days which was great as I had great support with breastfeeding too. Hope this helps. Also, if you are on facebook there is a group called Bishops Stortford Mummy Meet ups and they can give you lots of other local knowledge because of course you will want the opinion of other people. If I had to have a number 2 I will certainly go for Harlow again.

take care and all the best with your pregnancy.

sab001 I would consider the distance you live from either hospitals and also the time of year in your decision.

If you are due around Xmas and the several months following then there is a risk of snow / bad weather conditions and once in full labor Im sure you would rather get there sooner rather than later......

A friend of mine had her baby back in Jan 2011 at the harlow hosp and they couldnt have been more professional and on the ball. hope this helps.

hi, if you go for the birthing unit in harlow then its great but the labour unit is so much nicer at Rosie. Its just not as clinical as PAH.

If you know you want the drugs then I would go to Rosie, if you are going to try with just gas n air then Harlow is good.

Agree on the M11 drive, but easier now that they have the new road leading straight to Hospital.

we used the birthing unit 4 years ago in harlow. They were excellent and it was lovely