Can I change hospitals if I want?

[Discomonkfish]

Hello there, I've been having antenatal classes at one hospital for a number of weeks. I am due to have the baby at a different hospital. They no longer offer delivery suite tours and so I went along to an Active Birth class at the hospital I'm due at. It was very good but the real reason was to have a bit of a nose around. After seeing it I would much prefer to have the baby at the hospital I attended ante natal classes at. Its easier to get to for myself and relatives, there's plenty of parking and I feel a lot more comfortable there. Do you know if its possible to request the other hospital? I'm nearly 37 weeks gone so don't know if this makes a difference....?

Thanks for any advice

x

It is feasible but you may struggle.... is the hospital you want to go to in your NHS trust ?
Have you asked your midwife ? That should be your first port of call... if she is against it you could ring the head of midwifery at the hospital you want to go to and ask.... at the end of the day if you go into labour and turn up at their dourstep they would have a hard time sending you to the other one... but they could, especially if they were full that night.

Yes. I went to a hospital much further away than the one i should have done with no probs, asked my GP to refer me there.

Saying that though, i know there was a post on here recently with someone saying the hospital they requested was too full to accept her, so that could be the only thing preventing it.

I havn't a clue what it was called, but when i was pg i found a website which listed all hospitals and gave results on their standards for maternity wards such as amount of emergency c-sections carried out etc and on that website it explained that it is your right to choose where you have your baby.

Maybe another mumsnetter would know what i'm talking about??

Good luck by the way!

Yes, it is in my NHS trust. I've got an appointment with my midwife tomorrow morning so I'll ask her then.

I don't want to cause a fuss or anything, if I can't do it then that'll be fine...

Thanks for the help ;)

i think the website fran1 talks about might be drfoster.

btw, i went to a hospital on the opposite of london to have my ds, no problems.

They are being stricter on this sort of thing now. When I was first pregnant I had a choice of hospitals to be refered to, in my area. As I worked at another (so say better) NHS trust, my GP thought it would be a good idea to be referred there. They only accepted me because I do work there. The GP also told me that the midwifes don't like it if you move half way through, as it causes them an awful lot of paperwork!! But I haven't tried so good luck! You can only ask!

Also, you must be due in November? Why don't you come and have a chat with us on the due in November thread!! You'd be made very welcome.

Hi there, I had a word with the midwife this morning and she said normally it would be fine but because I'm due so soon it probably wouldn't be sorted before I have the baby. I think if I'd pushed it then I think she would have put the wheels in motion but I'm not that worried really so I'll stick with where I am I think....thanks for all your advice and I'll check out the November board

if you are still looking for hopital statistics and your "right" to choose (which is sort of a fantasy right) try www.birthchoice.co.uk

I swapped GPs in order to get into the hospital I wanted. I'm still not entirely sure, but I think it worked.