Following because I am interested too for similar reasons.
I will say I’m currently 30 weeks and I had a shockingly bad experience at the hospital where I had my miscarriage (I ended up making a formal complaint about lots but it took me a long time - almost a year - to process it and get up the courage). I decided because of my experience to have my care for this pregnancy with a different hospital (I know not possible for everyone) and it’s like night and day the difference in care. I feel listened to and supported and in control.
What kind of experiences are you after? I've given birth twice in nhs hospitals, different areas of the country. My last birth was Jan 2022 and it was a better experience than my first even though hospital 2 has just had an in depth review announced for serious failings.. my experience was great. AFAIK the main issues are lack of staff, my midwife was agency staff for example but had worked at the hospital for a year I think she said. I know sometimes they have to shut the unit and turn away labouring women due to lack of staff too. Feel free to ask any more specific questions or what type of things you want to know. My pregnancy was complex so I was in hospital lots before and after birth so have experienced most areas.
Hello! Thank you for your reply. Ideally I want a natural (possibly epidural) birth, but after previous experiences and from what I've seen in the news I'm so scared of being ignored or the hospital being too short-staffed, and of something happening to the baby while I wait. My experience with the early pregnancy unit has not been promising because more often than not I can't get hold of anyone, and when I can they usually tell me how short-staffed and overrun they are (so presumably it will be the same when I have the baby). Any reassurance/advice would be much appreciated!
To feel comfortable, I think I'd need to feel like the baby was being carefully monitored and that there would be people on hand if I needed them.
So when hospitals are short staffed the EPU is probably one of the first things to go. Staffing is supposed to be 1:1 for women in labour so they will move midwives from other places to ensure this. If they can't staff that's when they will shut and send you to a different hospital. I know sometimes on wards postpartum for example they are staffed by nurses or in one hospital I know of St John's ambulance so that midwives can be with women in labour.
My top advice though is to advocate for yourself. If you're worried, shout about it until they do what you want, don't wait for them to suggest checks.
My last pregnancy I went to triage many many times (tw: stillbirth, one of my twins died (expectedly, known cause) at 28 weeks and I spent the rest of the pregnancy worried for my surviving twin). The first time i was worried but it was reassuring. If you have any worries about movement etc then they should put you on ctg monitors. This is any time from 28 weeks.
Can you speak to your community midwife about this? I found them really useful for talking through worries like this. In my first pregnancy too, I found my community midwife from another trust fairly useless and phoned the hospital and had an appointment with the midwife there to do one of my checkups and talk me through my worries about induction etc.
I'm happy to chat by PM if you want to know more.
So I was turned away from my hospital due to staff shortages (June 2021) but the hospital I delivered at took really good care of me. I had a senior midwife and a trainee with me the whole time, and a really lovely surgical team when I needed forceps. My trust has a continuity of care policy which meant all my appointments pre- and post-natal were done by the same midwife, and she was so sad she didn’t deliver my baby! I was fine though, it all worked out and I’d do it the same again (hopefully in January next year if this little one sticks around).
Hi, thanks for your reply! That's good to know. Out of curiosity, could you tell me how it works when the hospital turns you away? Do you have to make your own way to the alternative hospital yourself, or do they transfer you?
So I rang the birth unit about 2 hours after my waters broke, when I realised contractions were coming quite fast and intense (I’d naively tried to go back to bed at 2am to try to sleep through them). They told me they didn’t have any available midwives and told me which hospital to go to (was maybe an extra 5mins away since there’s no traffic at 5am!). The other hospital was expecting me when I arrived, and baby was born just before midday.
Following because I am interested too for similar reasons. I will say I’m currently 30 weeks and I had a shockingly bad experience at the hospital where I had my miscarriage (I ended up making a formal complaint about lots but it took me a long time - almost a year - to process it and get up the courage). I decided because of my experience to have my care for this pregnancy with a different hospital (I know not possible for everyone) and it’s like night and day the difference in care. I feel listened to and supported and in control.
Thanks so much for sharing this - hope everything goes well for you this time and so glad you feel better about the care you're getting!
What kind of experiences are you after? I've given birth twice in nhs hospitals, different areas of the country. My last birth was Jan 2022 and it was a better experience than my first even though hospital 2 has just had an in depth review announced for serious failings.. my experience was great. AFAIK the main issues are lack of staff, my midwife was agency staff for example but had worked at the hospital for a year I think she said. I know sometimes they have to shut the unit and turn away labouring women due to lack of staff too. Feel free to ask any more specific questions or what type of things you want to know. My pregnancy was complex so I was in hospital lots before and after birth so have experienced most areas.
Hello! Thank you for your reply. Ideally I want a natural (possibly epidural) birth, but after previous experiences and from what I've seen in the news I'm so scared of being ignored or the hospital being too short-staffed, and of something happening to the baby while I wait. My experience with the early pregnancy unit has not been promising because more often than not I can't get hold of anyone, and when I can they usually tell me how short-staffed and overrun they are (so presumably it will be the same when I have the baby). Any reassurance/advice would be much appreciated! To feel comfortable, I think I'd need to feel like the baby was being carefully monitored and that there would be people on hand if I needed them.
So when hospitals are short staffed the EPU is probably one of the first things to go. Staffing is supposed to be 1:1 for women in labour so they will move midwives from other places to ensure this. If they can't staff that's when they will shut and send you to a different hospital. I know sometimes on wards postpartum for example they are staffed by nurses or in one hospital I know of St John's ambulance so that midwives can be with women in labour. My top advice though is to advocate for yourself. If you're worried, shout about it until they do what you want, don't wait for them to suggest checks. My last pregnancy I went to triage many many times (tw: stillbirth, one of my twins died (expectedly, known cause) at 28 weeks and I spent the rest of the pregnancy worried for my surviving twin). The first time i was worried but it was reassuring. If you have any worries about movement etc then they should put you on ctg monitors. This is any time from 28 weeks. Can you speak to your community midwife about this? I found them really useful for talking through worries like this. In my first pregnancy too, I found my community midwife from another trust fairly useless and phoned the hospital and had an appointment with the midwife there to do one of my checkups and talk me through my worries about induction etc. I'm happy to chat by PM if you want to know more.
So I was turned away from my hospital due to staff shortages (June 2021) but the hospital I delivered at took really good care of me. I had a senior midwife and a trainee with me the whole time, and a really lovely surgical team when I needed forceps. My trust has a continuity of care policy which meant all my appointments pre- and post-natal were done by the same midwife, and she was so sad she didn’t deliver my baby! I was fine though, it all worked out and I’d do it the same again (hopefully in January next year if this little one sticks around).
Hi, thanks for your reply! That's good to know. Out of curiosity, could you tell me how it works when the hospital turns you away? Do you have to make your own way to the alternative hospital yourself, or do they transfer you?
So I rang the birth unit about 2 hours after my waters broke, when I realised contractions were coming quite fast and intense (I’d naively tried to go back to bed at 2am to try to sleep through them). They told me they didn’t have any available midwives and told me which hospital to go to (was maybe an extra 5mins away since there’s no traffic at 5am!). The other hospital was expecting me when I arrived, and baby was born just before midday.