Anyone used Rosie Hospital at Cambridge?

[ng1412]

We have recently moved to North Herts and are considering the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge. I have been doing a bit of research and I see from previous posts on MN that it comes out quite favourably.

I read on the NHS website (that compares maternity units) that it doesn't have private bathrooms, is this right? Or am I being unrealistic to expect this??

It's my first (as you may have guessed) so sorry if these are really silly questions!

I have had 2 good experiences at 'The Rosie'. The first was in the midwife led unit; my room did have a bathroom. My second baby was born in the delivery unit and my room didn't have a bathroom but had a toilet directly outside the room. The rooms are not posh I'm afraid but I found the midwives great.

I had a very difficult labour at the Rosie and had all sorts of complications that I won't go into here. And apart from one unsympathetic midwife who was horrible, the rest of the staff were absolutely amazing. (I saw about 8-9 midwives through their shifts during my very long labour!!)

I believe me and DD wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for their expertise and although I didn't have a private bathroom, to be honest that was the last thing on my mind! They are fundraising for a massive extension at the moment but that will be too late for you.

You will be in safe hands there. I was high risk by the time I got to hospital so I wasn't allowed a water birth like I wanted or to be on the midwife led unit but the delivery unit had a nice big bath that I wallowed in for a while which helped!

I had DD there in 2007 and am planning on the same for this one.
They have all the facilities and expertise so you'll be in safe hands. I wasn't allowed the MLBU because of being high risk but had a lovely midwife and straightforward labour on the normal delivery unit (that had a private toilet I'm pretty sure).
Unfortunately DD was not well and spent some time in SCBU. I stayed on Sara ward and staff there and on SCBU were very caring (communal bathroom there though). I wouldn't say that their breastfeeding support was all it could have been but otherwise I was happy. If you have a normal birth you won't care much about the postnatal ward cos you'll be out of there.

I am 13weeks into my first pregnancy and I chose the Rosie after I had a horrific experience at the QE2 Welwyn after a MMC and so far I have only had one appointment but I thought it was great. The midwife was wonderful and spent tons of time with me and all the staff were really friendly and professional. I would say go for it!

Reddaisy, I could have written the beginning of your post :)

I ended up in the delivery unit (communal bathrooms but my room had one just outside) and then theatre. We had to stay overnight due to meconium and forceps delivery- we were on Lady Mary. Communal bathrooms though very clean. Felt they were just really stretched on the ward although everyone was really trying and the staff were lovely. Breastfeeding support- not sure really, I didn't find it that helpful but I was a bit out of it and in a lot of pain.

PS, DS is 4 weeks tomorrow so very recent experience!

I had DD there in late 2008, I was meant to go into the MLU but it was closed on the night. The main unit was fine, MWs very nice. DH I think felt that we were rushed out a bit afterwards but I couldn't wait to get home.

I also spent a week on the antenatal ward at around 20 weeks pregnant and the staff and facilities were lovely. The food was crap though.

Sod the bathrooms, they have the best postpartum toast in the world

"The food was crap though"

Trust me, the food has improved beyond measure there over the last 7 years [bgrin]

OP, I have had 3 children there (2004, 2006 and 2008). They have a good range of facilities (have spent some time wallowing the the pool [bgrin]). Private bathrooms were not on my list of things I expected, so I was not disappointed not to have one. There were, as I recall, bathrooms outside every delivery room (though I could be wrong).

I spent 5 days in hospital with DD1, 4 days whilst pg with DD2 (though was out in 24 hours after her birth) and 7 days with DD3. The level of medical care is outstanding - I've had one emergency C-S, one appendectomy whilst pg and 2 VBACs there. DD3 was in SCBU for 5 days, and the staff there were lovely.

I'd recommend it - the only thing against it is that the post-natal wards can be extremely busy. This wasn't an issue for me with DD3 as her birth was pretty easy and I was up and about quickly. However, it wasn't so good after my abdominal surgeries, when I was unable to fend for myself. However, my DH and my mum compensated for that.

Best of luck!

I had my DS there towards the end of 2008. Long labour, starting in MLBU, and moving up to the main unit when we had some problems. DS spent a few hours in the SCBU after his difficult arrival in the world, and we then spent a couple of days on Sara Ward.

Every midwife & Dr I encountered was great - friendly, supportive, professional, and they supported my birth plan as much as they could. I always felt DS and I were in really safe hands, though I would second the comment about the breastfeeding support not being as great as it could be.

Had ds there in 2008 and dd in June 2010. All midwives I had were fab. First birth quite difficult ending in ventouse delivery, but second was brilliant. Both in delivery unit, but second time round I asked to go in birth pool. Midwife sorted this out and was really encouraging. The room with the pool is def the "penthouse suite" so nab it if you can. Used the pool for most of labour but got out to have dd on the bed, but the room was mine by then! Fantastic encouraging midwife who made me believe I could do it which was great. Wouldn't choose any other hospital (although we live a 4 min drive away - my husband timed it! -so would be silly to really!).

Thanks all for your messages, it sounds like the Rosie is the one for me then, I will live without a private loo if it means I have great care...and toast .

I had DD there in September and it was way too busy - that is probably the same wherever you go. The MW were great but stretched. I have every confidence in the competence of the MW. They made every effort to support my birth plan even though I didn't plan to have an induction (they seemed to even throw in a few touchy-feely bits of other people's birth plans too). They seemed to use inductions to smooth out demand in the delivery unit (I kept on being told that the MW in antenatal would do something and then if that worked they would ring delivery to see if there was space for me so that my induction could continue, despite trying to scare me into an induction in the first place). My MW wanted me to be stitched in theatre but the theatres were both busy. From the people I know who were in recently they seem to have a high instrumental birth rate. The postnatal ward was very cramped and possibly designed to encourage you to want to go home. The communication between the delivery unit and postnatal unit seemed poor - they didn't know that I had had a blood transfusion and I wasn't prescribed the right pain relief to begin with. To be honest I won't be going back, but that is nothing to do with the lack of private bathrooms and more to do with having a difficult labour and recovery which probably wouldn't have been different anywhere else, but I wouldn't want to return to the scene IYKWIM. I actually found BF support to be ok - the wouldn't let me go home until DD had fed off both breasts for 15 min. But I only managed to BF for 5 days anyway. I really enjoyed being part of the POPS research study which got us extra scans.

"......they seem to have a high instrumental birth rate..'

This is true, but please remember that the Rosie is a referral centre for the East of England, so may actually see more high-risk patients than an average general hospital's maternity unit, thus increasing their rates of instrumental delivery.

Hi ng1412, I'm also going to give birth at the Rosie and asked a similar question on the Mumsnet Local Cambridge here.

I mentioned the instrumental birth rate as anecdotally from the people I know who delivered there recently - none of whom were there because it is a referral centre. Use of instruments may be because of high risk births, but may also then become a habit.

I had my son at MLBU(Midwifery Led Birthing Unit/Birth Centre) in 2010 and couldn't praise it enough. So much so that I am hoping to have next one there as well.

The midwives were very calm and understanding, provided us with all necessary information and went all the way to make me,my husband and the baby comfortable.

I managed to snap room with a birthing pool as it was the only one free (not mentioning I dreamt of water birth).Water and gas and air really helped with the pain in last stage of labour. I was not allowed to go in the pool until last stage of labour started (so called active labour) but had a warm bath in bathtub instead and was using birthing ball + tens machine while not in water.
The room had a bathroom but you are kind of sharing it with next door patient. It was fine for me as you lock the door while using it, and to be honest with you I heard other lady using it once only during 10hours I was there.

After baby was born and whatever needed to be done we were allowed quite a bit of time on our own to enjoy first moments together before being moved to rest bay. I have been offered toasts and me and my husband had a cup of tea, which we both needed.

My husband was with me all the time except when I felt hungry and send him off to get some food (well I had to restore my energy levels).

I would definitely recommend it to any woman with low risk pregnancy.

One advice if you don't cope with pain well you may need to ask for pain relief quite early. I left it too late and couldn't have anything as it wouldn't kick in before my son was born.

Hope this helps

Hi. I had my daughter at Rosie a week ago nearly to the minute lol.
I had a fantastic experience there. Went into mw led unit at midnight and had her in water at 3:30am! :) the staff were absolutely wonderful. We were bake to stay in out private room until 930am as they were not busy which was amazing.
There was a shared bathroom but i was lucky that I was the only one in there( lucky for everyone else as I shouted the place down hahaha)
When I left the delivery room I went onto the little bay in the mw led unit whilst i waited to try and get enough of a urine sample for them to discharge me lol.
As I ve mentioned the staff there are amazing! I especially likes my natter with the cleaner :0) the mws showed me and DH how to change our daughter as we both had no experience!
I even got a second round of tea and toast as I was too busy staring at my daughter to eat the first lot lol .

So overall I had a really enjoyable experience at the Rosie. Just a shame that due to my first labour being so quick I have to have a home birth next time as I was quite looking forward to testing out the new extension lol

I had DS1 at the Rosie (before the extension) and I got the big pool room . Lots of space (or was that just the gas & air?). Could just have done with some more breast feeding support before being discharged though.

Expected to go back with DS2 but he had other ideas and arrived on the bathroom floor. He's now 22 months.

Bump

I had DS at the MLU at the Rosie in December last year & it was lovely! Huge room with a double bed, massive birthing pool, mood lighting & private shower room. The midwives were great & pretty much let me get on with it as it was number 2. Got there at 1pm had DS at 3.15pm & left at 8.30pm but didn't feel at all rushed to leave but I was keen to get home to DD! Much different experience than my first labour at the West Suffolk delivery unit which was very medicalised with almost constant monitoring & internal exams. I was much more relaxed & I'm convinced that's why I didn't tear this time!