Bit nervous about the local hospital

[HelpMyHair]

Have heard a few horror stories about the hospital I will be giving birth at and now it's got me worried. They've been pretty major fuck ups as well, baby being born with only one chamber in the heart and no one noticed in the scans, another one where a close friend had a healthy pregnancy and then they ballsed up the delivery by not doing certain checks that they should have done. Now that baby has a disability for life.

It's just made me really nervous to trust the hospital now. How would you find out the rates this hospital has for things like this happening?

You can't not tell us the name of the hospital!

Just remember you will hear horror stories about most hospitals.

What are the team like who are looking after you and baby? Do you have faith in them and feel you can trust them?

They're ok but nothing brilliant. Midwives have stopped checking heart beats at appointments "because you could walk off and have a miscarriage the next day".

The woman who did my 1st scan was lovely but I'm not confident that everything was measured properly. Do I just harass them on the 20 week scan to check and double check everything?

Yes I have the same concern-even though I have given birth there once already and it was actually very good overall. However since then, talking to other mums I found out some truly terrible mistakes, costing lives.

Ive no idea how you find out more.

Am I allowed to say the name?

Are you low risk? You could have a homebirth.
Are there any other hospitals or mid wife led unit near by?

My local hospital publishes a few figures online which where comparable with other local hospitals. Can you find anything on their website?

Well in that case hair you could get hit by a bus so why do anything at all?! what a stupid approach to pre natal care.

I think you can. I have read many a bad thing said about our local unit on netmums.

I am low risk but wouldn't have the first clue about a home birth!
I think they do do heart beat check but only from 34 weeks onwards, seems a bit daft to start then if they've not bothered in the past!

Word of caution - if you're just talking about things you've heard, not a personal experience, I'd be wary of naming the hospital on a forum.

However, the NHS does publish performance figures, a quick google search will give you the latest review results.

Normally you get the choice of more than hospital? It's probably worth checking with your gp if you do get the choice.

Midwives have stopped checking heart beats at appointments "because you could walk off and have a miscarriage the next day".

This is actually supposed to be national policy now, but it is not consistently applied (my London midwife used a Doppler at every appt past 16 weeks). AFAIK it's because heartbeat is not as reliable for spotting problems, and because difficulty finding the hb can cause a lot of unnecessary stress.

An aside, but this issue on its own doesn't mean that you're receiving poor care.

They're things that have definitely happened. I heard one story from the grandmother of the baby and the other happened to a close friend.

Also heard some other things through word of mouth but not directly from the person involved so taking those with a pinch of salt.

Have been having a search for statistics about the hospital but can't find much.

do tell! i named and shamed the local shithole that nearly killed me in my first labour through their total incompetence! (have opted for an out of area teaching hospital this time around).

Interestingly I has ds1 at a London teaching hospital rather than suburban one as I assumed it would be better. In fact it was appalling and they nearly killed my some due to incompetence (that was Clapham Team midwife in fairness, not the hospital) but the dyer care was truly shocking. The 5 days I spent in the post natal ward are the worse of my life barring those when my father died. I am happy to name and shame, because they should be truly ashamed - St Thomas' hospital, December 2004. Can only hope it has improved.

After the severe trauma involved there (and resulting PND PTSD) I had dc 2 and 3 in my local hospital. It was fine. The care in labour was much better (midwives were competent and caring, in the whole, as opposed to hungover and totally incompetent). post natal care was much, much better.

Son

You can find out hospital information on www.birthchoiceuk.com. It has statistics like intervention rates which are quite telling, and user surveys.

Thanks for that link homehypno - I'm going to see if there is any information on there about my hospital

Thank you v much for that link, HomeHypno.