Where to register for antenatal services

[murmur12]

Hello everyone,

Complete newbie here with head all over the shop. We are expecting our first baby (ivf) and have been told by the gp to register my pregnancy. It's still early days, just over 5 wks, but started to look at options. Slight complication is that right now we are without a car, so all appointments have to work via public transport for a while, but later on when we get the car it will be all easier. And then of course there is the level of service to consider outside of the above more practical options, but all the ratings don't really say much to me.

My closest one is East Surrey in Redhill, then Princess Royal in Haywards Heath and Pembury, TW. Redhill and HH is almost the same distance, Pembury is a bit more, but the difference is about 3 miles. I can get buses to all of these places.

Can anybody give some pros and cons, more personal experiences? I have only been to HH once, never in the other 2 so have no idea. I feel slightly overwhelmed that I need to make a decision so early on.

Many thanks

I think I may be quite local to you. Those are my nearest hospitals too.

For me, I chose ESH as they offer nearly all appointments at Crawley and Horsham hospital. PRH means you would have to go to HH for consultant apps, scans, and any other non-community midwife appointments. One of those local hospitals mentioned above is also a lot closer to me

I've also had a previous baby with PRH and it wasn't a great experience so ESH had a slight advantage based on those two points.

Also ESH is now allowing partners to 12 and 20 week scans - incase that sways you either way.

ESH has always been brilliant as well with pediatric care for my older child whereas PRH doesn't have the same paed/neonatal facilities

With regard to the appointments, obviously, you can still have your appointments at ESH too if the smaller hospitals are too far for you to get to.

Thank you for the comments, I was leaning towards Redhill and it's good to know you came to the same conclusion:)

I am currently 14 weeks and have chosen to give birth at PRH. We live between HH and Brighton and for me the potential traffic getting into Brighton and NIGHTMARE parking at the hospital (I work there and the queue for the car park often backs up to the main road) was a big sway for me picking PRH!

My only reservation is that if there are any complications with the baby then all the neonatal services are at Brighton but hopefully that won’t be a bridge we have to cross. If you’re closest to ESH I’d definitely factor them having neonatal care on site as a big plus point.

So far I’ve only been to PRH for my 12 week scan appt but I can’t fault the service. Baby wasn’t playing ball with getting in the right position to get the NT measurements and the sonographer did not stop trying until she got the measurement, even though they were really busy. I was there for a good couple of hours and she called me back in about 4 times between her other appointments to keep trying until she got it. From speaking with other people who’s baby wasn’t in the right position who’ve had experiences at other hospitals they have been told they can’t have the screening done because they can’t get the measurement in the 15 min appointment so I was really grateful for that. I also got my low risk results letting within 4 days so wasn’t too much worrying time. They have recently updated their covid policy so you can now have a support person at all scans, obstetrics appointments and any MAU/triage visits and have increased their visiting times to 4 hours a day for post delivery which is good 😊