Where did you give birth?

[babyboos]

Originally Posted by DoubleDee

I had my youngest in the Princess Royal in glasgow and my oldest in St Johns in Livingston (10 miles from Edinburgh)..

my wee man is a St Johns baby too chose this over Edinburgh although I would have liked to go to Perth or Montrose but too far away and in end he spent first fortnight in SCBU so wouldn't have been able to go to either anyway as don't have that facility (only midwife led units) would have ended up in Ninewells (Dundee)

[rhianwen]

I had Katlin in Ysbty Gwynedd was ment to be in the locla birthing unit but she was two weeks early so had to amke the 50mile treck and no help with an ambulance it was horrible care was good there though

[maita]

At the very exotic Nuestra Señora de Meritxell in Andorra. Emergency c.sec, in hospital friday night cos pulled a muscle around my rib area(i think, never told what i'd done really). Stayed overnight, on drugs during the day as was 1"finger" dilated as they so charmingly informed me, trying stop contractions that i was having far too often. By the evening my contractions were every 2 mins but couldn't feel them that much but was still only the one finger gone!!
Went down to surgery and got in the c-sec "queue"..hmmm... maias heartbeat kept setting off the alarm on the machine.
Fu***** sh*t care inside surgery, epidural gave me cronic shakes and was in shock and they just ignored me. Afterwards ok, but they just kind of leave you to it which wasn't teh best of things in my case with a prem, c-sec baby and your hormones don't kick in so quickly. Get your own room and bathroom but then you don't get to meet other mums so you feel even more unsure of what you're doing. Maia got jaundice and went under the sunbed too and i was allowed to stay an extra couple of days in the hospital to be with her.
Food excellent....homemade and not at all like hospital food, more like a good restaurant.
Nurses surely but ok. Possibly worst part was having to squat in the shower whilsta nurse wiped between my legs...and when they pulled me out of bed the next morning thinking my feet were touching the floor i guess and wrenched me onto the floor basically...hurt slightly to the point where i screamed and could only breathe very quickly...they were like, oh dear are you feelign a bit dizzy....no you bloody biatch, it feels like you've just opened me up after throwing me on the floor!

This was all 5 weeks early.
XXX

[SephiesMum]

Blimey! That's a conversation we are so going to have tomorrow!!!!!!!

[vickiepower]

Had Tom at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, not the best of times during labour with midwife stabbing him in the head when trying to break my waters! He was in NICU for the head trauma and cant fault them at all....so supportive and helpful with everything. But when we went onto the ward was shocking......so unhelpful...considering the ward is just for babies coming out of NICU you would think they would have more helpful staff! no one to help establish breast feeding or with any help at all!!! doesnt help that it was xmas and only 2 midwives with a ward full of babies!

[iwantone]

I gave birth in manhattan at Columbia Presbyterian hospital of New York. Labour ward and delivery was brilliant, had a great experience. Mine was a planned c-section but my waters broke a week before I was scheduled it was a positive experience until the after care. Crappy room (there were no private rooms available) & had to share with someone whose husband would stay until 11pm crunching ice cubes when I was trying to get rest!! We were in for 5 days & I just couldn't wait to get home.

[lucky]

I had my first in hospital but felt afterwards it was awful. Midwives all very busy and on second night in hospital one appeared and just grabbed jack and said she was taking him to the nursery. I cried and cried and was so relieved to see hubby next day. so 2nd time really wanted a home birth and did. it was fab. in our own bed, snuggled with new baby. in laws bought jack home and relatives all came to our house to meet oli. fab experience

[bevvsedge]

I gave birth at the UZ Leuven Zeikenhuis. It was fantastic. I cannot complain about one thing, I had my own room with bathroom, baby room and (the best bit I thought) a fridge. It seems a lot different in Belgium.

[l1nz007]

i had both of them At the ROYAL BERKSHIRE HOSPITAL in Reading excellent team of midwives. although Sophie was almost born at home!

[batmum]

I was still working and had my private U.S. insurance at the time, and that covered maternity. I also wasn't eligible for NHS back then. So I had M. at a private hospital in London called St. John & St. Elizabeths. Most of my female colleagues who gave birth in London opted for Portland Hospital, but I wanted to go the "natural" route and John & Lizzies was a low-risk, low-intervention birth unit with loads of lactation help, a gorgeous birthing pool, and your OH was expected to stay with you (normal double beds, etc.) Ahhhh, the irony! I went septacemic in labour, had a VERY emergency c-section in the middle of the night, had loads of breastfeeding issues (none of the highly-trained lactation consultatant or OBs ever considered that M. might have an allergy), etc, etc, etc. Still they were lovely at the hospital, the birth was quite peaceful and it was only afterward that we realized how close we were to something horrible happening to both me and the baby. From what I've heard about NHS wards, I should be thankful for the relatively good aftercare. But even still, I found some of the lapses shocking. I had to remind them to give me my antibiotics on time (remember, I had blood poisoning!), there was sometimes little continuity from one midwife to the next, my OB went on holiday and after that I felt like I ceased to matter to them at all. I went 24 hours without antibiotics because it was Sunday and they couldn't get the right meds... Stuff like that. So I do believe that I was sicker than I needed to be for longer than I needed to be due to the after care, if that makes any sense. Also, the double beds looked great when we booked in, but let me tell you they aren't great after a C-section. I should have asked to be put back into a regular hospital bed (they have those, too). Plus having my OH in the room with me drove me mental, I basically was so sick but was constantly trying to pick up all his crap from around the room while the baby was sleeping, because I couldn't stand the mess. And he just complained, complained, complained about how he couldn't sleep, the nurses kept waking him up (and that tells you a lot about how much he got up with the baby - never!). But by far the worst bit was that it was a genuine heatwave and there was no air conditioning, so we were up every night listening to some other woman (somtimes two) screaming in labour because the building is U -shaped and we all had our windows open!!! OMG!!!

All that said, they have now installed air con in the unit, and I think I'd feel more comfortable speaking up for myself were I in the same situation. When we were expecting recently I was pretty much decided to go back there... but I'd told my OH no way was he staying with me this time!!!! LOL!

Alas, now my U.S. insurance has run out, so if we do have another it will be NHS all the way. Our local hospital has a horrid reputation, and were terrible to me when I lost our baby last fall. And I have to say it is putting me off having another baby at the moment.