So when I had ds we lived 5 minutes from a really lovely maternity department so it was an easy choice. The birth was traumatic but the care was amazing and I felt in such safe hands all the way through. We moved further out after he was born and have a good hospital nearby, but when I got pregnant again I still felt really attached to our first hospital and that the experience of the care had been so good I didn't want to change things. Felt like home and just generally wanted to be back in the same place. (I also wanted a chance to walk out the doors not traumatised but haven't achieved this yet!)
I was worried about putting extra strain on the hospital or taking up valuable resources, as I don't really know how the system works, so I called and spoke with a midwife to ask about this and whether it's frowned upon etc. She said don't worry at all, lots of women are out of area, and encouraged to do my self referral form.
I have since had several miscarriages there (again, can't fault them they cared for me so well) and just had my booking appointment with current pregnancy.
The midwife at this last appointment was really mardy, made it clear she did not care at all about my miscarriages and said something about being "so busy, everybody wants to come here I don't know why..." just before I left. I felt like this confirmed my fears about putting undue pressure on them and not really having a right to be there.
I'd just really like some honest opinions about what people think of someone choosing a hospital outside their local area. We now live 45mins - 1hour away (And I've already had complications so am WELL aware of how inconvenient this is for me but am fine with that).
I love the NHS and have no interest in taking the p*ss, I'm just finding it really hard to work out if I am or not. It's early days so I still have time to transfer if it seems like the right thing to do.
God this turned into a long post, sorry.