Just moved to portsmouth - advise on hospitals would be very much apprecaited!

[vickyloveridge]

Hi,

I have just moved down from Surrey to Hayling Island. I have been told by GP I have a choice of 3 hospitals to have my 2nd baby in, Portsmouth, Queen Alexander or St Richards in Chichester.

I had to have an urgent c-section with my 1st so I don't think I will be eligable to go to any midwife led units so was just wondering if anyone can give me some advise on the best hospital to go to?!

Many thanks in advance.

Vicky

Are you sure about Queen Alexandra? I ask because there was no maternity unit there when I lived in that area, my three were born at St Mary's in Portsmouth, St Richard's wasn't really an option for us as we were North of Portsmouth and it would have been a very long drive in labour. St Mary's was OK, better with my third than the first two as I felt there was more courtesy and consideration towards the mother when I was in having him. That was 13 years ago now though, so hope somebody can come along with more recent experience. All the best with your pregnancy and birth.

Thank you for your reply, apparently Queen Alexander is a new maternity unit, I think?! Hopefully someone else knows for sure..

Thanks x

My Mum is a matron at QA. The whole hospital has been refurbed and is MUCH better than it used to be with a very good newly equipped maternity unit there.
The old one at St. Mary's has been closed.

Hi. I'm due to give birth in QA hospital (it's in Cosham, so at the north side of the M27) in the next few days (am 39+4 today).

I had a tour a couple of weeks ago. It is very modern and clean, all the rooms have bathrooms - so no wandering down the corridor in your birth t-shirt...or whatever.

At QA there is a consultant-led unit and a midwife-led unit. In reality, the two units are next door to each other, so the only real difference is that the midwife-led unit is staffed by community midwives etc. Obviously, if you needed the attention of a doctor etc you are only a corridor away.

In the midwife-led unit there are 2 rooms with birthing pools. In the consultant-led unit there is one room with a pool (might be good if you would like the pool, but want to be in a consultant-led unit because of your previous experience.) Pools are subject to availability - as in most places.

Post-natal wards are either 4-bedded rooms (with bathrooms) or private rooms (with bathrooms). I think you may be able to pay for a private room, if it's something you wanted to prioritise.

The midwives told me that what is now in St Mary's, Portsmouth, is just a midwife-led unit. I gave birth to dd1 in the consultant-led unit when it was there (2 yrs ago); so am not sure if they've refurbished it to make it into a new midwife-led unit.

I live in Gosport, so my nearest midwife-led unit is Blake's. After I gave birth to dd1 in the consultant-led unit, I transferred back to Blake's and stayed there for several days. I had wonderful care there and managed to establish breast-feeding there. Also, dd1 was jaundice, so it really helped rather than going straight home.
Just mention it as it may be an option i.e. if you go for the consultant-led unit in QA, you can then transfer to your local midwife-led unit for after care.

Hope all goes well - sorry for rambling!!

go to chichester,new midwifery unit and lovely people

I had both dc at st Richards and the midwives ofn the labour ward were lovely.

I had dd 4yrs ago and ds nearly 5 months ago

HTH

Thank you so much for everyones comments.
mummeeee - good luck!

I had DD at St Richards in 2008 and it was horrendous. Was left on a postnatal ward in labour huffing and puffing away with woman in the next bed talking to her visitors, there were empty private rooms but they wouldn't let me in there 'incase' someone needed it. I'm not sure how it is now but I would be reluctant to go back without a lot of convincing.

Having said that, postnatal was excellent except for one woman trying to 'milk' me.

She tried to 'milk' you?! Goodness! Thanks for your help everyone.

I had dd by emcs at st richards 3 years ago, and will have this baby there too. They were great, and as everything said, it's just been refurbed, though I haven't seen it yet. I think it won an award a few years ago, and fathers can stay from 9am to 9pm!
Most hospitals do a tour, why not look at all of them and see which you like best?

Thank you

I'll probably have mine at QA but have only been for my first scan so far. I thought the waiting area didn't even feel like a hospital, and even though it was a late afternoon appointment I went in early! Both these things impressed me and made me more likely pick it, I have to say.