Maternity care at Kerry general hospital and home birth

littlemissfixit

Hi!

17 weeks pregnant now (1st timer) and will soon be moving to north county cork so I need to reassess my options regarding which GP, which hospital, what type of birth etc. And I would really like to hear any experience you would like to share with me.
I most likely will have to go public because I have just been made redundant last week and have no insurance. The closest maternity unit is in Tralee, Cork city would be too far away. So any comments on Tralee hospital greatly appreciated, or any other hospital/clinic I might not be aware of?
So many changes at an already quite unsettling time, but still positive and so happy!!

Also, I would love to hear experiences of homebirth.

Thanks!

Moonbeam

You gp will be able to advise you what the best option is for your area.
17 weeks is really late to be booking though so public will probably be your only option and your anomaly scan could be at any time if they give you one.
Are you currently booked in with another hospital and attending another gp?

and of course Congrats:))

littlemissfixit

Thanks! I was booked in Holles Street in Dublin, have had my first app. last week, a long wait and a very superficial scan it was for that time. hoepfully see my GP soon and try to get some more advices.

TargetWidow

Hi and welcome LilMissFixIt.

TGH is my nearest hospital but I am going to Limerick Regional Maternity hospital. Reasons; loss of perfectly healthy newborn nephew due to midwives reluctance to call in consultant during the night. Waiting for baby to go into distress before calling him in, baby stops breathing upon birth, no recussitation cart in ward, baby brain damaged by the time they get him on oxygen 7 minutes later. Little fella dies 3 days later. That was 20 years ago. Friends loss of healthy baby recently in identical situation. Personally I wouldn't let a cat have kittens there. I am off to Limerick to access a specialist maternity hospital where they are ready for every eventuality. Also I am 38 and not exactly popping them out like pingpong balls! I like the team in Limerick even though it is 30 minutes further away.

As for home birth, thats not an option for me. The best advice I got on it was only do a home birth if you live close to a maternity unit and/or special care baby unit. That makes sense to me.

pearljamfan

ive no experience of the hospitals in your area, neither have i had a home birth! sorry!, but anyway... i was interested in home birth but when i looked into it a bit more, (just using the internet for info) i didnt think i cud afford it and also organising my own midwife.. i do have quite a high pain threshold and if you do a course in hypnobirthing techniques that would help you immensely with the pain and correct breathing etc ..i ended up with an epidural and looking back now theres no way i would have lasted doing a homebirth. but everyone is different and if u live near a hospital in case of emergency, do a course, and really research it then i dont see why anyone needs to go into hospital. check out the homebirth board on rollercoaster.ie for lots of stories.

littlemissfixit

Thanks for your inputs, really appreciated.
Congrats TargetWidow on your pregnancy, and also very sorry for your loss, I can't imagine what that would be like. The reason I did ask for people's experience is because I had heard only bad things about TGH and obviously I feel the need to have a certain confidence in the place I will be giving birth. We were due to move to north Cork this July, but we are now considering staying in Dublin for a further few months until baby's here and continue with Holles St.

As for homebirth, I like the idea, but too scary for a first one I think. But I would really love if they reintroduced the use of pools during labor at least in Irish hospitals.

January

I don't think they let first time mothers have homebirths in Ireland, somebody can correct me if I am wrong though!

Nevyn

If you are a low risk pregnancy then you can have a home birth on your first.

http://www.homebirth.ie/asp/Whocanhave.asp

Who can have a homebirth?

Homebirth is available to all women experiencing a low risk pregnancy. The World Health Organisation (WHO) currently estimates this to be some 90% of the population. Obvious exclusions are women who have pre-existing serious medical conditions (e.g. severe cardiac problems) or who develop serious conditions during the pregnancy (e.g. severe pre-eclampsia). In addition, certain higher risk pregnancies would normally be excluded, for example women expecting twins and women who go into labour before 36 weeks. Until Sept 2008, women with previous caesarean births were NOT excluded and our newsletters are full of women who have experience many a beautiful homebirth after a previous caesarean. However, the new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the self employed community midwives and the HSE in Sept 2008 strongly indicates that the midwives should not take on women with previous caesarean births as home birth clients. If in doubt you should contact your local midwife and discuss this with her. Hospital schemes do not take previous Caesarean birth mothers as clients.

Ultimately, the decision to labour and birth at home will be one made between the woman, her partner and the midwife. Even though the woman may present as low risk things may change antenatally and the midwife will discuss options with the mother and these may include transfer to hospital care. An example is persistent breech presentation. Even in the labour, if the midwife feels that the mother and baby will do better in hospital then the midwife will discuss transferring care into a hospital environment. An example might include meconium in the liquor. Even after the baby is actually born, there is always the possibility of transfer either in the best interests of the mother or the baby or both.

You do not need a doctor´s permission to have a home birth. You do not need and obstetrician´s permission to have a homebirth. Your suitability for a homebirth will be assessed by a midwife or a team of midwives. As mentioned above your suitability for a home birth is a dynamic condition that may be liable to change throughout your pregnancy and labour.

It is important to realize that opting for homebirth is opting for a process in which you are taking control of yours and your baby´s needs. It is not about birthing a baby in a particular x, y location that happens to be your house at any cost to you, the midwife or the baby.

LegacyUser

Hi Littlemissfixit...

I am 13 weeks pregnant and I will be giving birth at TGH and I've no hesitation doing so. All of my friends have given birth there, one very recently, who had nothing but good reports about the place.

Also, A friend who is a midwife (now working in Dublin) worked there for about a year and told me that out of all maternity units that she worked in it was one of the best she's worked in. Staff are friendly and helpful and the facilities are good.

Obviously there are bad stories about every place eg: Targetwindow's story... it's completely understandable that she would not want to go back there. However, a girl at work gave birth in Limerick Regional 2 years ago and her son died as a result of birth complications (difficulty in the birth canal and starved of oxygen) the day after he was born. He was also full term and perfectly healthy. She has now got a healthy 4 month old boy born by section. Anyway, my point is that every hospital has a history.

Good luck whatever you choose.

whippy

Hi!

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I'm originally from North Cork and if you're moving anywhere near Charleville I can recommend Dr Tom Molloy - he's my family doctor since the year dot and is great.

Re: hospitals - I'm living in Dublin now and booked with Holles Street so have no personal experience but my sister had her babies in CUMH and they have a really good reputation. That and it's a relitavely new hospital so nice surroundings - plenty of parking etc. She had two pretty complicated labour experiences too and found them fantastic - thorough and quick to act when necessary.

Though Limerick would be closer - I'd have no hesitation in choosing CUMH if I were having my baby at home.

I hope this helps!