Which hospital to choose

I had my 3 in Waterford, the first I went with the midwife only care which was a huge mistake from my experience. After that my next 2 I just went with the regular public route. I can't complain about the care on the last 2 times.
A lot depends on the type of labour you have, if it's very difficult one or an easy it will taint your memory of the experience.

I too would love to hear people's experiences and recommendations about where to give birth. I am 11 weeks pregnant. I am living in Kilkenny and I am apprehensive about giving birth in St. Lukes due to the high rates of c-sections for first time mothers (this is my first) Like most mothers, I would like my labour to have as little intervention as possible ie. No C-sections or instruments, unless of course absolute needed for the safety of my baby or me.
From peoples experience, why are the rates so high?? I asked my GP but she had no answers or reassurance for me.
Is it due to inexperienced doctors feeling it is safer on them to give a csection because they don't have the experience to assist in vaginal delivery ? Is it the hospital not giving women enough time to progress through labour before calling a csection to hurry things along? Is it a shortage of midwifes or experienced midwives in the delivery room to assist women through labour without doctor interventions? Is there just a culture in the hospital that its easier to give a csection in the fear of what might come up if allowed for vaginal delivery? Ie. Court cases if something went wrong during delivery etc.
Would love to hear peoples experiences or recommendations of where to give birth. Obviously Kilkenny would be much handier location but safety and peace of mind is more important so if people had positive experiences please share, I am incredibly excited about my pregnancy but slightly terrified(mhopefully unnecessarily so) at the thoughts of my babies life and my life been in incompetent hands.

Do people that have midwife led maternity care have lower rates of c-sections etc? It's all new to me and I don't know anyone who has given birth in Kk to her they experiences so all information is much appreciated.

I can't post links but bump2babe.is has informative info of maternity care available nationally

blindside88 wrote: »

Hi Boardsies,

Very early posting here. Myself and my wife have just found out that we are due our first child in February 2020, we’re just starting to research and are lost in a mine of info. Trying to decide which hospital to go to (we live in Carlow). My initial thoughts would have been Kilkenny which is our closest hospital however I’ve heard some horror stories. Other options would be Waterford, Wexford and Dublin which are all within an hour (although Dublin could be far longer with traffic depending on the time of day). Is there anywhere I can read reviews for the maternity section of the various hospitals (rate my hospital doesn’t seem to have maternity specific info).

Thanks in advance

Jasminecat wrote: »

I too would love to hear people's experiences and recommendations about where to give birth. I am 11 weeks pregnant. I am living in Kilkenny and I am apprehensive about giving birth in St. Lukes due to the high rates of c-sections for first time mothers (this is my first) Like most mothers, I would like my labour to have as little intervention as possible ie. No C-sections or instruments, unless of course absolute needed for the safety of my baby or me.
From peoples experience, why are the rates so high?? I asked my GP but she had no answers or reassurance for me.
Is it due to inexperienced doctors feeling it is safer on them to give a csection because they don't have the experience to assist in vaginal delivery ? Is it the hospital not giving women enough time to progress through labour before calling a csection to hurry things along? Is it a shortage of midwifes or experienced midwives in the delivery room to assist women through labour without doctor interventions? Is there just a culture in the hospital that its easier to give a csection in the fear of what might come up if allowed for vaginal delivery? Ie. Court cases if something went wrong during delivery etc.
Would love to hear peoples experiences or recommendations of where to give birth. Obviously Kilkenny would be much handier location but safety and peace of mind is more important so if people had positive experiences please share, I am incredibly excited about my pregnancy but slightly terrified(mhopefully unnecessarily so) at the thoughts of my babies life and my life been in incompetent hands.

Do people that have midwife led maternity care have lower rates of c-sections etc? It's all new to me and I don't know anyone who has given birth in Kk to her they experiences so all information is much appreciated.

If you are looking for a hospital which will garuntee that your pregnancy and delivery will be trouble free and a happy experience for you, your baby and your loved ones then your search will be in vain.
Maternity services are provided by other humans who make mistakes and are sometimes careless or just not very good at what they do the same as any other profession.
I think a good starting point for you is to remember that you are pregnant, not sick injured or ill in any way, and you must continue to live your life in a healthy way and let nature take its course.
You won’t need medical treatment unless you or your baby develop a pregnancy related medical condition, which doesn’t happen in the vast majority of pregnancies and is usually spotted very early and treated satisfactorily.
Maternity care is just really the monitoring of your pregnancy by doing regular checks and building up to the delivery of your baby.
Many women expecting baby 3 or 4 don’t realize that they are pregnant until 20 weeks or even more at which stage the pregnancy is 1/2 over.
I personally would pick the hospital that is most convenient for me and will be handiest to get to in a rush, instead of trying to decipher which is “better”.
Don’t forget. There is no garuntee that your preferred midwife or doctor will even be on duty when you go into labour. So form good bonds with all the staff you meet when attending ante natal visits so you won’t be disappointed when the delivery day comes.

I thought most hospitals had 12 week dating scan and a 20 week anomaly scan as standard. When it's included, it certainly isn't charged.

I think choice of hospital based on their statistics isn't a bad idea. Sure, you can get good as well as bad doctors at any hospital but there are definitely trends, policies and culture, which influence the path your care is _likely_ to take.
AIMS Ireland has good stats section http://aimsireland.ie/birth-statistics-for-ireland/ if you're interested.
There's also different stances on breastfeeding, with some hospital being more encouraging in bf, and with others resolving everything with bottles. So it depends on your own outlook and what you want from your birth and follow-up.

shesty wrote: »

As someone else said, you aren't sick.There is one outcome here, that a baby is delivered.

I think for some people this is an important consideration beyond just getting a healthy baby. I don't think it's too much to ask to have a positive birth experience, where your wishes are honoured, where you have choices and controls over the type of care you receive, whether you end up with C-section or easy natural birth. Even where women are asked for consent for procedures or examinations and are made aware of it rather than telling them that this is what's happening and that's that, sign on the dotted line.
If you want a medical approach with epidural and coached pushing, then your choices of care and, therefore, hospital preference may be different from someone who wants low-intervention, no pain relief unless they feel they really need it and to be allowed space and time to progress naturally. Obviously choice may be wider if you're up in Dublin or between 2 hospitals, and more limited if you're living right beside one already anyway.

I do believe statistics are helpful in this regard irrespective of the actual numbers (unless you're talking 1 in 10 C-section, vs, say, 20 out of 200, as the number is too low to be statistically robust), as this may show a trend at a particular hospital and the attitude and culture of staff there.

Chinese whospers wrote: »

I understand the hypocrisy. And the payment to avoid is worth it in my opinion. But again, I'm not talking about the delivery room, it's the run up to it.

You don't have to pay to avoid it ?

shesty wrote: »

From past experience in the Rotunda, it apparently needs to be done between 20-24 weeks, as the baby grows too much for them to see everything they need to after that (just what I was told by the hospital, I don't know details I'm afraid), so maybe keep that window of time in mind when you request.I'm glad you found somewhere you are happy with.

I was at a scan recently with a family member and the Prof said the ribs thicken at about 24/25 weeks and its more difficult to see the heart after that

( this was not the usual anomoly scan which was done at 21 weeks )

shesty wrote: »

Yes, I was told the above on my second where she was turned in an odd direction at the anomaly scan around 21 weeks and the sonographer told me I had to come back and it had to be by 24 weeks or she wouldn't be able to see the parts of the heart that she needed to, so sounds about right.

It’s funny, because when I went for my anomaly, the sonographer couldn’t see the heart properly because of position, but she said that the later the better for me to find back, because it gets easier to see what they need to see.