First time Mum to be- Rosie Hospital?

[Kilbs88]

Good morning... I'm American but have been lucky enough to call Essex/Cambridge my home since 2012. We recently discovered we are having our first baby and couldn't be more excited!

Was just wondering what anyone thought of the Rosie Hospital? As I'm from Texas, the hospitals are very different (i.e. every mom gets a private room- unless you're in Manhattan, you get started on pitocin and an epidural right away etc. and unfortunately we don't really do midwives.)

I know this isn't the way over here, but just wanted to get your thoughts on the facilities. I haven't toured it yet but the maternity ward looks lovely. Anything has to be better than poor Whipps Cross where we had to visit our poor Nan! X

The Rosie is an excellent hospital where you will receive high quality medical care. The facilities are very good and the staff are kind and caring. The negatives are that the hospital is very busy and the staff sometimes overstretched, especially on the postnatal ward, which can be slightly chaotic. Though yours and your baby's medical needs will be well taken care of, staff are unlikely to have time to, for instance, show you how to bath your baby.

I had two babies at the Rosie, one by emergency CS and the other an elective CS. I don't have direct experience of the midwife-led unit, but I am told it is very comfortable, and it is close to the main part of the hospital/ theatres which is useful if things don't go to plan.

It's the very best place to be... You've got full access to the full university hospital and NICU if, god forbid, you need it. It is big & busy, but the medical care is second to none.

Everything went well for us but I did not have the best experience staying three days on the ward. The ward was completely full and staff seemed overworked. Next to me was a woman who was in pain from cesarean. she was told to take care of the baby as at home noone would help her either. When she start crying she was told that the midwife would feed her baby once but then she has to cope herself. I felt very sad for her but could see that midwifes had to prioritise and take care of worse cases. Hygienics were also not very good. There was one bathroom for 6 ladies and it took one day to clean up blood stains. There was one, semi retired nurse who was very empathetic but unfortunately the midwives seemed completely understaffed.

Given you say Essex/Cambridge I'm guessing you're somewhere around Chesterfords, Saffron Walden, Newport etc so you live in Essex but the nearest town and hospital is Cambridge?

If so then assuming things haven't changed since DS was born, one thing to be aware of is that the midwives you see before and after the birth will be the community ones attached to your doctors and will almost certainly not be ones who work at the Rosie. It wasn't a problem for us at all - we had great community care and the midwives at the Rosie were also fantastic.

I know it has thrown some local parents though who expected to get to know the midwives who would be there for the birth. My view was there was no guarantee who would be on call when I went into labour in any case, plus during labour I was too focussed on that and giving birth rather than social interaction with anyone. All the notes, referrals etc link up both on the electronic systems and the hand held notes (assuming they still have those?) and we didn't have any issues.

Be aware that because Addenbrookes is a full teaching hospital you have the option to have students in whilst you're at the Rosie. I was happy with that and had explicitly said on my birth plan that we welcomed them - George the trainee doctor was delighted I said that as he was on his final night and had only seen 1 birth in his rotation. You can say no students though if you want to. George did sterling work holding my foot when for the final pushing stage I apparently wanted to have one foot right up practically at right angles !

"the maternity ward looks lovely" - which ward are you referring to, exactly?

There's the Birth Centre, which is a midwife led unit and is AMAZING. If you have a low risk pregnancy and labour, and are happy with no pain relief other than gas and air, you will be lucky to be able to give birth there.

Otherwise you will have to go to the delivery unit which in my experience is not "lovely", sadly. It's in need of improvements, but I think all the money was spent on the Birth Centre! Which is a shame because the women in the delivery unit are those with higher risk pregnancies and labours, and arguably just as if not more in need of good facilities.

I agree that the birth centre looks very nice but of my friends all but one were transferred to the delivery unit which in my opinion lacks a lot of the things which I had been told would make labour easier. While probably medically it is up to standard it not a relaxing, warm environment. I think it would be better if women were to be prepared to give labour on the delivery ward instead of showing them the shiny, birth centre. I think for me the experience of the delivery unit and the first days in the ward made it even harder for me to bond with baby as there was no time and resources for individual care and emotional well-being.

The midwife-led unit is great in terms i of accommodation and staff, and then you're near the main hospital in case you need medical care. You can relax

I agree the birth centre is amazing, if that is an option for you. With all mine, I was lucky to give birth in the MLU and go home straight afterwards without having to go to the ward, where its not so great. I'm not sure Addenbrookes is that much worse than anywhere else though in that regard - the NHS in general is struggling (understatement of the year!).

The UK system is quite impersonal in some ways - you don't have a named midwife, you don't have a long stay in hospital etc, in many ways you will be left to get on with it and you'll have to actively seek help if you need it. If you want 1:1 care before during & after, then definitely hire a doula. I'd really recommend NCT classes not just for the birth info, but also to get an instant group of friendly people to meet up with.

Congratulations and good look!

I had DS in the birth centre and it was amazing! Private room with WC, amazing midwives, we could play our own playlist of music, dimmed lighting. I had a water birth which was wonderful. I don't know about the delivery rooms but the birth centre is close. I'd recommend it!

I had my little boy at the Rosie in August.
The birth centre is lovely but unfortunately if anything doesn't go to plan, you will be sent straight upstairs where the facilities are not quite so nice & fancy! However in my experience the staff were amazing all the way through & I only had a issue with communication when I was wanting to get discharged.
During my stay I met 2 women from Essex who chose the Rosie instead of their local hospital which I think says it all.