Birthing at Wellington hospital

The facilities in the new regional hospital are beautiful if the dialysis unit and ICU are anything to go by.
And from experience the delivery staff at Wellington are lovely, I was a bit quicker than my midwife anticipated, so while she had a quick break i got down to the whole giving birth thing and Fay was delivered by a hospital midwife and I have no complaints about her doing that. They were wonderful to me throughout.
I work at welly hospital and get as bit fed up with all the bad press we get, it seems the media only want to talk about all the bad things and not about wonderful things like how the renal team managed 7 kidney transplant in less than a week just before christmas. I also expereinced the hopsital as a customer when Fay was ill last year and yes it's dated and old but our experience was wonderful.
Delivery, NICU and post natal move around mid Feb. My department doesn't fo til March.

Edited by Redbedrock

Hun, dont listen to people like that.

I had a friend who told me not to go with the midwife Id chosen cos she was a bitch! I thought "whhaaatt??" she is LOVELY, I love my MW and Im having her again for this baby.

My friend has never had a baby but my MW was her friends MW, and her friend was the biggest pain in the arse during her labour from what Ive heard.

yeah , good point Jax, (besides , who on earth would want to take out their own tonsils ?)
women were giving birth without hospitals long before we had them , the women's body is designed to give birth, doesnt always go to plan , but over all , thats what its designed to do ...it really is an amazing thing , the woman's body .

haha Sheena, I knew a girl who told everyone the mw we had (she was at Bethany with me ) was useless , what she didnt tell people was that she said she was in labour every day , from the time she was 4 months, (because she was 14 and had apparently been pregnant 10 times already )
What a fun patient ! haha

I think it is more to do with who is on staff at the time and who your midwife is. I havent really heard anything bad about wellington, infact the two hosps i heard about was kene and palmy, i decided right from the go i would never birth in palmy but that is mostly because i personally know three cases of something going wrong there, like my mum getting sent home with a raging nfection, not aloud pain killers, and me nearly dying with the cord around my neck until my aunty stepped in (she was a nurse but was only there as support) and the week before i was born my other aunties son dyed there cos the nurses induced labour when she was only about 5months preg and just this last week my cousin who gave birth there was sent home early (only 2 and a half days after a c-sect) and ended up getting a big infection that went to her heart so she is back in now. And with kene all i have heard is what has been on the news, i think it was independant midwifes at fault though. BUT in saying that, i am planning on giving birth at kene, my midwife actually convinced me as i was going for welly, but she told me kene is much more one on one, and is less "hospital like" and more "home like" if you know what i mean. Kene is much closer to where i live also so it worked out, my midwife told me that kene is the better choice but because its just midwives there then if there looks like there will be a problem i will be sent up to welly to be with the doctors.

So just ignore what people say and i think unless you have experienced or seen something bad then go for what you want, its your choice in the end. That lady isnt having your child so she shouldnt have a say in the matter of where you give birth.

And yes the new birthing units sound very nice, and they arent even finished yet hehe.

Hi everyone!

I was wondering if you could give me some advise please, I called the maternity unit in Wellington Hospital and they advised me that I had to go to the doctors to confirm my pregnancy and who would then give me a referral for a scan.

I went to the the doctors in Wadestown who confirmed my pregnancy, I am 8 weeks 3 days, but they advised me that they do not give referrals.

Help, I don't know where to go from here - I am a UK Citizen on a working holiday visa and have no idea how it all works here!

Any help would be very much appreciated as I am hoping to stay in Wellington to have the baby.

Hi Guest,

You don't need a scan or confirmation of your pregnancy. Your GP can absolutly refer you for a pregancy scan if there is a reason to (ie bleeding/ pain/ absolutly no idea of dates). Your LMC (a midwife or obstetrician) can also refer you for scans. Midwives can be reluctant to refer for scans without a good reason. They will also 'book you in' at the hospital around 20 weeks.

Your GP can also do blood tests that can be used for pregnancy screening (in combination with a scan at 11/12 weeks) as well as the standard information that they like to get from your blood tests like rhesus status.

MissFreckle is right - get on to getting a midwife, it is competitive in Wellington. You do not have to use the hospital midwives, but can if you want. They will probably see you sometime around 12 weeks.

Get photocopies of your visa and passport as a lot of people will be asking to see them!

Good luck!

staff are fantastic at the hospital (altho i guess like anywhere, depends on who you get on the day, and if they are having a bad hair day or not), facilities were great then (I was there NOv last year), only wish they had more single rooms, but not a biggie. sounds like that may be different in march, and yay for big birthing pools, still wish i got my water labour experience! oh the joys of premmie birth and not getting anything like you quite planned!
Only bad thing i would say is the food is seriously very very very terrible, EVERYONE who was there when i as there ended up having to bring in their own food. DISGUSTING would not feed to our cat. so expect to need food, or money for food from wishbone downstairs or the vibe cafe which had great food and cheaper than wishbone, just more of a walk to get to it (is in childrens hospital part).
GL!

Hi Ladies!

I would like to re-open this thread and ask for new input on births in the new labour and maternity ward.
How are the facilities now and how was your experience?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks MissFreckle.
So it does seem the maternity ward is more a personnel problem. I've heard the same problems before of scarce personnel and not enough help.