Manchester hospitals...advice sought

[Liverbird77]

Hello everyone. I am newly pregnant with my first baby. I need to choose which hospital I want to give birth in before I can see the midwife. I am in South Manchester, so it would appear the choice is Wythenshawe or St Mary's. I am new to the area, so haven't got any friends to ask. I've read the old threads on this, but opinion seems divided. Please can someone with recent experience tell me which one they chose and why. If it is relevant, I will be 41 when I give birth. Many thanks in advance.

Have a look on the Which? Birth choices site for reviews and stats on both.

You can always change hospitals later if you want to.

Saint Mary's is brilliant. I had my baby there less than a year ago.

Only downside for me is it can get quite busy, and there can be a bit of waiting around at clinics.

I was always encouraged to go to the antenatal clinic straight away if anything at all was worrying me. They always saw me the same day to assess the problem and scanned me within 24 hours of necessary in my experience.

The hospital is modern, new, clean and the staff are amazing.

I'd go with what's closest too you. St Mary's can be a nightmare for parking and is dearerthan wythenshawe. Both have good facilities and no doubt a mix of staff from the amazing ones to the rubbish ones. You'll have a lot of appointments and potentially have to get there in rush hour so whatever is easiest to get to would be my choice x

I chose St Mary's because I worked at UHSM and didn't want to risk bumping into colleagues whilst in labour

I can heartily recommend them. The staff there were amazing and the care we received second to none (I was on the consultant-led ward BTW).

Good luck and congrats!

Thanks everyone, much appreciated! I am pretty nervous and want to make sure I am doing the right thing.

Hello!

I've been in St Mary's and just recently switched to North General at 36 weeks pregnant as it's only around the corner! St Mary's is great and so is this one so wherever you go you'll be fine

Congratulations!!

The only difference I've noted is that north general is quieter but St Mary's has more facilities for high risk.

Oh and a quick PS. Manchester is the most amazing city for young children. You're going to have a ball!

I’vs just moved to Manchester and I’ll be using saint Mary’s (if I have transferred care by then, as I’m still attending Ormskirk right now and I’m nearing 38w). I’ve heard good things about it! Downside tends to be that it’s busy but since I’ve had all my care already I just really need to give birth now (if baby decides to go headsdown)

I asked this a few months ago and felt like Wythenshawe was the right choice.

There isn’t too much waiting around for appointments. You can choose to have your scans done at Withington rather than trek down to the hospital. I didn’t know this and we’ve had both of our scans at Wythenshawe, the sonographers and midwives there have all been fantastic.

I have booked a tour of wythenshawe and me and my husband drive to both today. They are equidistant from our home in didsbury. I am leaning towards st Marys because i am a nervous first time older mum and it has the intensive care unit in case anything goes wrong!

I had two of my three at st marys and found them to be very good. I also work alongside midwives from st marys aswell and have always been impressed.

I could've chosen wythenshawe and heard that they are friendlier there...I'm not sure that's true but it is right that st marys is very busy.

In the end the neo natal services swayed me as they are better at st marys.

I'm 37 weeks and at St Mary's. We chose it because of the better facilities if something went wrong and it was also closer to work and home for appointments. I've not had much waiting around for appointments and I've also attended the EPU and triage services twice which were great.

We're currently attending NCT classes and our teacher has been raving about St Mary's especially how ahead of the game they are in terms keeping baby with you if it has breathing problems immediately after being born. Apparently most hospitals whisk them away but St Mary's keep the baby attached to you via the cord and have the breathing apparatus at the bedside. Probably not a massive concern, but it reassured me that we'd made the right decision.

I don't know much about St Mary's, but I was very happy with Wythenshaw when DS was born. Sounds like both are good!