Birmingham Womens Hospital

Whilst the service at the Women's Ante-natal departments is very good, the waiting times are outrageous. For each of my two pregnancies, I have found that waiting times are at least 4 hours and up to 6 hours. I have even had morning appointments (at 8:50am) which I had hoped would mean there wouldn't be a backlog/delay but I still had to wait 45 mins for my scan.

Very good service all through pregnancy, good midwife care and good hospital stay.

I had my daughter at BWH in June 2013. I got to 9cm at home but the midwife directed me to push on a full bladder, lying down when I had no urge to push. I ended up with forceps and now have multiple pelvic organ prolapses which haven't responded to management with pessaries or oestrogen cream.

I had to wait months for my referral then had two utterly brutal clinic appointments with callous and dismissive doctors. My prolapses are unbelievably debilitating but their attitude is very much "put up and shut up." I have been diagnosed with PTSD as a result. BWH's response to my complaint was incomplete and focused on directing me into a meeting with the delivery suite manager, which under the circumstances is completely inappropriate.

I think they were very keen for me to delivery quickly because they were short of beds but I think that this is prioritised over everything else. My midwife was inexperienced, tired, looking after other women at the same time and let down by poor systems. If you are considering having your baby here please please go to some mother and baby groups to ask local new mums about their birth experiences so that you are better informed than I was.