Rosie maternity ward in Cambridge closed

[beatrice75]

I rang the delivery unit yesterday as I had some pre-labour symptoms and was told that I could go in to be assessed but if they thought I was going into labour I would need to be transferred somewhere else because they're full and they don't know when they'll reopen! How can this happen?
It turns out I didn't go into labour but now I'm panicking about when it will reopen and what happens in these circumstances if someone is about to pop and just doesn't have the time to travel further! Being my 3rd DC and having had a very quick labour before this is a real worry to me.
Any thoughts and experiences are greatly appreciated!

Unfortunately some units do close as a result of being understaffed, I work in a unit (which never closes) and we take alot of patients from closed units The Rosie being one of them

Also if you feel that you have any labour signs then contact the unit asap so you can been seen at another unit.
I do think it's a really unfair system

This is something that happens to all hospitals from time to time. If too many women go into labour at once and all the delivery suites are full, there's nothing else they can do. Of course as babies are delivered, capacity frees up again, so this situation rarely lasts longer than a few hours.

Frustrating though it is, the alternative is women giving birth in waiting rooms with inadequate support from midwives.

If you are genuinely concerned, speak with your community midwife. She will be able to give you up to date data on the frequency of diverts from your hospital, and can advise where diverted patients usually end up do that you can plan accordingly.

Sorry, should have said all hospitals in my area. I live in an area of breeders! It took us over a month to get an appointment to register DS's birth which puts in perspective how busy labour wards must get.

I sympathise, buy as others have said, there's not much they can do if lots of ladies are giving birth at the same time! But as way of reassurance, this happened to my friend - she was due to give birth at Rosie, but they were full so she went to another hospital (maybe Hitchin - cant remember?) and had a fantastic experience there and said she was so pleased she had him there and not at Rosie. So it needn't be a disaster!

I had pre labour pains with DD2. I went to hospital that night, once the midwife realised I wasn't in active labour she sent me to the ante-natal ward.

Over night labour ward filled up and had to be closed for admission. When I woke in the morning proper labour started and I had dd2 on hte ante-natal ward as my labour was fast and there where no beds on labour ward. The midwife said it closes on rare occasions and they reopen asap.

Start planning routes to other hospitals just in case, work out where they are, etc. Hopefully you won't need to go anywhere else but it does happen.