Choosing a hospital?

[EllieBelle]

Having been to see my midwife for the first time yesterday she asked me where I would like to have the baby - to which I replied "In hospital", because of the location where I live I have been given the choice of 3 hospital - Gloucester, Cheltenham, or Hereford.

How on earth do I make a decision? I did ask her which she would choose, but obviously she is not allowed to be biased!

Can I actually go and visit each hospital and make an informed choice, or are there some on-line stats somewhere which may help with my decision?

If any of you have anything good or bad to say about any of the above hospitals I would be grateful to hear your experiences.

Many Thanks

 

[Charlie:-)]

I was in a similar position.

I looked online at some stats, I just searched for them using google.

I looked at things like cleanliness of hospital and the c-section rates etc.

Try looking on google you will probably find some stats, be warned though it was min numbingly boring and not very easy info to understand because of some of the terminology.

 

[Bexie]

I would also speak to people who are local to you and have recently had children and ask how they decided and why they decided which hospital they did.

Good luck with making your choice.

 

[Sherlock]

Sure you can go check them out. Also read the online info on them but I think visiting in person is good. Ask people you know where they went and how things were for them also.

 

[abcd1234]

i used online stats and distance from my house. the 2 hospitals were pretty evenly matched performance wise but one was much closer and easier to get to so i choose that one

 

[LisaJ1986]

We have 1 hospital about 10 mins away, but i was also given the option to go anywhere i wanted. Thankfully i was happy with my local. It's not the cleanest or most respectable, but i needed the closest one when i was in labour anyway. I got given a booklet with all the different local ones with the different stats in.

 

[charlie84]

Have a look on netmums.com, and in the pregnancy and birth section there is a link about where to have your baby.
It then lists local hospitals and birthcentres with website links and mums also leave there views on there too