chch Womens vs St George

Both are correct :)

I went out to Lincoln to give birth, but lots of stuff happened and we ended up coming into town (womens.) I had an epi, and once that wore off (it took 5hrs), I was shipped back out to Lincoln for our 'recovery'.

Womens has everything, but St Georges is close. If you want to go to St Gorges do, but be ready to accept that you may need an ambulance to take you to womens if you want an epi :)

You could always give birth at Womens, and transfer to St Georges for your recovery :)

Did that make sense?

I had my first baby at Chch Womens as I wanted to be somewhere where everything was available ie epi etc. Lucky for me as labour ended in emergency c-section! I would have been out at Rangiora otherwise and I can't imagine having to have tranferred into CHCH whilst in labour. Second time I had an elective at ST Georges ( they no longer do them). I then stayed there for postnatal care.

If you knew your birth would be straight forward St Georges would prob be great but as no one knows what would happen I personally would go to ChCh Womens then transfer to St Georges. It is so much calmer and quieter at St Georges. I loved it there, ChCh Womens was just so busy and noisy and they tried to make me leave way too soon. Only thing about St Georges is that you have to share the toilets and bathrooms but that wasn't a major issue at all, you have to at most other birthing hospitals anyway. Also, the midwives were fantastic at both hospitals in my opinion.

And I agree with Peanut, the milky milos are divine at St Georges!!!!! Lol!

I thought I had heard that you can no longer transfer to St Georges after a c section??? May be wrong but hopefully you won't have that problem anyway!

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy, such an exciting time for you!!

Yeah guess Im delusional to think I have a half hour birth with no complications what so ever hahaha.

Im now thinking of going ChCh womens and then transfer, it is reasuring knowing they are more equipped, hopefully it will be a sunny winters day when I transfer (again delusional or what? hehe)

I had no choice but to birth at CWH due to my medical history and needing paed's at the delivery and scanning equipment available etc. Luckily I chose that as my labour, once waters broke was too intense so I had an epi. Being a first time mum I liked knowing everything was there (was also prepped for a c/s so if that had happened I wouldn't have had to transfer).

Having said that - I did feel that CWH is not personal at all. For medical reasons Jack was not allowed to transfer for 5 hours but they kicked us out of our room after 2 (I couldn't even walked unsupported) and made us wait in a tiny room with no facilities for him

St George's is fantastic - don't know what it's like to birth there but definitely go there for recovery! The m/w's are lovely and the food is devine! Nothing like the horrible plasticky stuff they give you at CWH. And heaps of it too

To put another spanner in the works, a friend birthed at Burwood and said it's lovely there too (more spacious apparently but I wouldn't know). Obviously no epi's and the same scenario with ambulances etc if you need to go to CWH.

I had planned to birth at burwood (no drugs allowed lol) but ended up at cwh at 35 weeks because my waters broke and my baby was breech....(so not part of my birth plan) stayed there for weeks then had an elective c/s stayed 3 nights post birth there then transferred to Burwood (would have transferred sooner but they were full). They were great, no complaints at all. The only annoying thing was the stupid buzzer going off all night.

I then went to cwh this time around and didn't have any issues with being pushed out early or rushed or anything. Had Kyle at 4.44am and was able to stay in the birthing suite till around 7am, was then transferred upstairs to the maternity ward for a while (I had had an epi and it hadn't worn off properly, I could move one leg but not the other..lol). Ended up not leaving till about 3pm as they were in no hurry for me to go and it took them awhile to sort my transfer papers out.
The only thing I found was that they didn't help me with Kyle at all, which was the total opposite to my experience with Spencer. I don't know if it was because I was a 2nd time mum or because I was just someone waiting to transfer but it was pretty slack and most annoying, especially as I couldn't move for part of my stay

Have stayed at Burwood and Rangiora for aftercare and both are awesome (I have heard that you can't always get into st g so you might have to go to one of the others), the buildings are a little old and the showers are not ensuite like at cwh, but the staff are lovely and they have heaps of time to sit with you and help you out with anything.

My plan was to birth at burwood (have you looked there - when we went on the tour of st georges i found the staff really rude to me - i asked if their birthing pool was ready yet as it was being built and the woman turned to me and said 'we have baths but you'l want to get out as soon as you get in' which i thought was very rude.) Anyway plans changed and i went into labour at 36weeks so had to birth at womans. I had to be there right from the start of my labour and for the most part they were brilliant. From what ive heard though womans is only good if you need specialist care. I wanted a drug free labour and kept getting offered drugs (i got very angry). THey tried to make me take codine which i hadnt asked for (post labour) nor did i need. Most of the midwives are lovely - i had one that was great (so encouragign while i was in labour - did a few laps with me so my husband could go bathroom and have a coffee lol), but also had one that was awful to me, puting me down etc. I think no matter where you go there are good midwives and not so great midwives. I personally wouldnt birth at womans unless you have a complicated pregnancy though.

I think when its your first baby and you have no idea how things are going to go its safer to be at Womens. I had both my kids there and both times i would have had to transfer while in labour if i had of elected to birth at st georges (or anywhere else)
Your midwife will be in charge of the birth anyway so it doesnt really matter if the hospital is busy or not because she is there for you. I know when I was there with Addison they had 14 c sections the following night but when i said i wanted to go home they said I was welcome to stay another night if I wasnt 100% sure. Plus its all nice and newish now so you get a room with your own bathroom, was almost like being in a hotel! And yeah they do transfer you out pretty quickly but only if everythign is ok.

Edited by my2angels

Well I'm fresh out of Burwood, arriving home saturday after giving birth last thursday night.

I can't recommend Burwood highly enough. The midwives were fantastic, they left me to my own devices and I never needed them once. I was happy to find my own feet with my baby and they respected that. They all saw that I am confident with Novella and if I needed help I would ask for it. And I loved that they were so great with visitors popping in and having DF around.

Only grumble would be the buzzer going off in the middle of the night as has been mentioned before.. but hey wee babes can be overwhelming at times and I just felt bad hearing the wee mites crying so much so I could understand why the other mothers were wanting help.

And in terms of labour and birthing... remember there are positive stories and you don't have to think that only the worst scenario is going to happen and you will necessarily need to have drugs or intervention. I for one had a labour that lasted 3hours and 15minutes from first contraction to birth. I was at the hospital for 1 and half of those hours and water birth was so calm and amazing. I also knew from day one that if I wanted to transfer to womens if things didn't go according to plan then I could.

And after the birth, my support team weren't hurried out of the hospital even though it she was born at 11.14pm.. they all stayed on till after 2pm and had milos and biscuits with me in the lounge while I breastfed baby... They are family orientated at Burwood and I found it awesome!

Anyway, sorry to babble.. just wanted to give you my perspective... and it was my first birth! I'm just a little bit proud of it, (if you can't tell already!)

hey joleneandjustin...i had a big talk to sue regards where to birth just last week. i was undecided too as i kinda want the best of both worlds.i have decided to go with st georges, but this is my third baby and the last one was a natural birth (drug free)i didnt chose for a drug free birth..lol but it just progressed quickly and before i could freck out he was born!..so i'm not to scared of no-drugslike i used to be as i know its not to bad.
Sue scheduled our next appt at st georges for me to have a look around..she has also (just in case) enrolled me at both hospitals...and reassured me that should complications arise chch womens is not to far away

jack was born at st georges and charli was born at chch womans.........i probably preferred st georges because of their cold milos but i don't know what it's like 'birthing' there as i had an elective c/s

i found the nurses at both hospitals really nice and caring, although their were 1 or 2 that were a little grumpy but i got that at both places. i was planning on birthing at chch womans and transferring to burwood after (with charli) but ended up with a complicated emergency c/s so i had to stay the whole time.