Worcester Royal v Birmingham Women's hospital ,

[Garry1992]

Currently 27 weeks pregnant with my second.

I have a choice of where to give birth and I'm a little undecided as I had my first baby in France.

Hoping to get a little insight and hear some first had experiences from those of you who have been to either Birmingham Women's Hospital and Worcester Royal Hospital.

I feel Worcester will be calmer and less busy but my partner pointed out that birmingham women's has the QE right there in case of any major complications.

(My pregnancy was normal but the birth wasn't the best, I was rushed for an emergency c section and then had to be put under general anaesthetic)

I was referred to Worcester for a fetal medicine scan and found them to be really efficient and friendly, consultant that scanned me explained everything in detail and was very thorough. SIL had a planned CS there and had a very good experience by all accounts. My niece was born in Birmingham as she has Cystic Fibrosis, again they had a good experience but it is a much bigger, busier hospital. I'm sure there are horror stories for both as there are for everywhere but I would maybe see if you can go and have a tour of the facilities (they offer this at my trust) and get a feel for the environment/staff etc.

Check out neonatial capacity in both, if there are complications you may well get transferred to a Birmingham hospital anyway if you are at Worcester…

I had all 3 of mine at Birmingham Women's and gave only good things to say. It's an older hospital but well looked after. There's a birthing suite right next to the labour ward so if you have a low risk pregnancy then you can go there but it's a 2 minute transfer if you need more intervention/pain relief. They have their own operating theatres for c-sections too.

You should be able to look round both before you make a decision anyway.