Bedford Maternity Experiences

[Pixiedust138]

Can anyone share their experiences of maternity care at Bedford Hospital please? I’m considering either Bedford or Lister. Leaning towards Bedford at the moment but I’d love to hear some real experiences please!

This may not be relevant as I’m not sure how much the staff cross over, but thought I’d mention that I had a very poor experience of Bedford EPU a few months ago. I found out that I was having a missed miscarriage, but unfortunately they completely lacked any compassion or care over a total of 3 different appointments with them. My last contact with them involved them denying me surgical management because the lift in the hospital was broken so they couldn’t get people to theatre (completely understood that this was out of their control), however when I asked for them to signpost me to somewhere where I could have surgical management (I had given my rationale as to why I wanted to go via this route), they laughed and told me “why don’t you Google it” and then gave me a paper bag with the tablets to take to bring on a miscarriage and to call them in 2 weeks if I was still bleeding. I’m a nurse myself and would never dream of telling someone in their time of need to Google something. I was lucky to have a very good GP who helped me transfer to Luton EPU, and I could not have had a better experience with them despite the difficult time we were going through. We’ve already decided that we will have our care via Luton in future when we’re hopefully pregnant again. Luton might be a bit far for you to travel, and I can’t comment on Lister, but I do hope if you choose Bedford that you receive better care from them!

I haven’t given birth there, but I’m six months pregnant and have had my care at the Lister and the team there are brilliant. The hospital itself is a bit tired looking, but the staff are lovely, appointments run on time, and I’ve had a few complications in pregnancy and the team couldn’t have been more brilliant and supportive.

Our NCT leader shared these fact sheets on the Lister which might be of interest too - I did a bit of research and the stats seems pretty comparable to other local hospitals x

I am so sorry to hear of your loss and that you had such a poor experience with your care. Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I wish you all the best and hope that are you are able to conceive again soon x

Thank you for sharing, I’m really torn on lister to be honest. I had my first there in 2022 and I can’t fault the care, the midwife’s were great, I was under a consultant and can’t complain about them at all. Unfortunately I’ve heard some negative things recently, including the CQC rating being needing improvement which have put me off. The only issue I had personally at lister was my appointments would overrun and I’d be waiting literally 3/4 hours over the appointment time which was ridiculous. I’m glad to hear that you haven’t had this issue though, that’s great to hear that things are better now.

I had my baby at Bedford Hospital a month ago.
The delivery midwives were amazing. I had two students in there too who were lovely.
The lady that did my discharge talk I wanted to punch in the face as she was sarcastic and patronising.
The night staff on the ward were a bit rude and grumpy but ok.
But can’t fault the care I got whilst in labour/delivery x

I live in Bedfordshire but am under Lister and have received amazing care so far. I agree with another post about it being a little dated in there but the care I’ve had has been brilliant and I’ve been in every 2 weeks to see a consultant, toured the NICU there, had no issues getting prescriptions, meds, getting appointments. From a practical point of view I just find Bedford a real pig to park at etc whereas Lister is much more straight forward.

What I will say is that I’m yet to experience ‘the other side’ which is where I’ve heard things aren’t as great - for example I know people who’ve literally waited 12 hours to be discharged from Lister.

My NCT class leader shared some stats and there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount between them. You can always change if you’re not happy with either.

I’m sure I recognise your name from the August babies thread! Although I’ve not been on there in ages! Are you due in August as well? Im in Bedfordshire as well, I used to live in Letchworth so went to Lister for my last baby and they were really good, I couldn’t fault them. I’m now in Bedfordshire so I was automatically put under Bedford and after seeing the CQC rating of Lister I was happy to stay at Bedford, but I am having doubts as I couldn’t personally fault Lister at all. My first born was in the NICU for a while too and they were brilliant and I spent quite a bit of time in hospital myself so I saw lots of different midwife’s, drs etc and all were good. I did wait a long time to be discharged but that was to be expected as we had a few complications with my son, so can’t say if that’s the usual experience that people have. It might be a bit silly but the main thing putting me off Bedford is the drive… unlit, country roads and shit and mega expensive parking! Lister is so much easier to get to, and the parking is a lot better… is that a reason to transfer though? Probably not 😂 I’m consultant led too and I do have a lot of appointments though, so it is becoming more and more of an annoyance for me!

Yes I was also on the August babies thread, although like you I’ve not been on in ages! I’m having my babies (twins) at the start of July now so not long to go. I registered myself at Lister when I did the self-referral, so not sure if you’re able to do that.

I also totally agree that Bedford is just a huge faff. I went there recently for something unrelated to pregnancy and had to park miles away as we just could not find a space to park!