RVI or QE

I had all 3 of my babies in qe and had an amazing experience x

I’ve had both my babies at the QE and couldn’t recommend highly enough. They also recently won an award for the best maternity unit in the country

The aftercare from the QE is second to none. Your community Midwifery team will be Gateshead/QE so if you go QE you will have better continuity of care too. I had a great experience birthing there both times.

I’m stuck in the middle of Gateshead/Durham I can go either way, I’ve had my first two boys both at the QE, first experience was amazing, second I ended up with sepsis and stuck in there for 5 days, I cried everyday I felt bullied into breastfeeding when I wanted to stop, it took a full on breakdown for them to ‘allow’ me to try a bottle instead, so I’m either thinking a home birth or trying elsewhere this time, RVI is too far for me, but a friend told me she felt a lot like herded cattle in the RVI x

Also to add, after giving birth the second time I could have spat harder than the pressure of the shower I was put in, I literally had to cup my hands to catch the drips from the shower and throw it at myself to clean the blood off whilst recovering from an epidural and sepsis, no alternative method of getting clean was offered other than this shoddy little cubicle with zero pressure in the shower head, this was my second experience, the first experience I couldn’t fault them but the 1st one was 12 years ago as well, my last was 2024.

I had my baby at the QE and had great care! My only gripe was that I wasn’t allowed to be admitted until I was 4cm dilated. I am in between Gateshead and Durham as well so I didn’t want to waste a trip and be sent home however I was in labour for 24 hours and only 3cm dilated so I had to labour in one of the rooms until I could be admitted. Once I was in, the care was phenomenal and I’ll definitely come back