Oxford JR or Stoke Mandeville

[EmsyW]

Hi ladies. I am due in September and have currently chosen the JR in oxford to give birth. I live in Oxfordshire but right on the border of Bucks so had the choice. I had compared stats and JR appeared to better. However, after my first scan appointment I now feel apprehensive. It took an hour to get into the car park, they were running an hour behind schedule and I am concerned it is a ‘teaching’ hospital. I am now considering switching to stoke but so confused. Does anyone have any feedback on either hospital? Thanks x

My DW and I live in Oxford, about 10 mins away from the JR. DW is due to give birth at the JR in April. Can't comment on Stoke Mandeville, but the JR is a really good hospital to be in if anything goes wrong because it's a large specialist centre with great medical facilities and lots of expertise. The fact that it's a teaching and research hospital is a big bonus in my view - lots of the doctors practicing there are undertaking cutting edge research. DW and I have found the care to be excellent at every stage.
The downside is that it serves a huge catchment so is very busy - it wouldn't suit someone who isn't comfortable in a big, bustling hospital (there's nothing cosy or "cottage hospital" about it).
Parking is going to be your big issue, and if I were you I'd think very carefully about that. I'm amazed it only took you an hour to get a space! The car park is tiny. DW and I never drive there because sometimes the queue is so long you can't even enter the hospital grounds. It's very well served by public transport (including park & ride buses) but that won't be much good to you in labour. If you go into labour between 8am and 5.30pm, parking will be a lottery. We're local enough to take a taxi when DW gives birth, but if we lived further it would be a concern.
Can't comment on birth or postnatal care yet as this is DC1 and isn't due for another 5 weeks, but antenatal stuff has all been great.

Parking at the JR is a nightmare, and AFAIK there are no plans to improve it. Since the Horton changed to a midwifery-led unit the JR is taking all their consultant-led patients, so delivery suite is even more crazily busy than it already was, and there's a lot of pressure on services (but the same is true everywhere in the NHS!)

The JR is a bigger hospital and has a few more "cutting edge" services, but Stoke is still a fully-equipped acute hospital with adult and neonatal ICU if either of you were to unfortunately need it (though NICU only goes down to about 28 weeks IIRC, so would need to go to Oxford in the extremely unlikely event you were very premature). I've worked at both and would reasonably happily deliver at either, so that probably doesn't help you much in making a choice! What is it that's concerning you about it being a "teaching" hospital?

I would always, always choose a teaching hospital given the chance. DD was born at King's in London; we have since moved and I have chosen to go out of catchment to book in at Warwick this time around. Very surprised that you might consider it a drawback.

I think you probably live in the same town as me. I had 2 at Stoke and 1 at the JR. Parking at the jr is only a problem in visiting hours, Stoke isn't that much better.
My JR one was an ambulance transfer from a home birth though so I didn't have to contend with the car park, though my DH followed behind in the car and it wasn't a problem, that was mid day on a weekday. If you're thinking of parking for visitors after the birth, the park and ride is fine. We always use it for my DC hosp appointments.

I preferred the jr but due to traumatic birth I was given a private room so much different to being on a bay like at Stoke. I also believe Stoke has been refurbished since I was there (9yrs ago). They are both good hospitals but the jr is a regional centre for lots of things and has its own children's hospital so if anything should go wrong, it really is the place to be as they have more specialists and more emergency facilities than Stoke.

Have you also considered Wallingford?

Does Stoke M not offer the private rooms any more? I had both mine there and had a private room. A friend had prem twins and had to go to JR from being at a party near Aylesbury at the time. They had no room in SM or HW so no choice in the end. They lived in South Oxfordshire near the Bucks border too.

Just to add, my planned home birth that I ambulance transferred to the JR with ended up, 40 mins after arrival as an emergency with shoulder dystocia. As soon as that red button was hit the room just filled with people. It was a 3 minute shoulder dystocia. My notes recorded that in 2.5 minutes an extra 12 people arrived in the delivery room and I really couldn't have asked for better care in a highly stressful potentially life threatening situation, they were brilliant.

Thank you for all of your replies. This is my first baby so I was worried that being a teaching hospital maybe some of the midwives may not be very experienced and I had visions of something going wrong. I M not local to the area, I moved here 18 months ago so not familiar with either hospital so having a choice has been more of a hindrance than anything. The parking hadn’t even crossed my mind till I went there for the first scan. I thought I had loads of time yet became very stressed when I literally had minutes to get to the 4th floor in the woman’s centre. My midwife said that the JR provide some tests which usually you only get when you go private so I thought that would be a bonus. I will definitely be booking a private room if I can.

@xyzandabc would Wallingford be an option? To be honest, I felt pressurised to make a choice by my midwife - she just kept asking me if u had made my mind up so she could do paperwork to send off for the scan. As this is my first I had no idea or what to even look for in a maternity suite

I was worried that being a teaching hospital maybe some of the midwives may not be very experienced

The student midwives won't be experienced but you'll never be left alone with them. You'll always be asked to consent to a student being present (and you can absolutely say no) and if a student performs an exam / procedure etc it'll be done under the close supervision of a very experienced midwife. IME students provide very valuable extra capacity in overstretched departments. Teaching hospitals tend to get the funding and resources for research and consequently often attract the best doctors. The medical students will be from Oxford, which is one of the most competitive clinical medical schools in the world.

Wallingford is a midwife led birthing centre for low risk births only as it's not a hospital. Not used it myself but friends that have really liked it. If you live halfway between Oxford and Aylesbury then it should be an option.

I never had a problem parking with stoke mandeville but the JR is a nightmare!! I had my baby at Stoke, the labour ward was fab, the post natal ward was like a war zone!

I have same dilemma between JR and Warwick as I’m at the other end of Oxfordshire. To be honest the sheer volume of people going through the JR puts me off (it took me 2.5 hours to get there when I went for an appointment a couple of weeks ago. Nightmare ). I’ve also heard some horrible stories of neglect in labour and post birth as services are so stretched. But Very few ha e a bad word to say about the staff and the care they receive (when they get it!) and they’re good in an emergency.

I had a student midwife at my first labour and it was fine. It was never just her and me and I forgot she was a student to be honest! Good luck OP

@Buxbaum Thankyou for the insight - I’m more reassured now and of course, how will they eat their experience if they can’t learn first hand. Everyone seems to say the same thing about volume at the JR. I may look at Wallingford and see what they have to offer.

JR have been amazing so far for myself all my NCT buddies. I have had nothing but amazing care from them ❤️