Forum home Archived Birth Clubs My baby was born in Dec 2011

FAO Bluebabeuk2

Hi - you posted on one of our threads in DIA and I thought you'd be more likely to see this if I posted here, rather than replied to that thread.



You wanted to know what my experience at Heartlands was like. Well, it was a bit mixed. I was induced at 37 + 6 in May 2010 due to pre-eclampsia and was in three days in total. Solihull had temporarily shut the week before (they were in the process of downgrading it so it shut for 3 months). Because of this Heartlands was really busy as they had to cope with loads of extra patients, and a couple of people came in and gave birth in the corridor!!I was offered Warwick and Good Hope as alternatives, but they were too far.



During the induction I had one shift (8 hours) where I was only visited once by my allocated midwife and the others refused to deal with me. I was being sick non stop and they should have been doing regular CTG traces on my dd and bp checks and giving me medication but they failed to do any of that for the whole shift. Thankfully it didn't matter as my dd was born naturally and was fine, but looking back now that was extremely negligent of them. I am going to be discussing this further with my midwife tomorrow so will let you know what she says.



The aftercare on the ward was fine though, and apart from the one shift during the induction I was happy with their care. I'll probably be going back there this time as every where else is really to far, but I'm going to kick up a bit of a fuss so they treat me properly this time!

Replies

  • Hi, and thank you so much for your reply. It's good to hear your experience.



    I am officially high risk antenatally because of a previous late miscarriage, but that ocurred after a surgical intervention to try and alleviate a problem the baby had (ie not a problem with me). However the birth with my DD was normal and straight forward, and my 20 wk scan has revealed no problems with this baby, plus placenta is in the right place, so I'm hoping that at my 36 week appointment they will agree that as there have been no problems with this pregnancy and I have delivered twice naturally that I will be able to go to Solihull as it's my closest hospital. Of course if I can't then it will be Heartlands.



    I do also wonder what happens if complications arise during labour and they need to transfer you from Solihull to Heartlands - do they just whip you into an ambulance in the middle of labour and move you?! I'll be checking this with my midwife.



    I've heard Heartlands is busy, but my mum who's a nurse elsewhere has said it'd be fine if I'm with someone who's able to kick up a fuss if I need attention!



    Thanks again for sharing your experience with me. All the best for you this time around.
  • I had my booking with the community midwife today and she confirmed that I will have to deliver at Heartlands, but can have all my ante-natal care at Solihull, yay!



    I told her all about my experience last time and she said that things have settled down at Heartlands a lot since May last year as they have a lot more staff (as most of the Solihull staff were transferred) and it's not quite as chaotic. It's still busy - but she said the same as your mum, if you've got someone who will kick up a fuss then you'll be fine.



    If you're at Solihull and you get complications they have to transfer you to Heartlands in an ambulance with blue flashing lights and the works, must be scary in the middle of labour!



    However, Heartlands also has a midwife led unit upstairs which, according to my friend who used it in July last year, is much nicer than the consultant led unit. With the added bonus that if you do have problems you just have to go down in the lift. Might be worth a look?



    Fingers crossed you get to deliver at Solihull though, it's apparently really nice since they re-did it.
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