St Mary's or Wythenshawe hopsitals?

[chubster]

Hello
Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but does anyone have any experiences of these hospitals in Manchester (UK) they'd like to share?

I don't really know what are the most important factors as I've looked them up and there are umpteen gazillion things they're rated on!

Thanks in advance if anyone can help

 

[Quackquack99]

Hi there, I'm originally from manchester and I have a lot of friends who are from the wythenshawe area. If it was up to me, I'd choose st marys. I will sound a bit biased as I was born there. But I'm sure it is a leading children and women hospital in the north west. I wish I could give birth there as my baby will be the 4th generation to be born there. Good luck

 

[DanielsMummy]

Hi we had our fertility treatment at St. Marys and were due to have our baby there. We felt some of the staff, most of the staff in fact, in the new build always seemed to be very rushed and too busy to totally dedicate their time to you. When we arrived for our appointments we were kept waiting for AGES, and I mean ages lol. We transfered to Stepping Hill and the difference was amazing. Staff there were brilliant, always seemed to have the time for us. Although St. Marys is new and has modern technology we are very glad we chose to have our baby at Stepping Hill. St. Marys seemed very clinical and cold, but all this is just my opinion

 

[Mummy of Ange]

Hi I'm in Manchester and st marys is meant to be the best. I live near north Manchester so I'm going there thus time. I was at royal Oldham with the twins, never again x

 

[pinkycat]

I had my 1st DD at whythenshawe 6yrs ago. I was in for 5weeks as i had severe pre-eclampsia (4wks before she was born and a wk after) I found they were very good with me. my only complaint was the staff were so busy but i think its the same everywhere xx

 

[DebzD]

I am having mine at St Marys this time. Have only had 1 appt with them so far but I got there early and was seen early - so all good. Have got a scan booked for 15th so hoping they are as good this time.
I had DD at Tameside and it was really,really rubbish which is why I am not going there again.
I know quite a lot of people that have given birth at Stepping Hill and from their experiences they seem to be very good as long as you don't need any sort of intervention.
Can't help with Wythenshawe I'm afraid, haven't heard anything either way, but I guess if there were loads of horror stories around, then I would have heard at least a couple, so I figure it's probably ok

 

[mrscupcake]

I know midwives at both hospitals and they are both suppose to be good (sorry not much help) I did my midwifery training at Wythenshawe recentely and all the midwives there are great, there is also a birth centre there, with colour bubble tubes, large flat screen tv & DVD player if u wanted to watch something, stereo, comfy sofas and pool's for if you want a water birth. The rooms also have a kitchen area if you want to brew up or make yourself some toast. St marys also have a birth centre but not seen them so couldnt tell you what they are like. I would have had my LO at wythenshawe if I had lived nearer to there so I had mine at stepping hill. Which isn't as nice but the midwives were good. Xx

 

[Odd Socks]

not of those 2, i had bella at stepping hill & hope to have #2 there as well. i had a wonderful experience giving birth there & also the many times we had to go in for bleeds through my pregnancy.
xx

 

[chubster]

Thanks everyone, lots of food for thought!!

 

[the why bird]

I'm interested in this too - our nearest hospital is Tameside but I'm wondering whether to book into Stepping Hill instead.

Debz will you share what was up with Tameside when you were there?

 

[DebzD]

@ the why bird -
When I first arrived I was admitted onto the labour ward and they wanted to hook me up to be monitored but it took a good half an hour of looking and 4 different machines before they actually found one that worked. After the obligatory monitoring I was told it would be at least another 5 hours before anything would happen (fine, I thought, they know what they are doing) 1.5 hours later after repeatedly asking them to check my dilation they begrudgingly agreed to (I think they thought I was just being anxious and making a fuss coz it was my first baby) and to their surprise I was fully dilated and they asked if I wanted to push. I never made it to a delivery room because they seemed to have forgotten that everyone is different and just coz I was a first time mum didn't mean that when I said I thought I needed checking it was for a reason! Didn't bother me too much - the room I was in was nice enough.
No problems with the actual birth but the placenta was a different matter.
I was given the injection to help with the afterbirth and instead of waiting for it to take effect (which the community MWs have since told me they really should have done) the MW just started tugging on the cord, snapped it and cutting a long story short I ended up having to have a general anaesthetic and 4 pints of blood to sort it out.
When I was then moved onto the 'new mum' ward, I was basically forgotten about - they came and gave me my prescribed medication but that was it. I was on that ward from early Wednesday till Thursday evening and other than the piece of toast when I first got there, I wasn't offered food or drink at any point (luckily my mum and dad had brought me a mini feast so I had that to keep me going) and it's not that I expect room service, but I wasn't even told where I could go to get anything to eat/drink.
Don't get me wrong, some of the midwives on both wards were wonderful and I would wholeheartedly trust them with my care in the future, but there were also ones that I found rude, obnoxious and generally unhelpful. I would put it down to them being busy but there weren't even many of us in at the time.
I guess you are going to find you like some staff more than others anywhere, but overall combined with everything else, I decided I wouldn't be going there again.
Other people may have had wonderful experiences of Tameside, so don't let me put you off if you know others that have had great experiences there - I may just have been unlucky.