I had my first baby at QE2. Am now pregnant with second baby, and I am going elsewhere for this one because my experience of QE2 was bad.
BUT I do wonder if people who have had bad experiences are more likely to post than people who have had positive ones? I know I am more inclined to respond to discussions when I am still cross about something (and, 18 months on, I am still cross about how I was treated at the QE2). So maybe bear this in mind when reading any negative responses, especially including mine which is about to get very negative!
I also think my situation was made worse because I had an emergency C-Section. If you have a straightforward birth there then in the experience of my friends, it's fine.
When I spoke to my GP about it, she said the QE2 maternity service is good, normally, but they do seem to suffer more than the others from understaffing.
I think this was the problem when I was there as they were bringing in staff from Stevenage to cope.
My experience was: during labour, the midwives did not handover properly when their shifts changed and so my care plan that the Obs.Drs had decided upon was delayed, resulting in unnecessarily extending my labour before I went on to an emergency C-Section.
After the birth, no one had time to teach me how to breast feed until a few days after the birth and only after I had started to complain loudly. Yet they wouldn't discharge me until I had learned how to breast feed.
I continuously asked for help, and would be told, "someone will be with you in a minute", but they wouldn't come for hours, if at all.
I had to stagger around the ward (not being able to walk upright after the operation), begging for someone to help me learn how to breastfeed.
They also didn't have enough time to write up my drugs for discharge which again resulted in a longer stay than necessary. It seemed so inefficient to be kept in hospital, taking up a bed, because they didn't have time to give me the care required to discharge me.
A student nurse put my newborn baby in bed with me when I was asleep, a dangerous thing to do to a baby when the adult in the bed has recently taken a lot of medication and is suffering from exhaustion.
When I started to complain about my care, I was asked if I would like to be referred to the mental health team. But all I wanted was to be shown how to breastfeed, to have my drugs written up on time and not to have my baby put in bed with me when I was asleep.
I know this is sounding really negative, so please try and get some more balanced views from other people if possible!
Sorry, have no experience of birthing centre or support for home births!