Thinking of having baby in 'Mount Carmel', Dublin. Any experiences?

[MelF]

I just want to add one final comment, for the benefit of any prospective Mount Carmel patients. Our beautiful baby girl was born healthy (thankfully) in a very calm, quiet and supportive atmosphere. The care was quite literally first class. Everything was taken care of for us, allowing us to enjoy this fantastic experience. I'd recommend it to anyone and we'll definitely be going there when we decide to have No. 2.

Best of luck.

Delighted it went well for you and this has been the experience of anyone I know who went there too. I agree that there seems a huge amount of reverse snobbery associated with the place which is very unfair.
To sum it up, one of my closest friends is a midwife in the Coombe and says herself she wouldn't use her own hospital for delivery because of the conveyor belt deliveries (she freely admits that labour is actively managed to speed up the numbers), and the crumbling facilities, and plans to attend Mt Carmel when her time comes.

 

[kramer2006]

Congradulations on the birth of your beautiful baby girl, I guess at the end of the day it dosen't matter what hospital a baby is born in. Every nurse, midwife and doctor will do their utmost to safegaurd the health of mother and baby

Delighted it went well for you and this has been the experience of anyone I know who went there too. I agree that there seems a huge amount of reverse snobbery associated with the place which is very unfair.
To sum it up, one of my closest friends is a midwife in the Coombe and says herself she wouldn't use her own hospital for delivery because of the conveyor belt deliveries (she freely admits that labour is actively managed to speed up the numbers), and the crumbling facilities, and plans to attend Mt Carmel when her time comes.

Thanks folks. We're made up.

 

[kramer2006]

Mount Carmel is not a maternity hospital and does not have a neonatal care unit. If there are any complications in relation to the birth, mother and baby will be rushed to a real maternity hospital (e.g. Holles St). Based on the above, I'm amazed that people choose to go to private hospitals like Mount Carmel. If anything goes wrong, it's not the best place to be. Why would a prospective mother (or father) not want to be in the best and safest place possible when their child is born?

Wrong. This is the sort of ignorance that has been alluded to many times in this thread and elsewhere. Pat, you seem to be just passing on hearsay here and perpetuating myths that might give a good hospital a bad name...

Mount Carmel is not a maternity hospital

Yes it is. It's not solely a maternity hospital. Mount Carmel has delivered, I'm guessing, at least tens of thousands of babies over the years.

Mount Carmel ... does not have a neonatal care unit.

Wrong again, Pat. From Mount Carmel's own website:

The Special Care Baby Unit - also known as the Neonatal Unit
- It has 6 cots, which are split into three areas of Intensive Care, High Dependency and Special Care
- Each area is equipped and heated differently in accordance with the medical needs of its babies
- The Unit cares only for babies with medical problems.

As I (and others) have already pointed out, Mount Carmel is not equipped to deal with a very small number of conditions, which are thankfully a rarity.

If there are any complications in relation to the birth, mother and baby will be rushed to a real maternity hospital

Pat, I give up. I think you need to do a little research... Maybe start with reading this thread from the beginning....

 

[Towger]

Wrong. This is the sort of ignorance that has been alluded to many times in this thread and elsewhere. Pat, you seem to be just passing on hearsay here and perpetuating myths that might give a good hospital a bad name...

Kramer,
I have been told the exact same as Pat (the rushed to Hollis St. part) said by a doctor who works there.

 

[pinkyBear]

Hi there,

Private hospitals would not have specialists available off call, they do have registrars and the registrars will do a full round before leaving the hospital grounds.

Public hospitals, have interns and senior house officers available inhouse outside of hours, registrars and consultants are available however they would not be in campus.

The above does not mean private hospitals provide a poorer standars of care, as most of us know the majority of the care is done by the nursing staff. I would not have an issue attending a private hospital over public, I worked in both over the years..

Where a transfer occurs, and they do, it is because a baby needs specilist care or possible surgery. If I was admitted to tallaght with a head injury I would be transfered to Beaumont Hospital because it specialises in Neurology. Simple as.

Public/Private is a personal choice, Mt. Carmel would not be in operation if there were poor standards and high mortality rates.

P..

 

[MelF]

Kramer,
I have been told the exact same as Pat (the rished to Hollis St. part) said by a doctor who works there.

This is correct but ONLY for deliveries before 32 weeks and is the same for any other non-maternity-only-hospitals anywhere in the country. And yes they do have a neonatal unit and one of my friends babies was in it and all went fine.

 

[MelF]

Hi there,

Private hospitals would not have specialists available off call, they do have registrars and the registrars will do a full round before leaving the hospital grounds.

Public hospitals, have interns and senior house officers available inhouse outside of hours, registrars and consultants are available however they would not be in campus.

The above does not mean private hospitals provide a poorer standars of care, as most of us know the majority of the care is done by the nursing staff. I would not have an issue attending a private hospital over public, I worked in both over the years..

Where a transfer occurs, and they do, it is because a baby needs specilist care or possible surgery. If I was admitted to tallaght with a head injury I would be transfered to Beaumont Hospital because it specialises in Neurology. Simple as.

Public/Private is a personal choice, Mt. Carmel would not be in operation if there were poor standards and high mortality rates.

P..

Excellent post.

 

[kramer2006]

Kramer,
I have been told the exact same as Pat (the rushed to Hollis St. part) said by a doctor who works there.

Hi Towger. Will you clarify what this doctor told you? He apparently told you that:

Mount Carmel is not a maternity hospital and does not have a neonatal care unit. If there are any complications in relation to the birth, mother and baby will be rushed to a real maternity hospital (e.g. Holles St).

???

Pat Bateman is implying that if there are ANY complications then the baby will be shipped out of Mount Carmel. It is highly irresponsible to suggest this and might panic any expectant parents reading this guff...

 

[kramer2006]

Excellent post.

Agreed. PinkyBear has given us some facts in her post, and not the kind of "tittle-tattle" that Pat Bateman decided would be worth passing on....

 

[MrEBear]

Hi, my sister had he baby in the Rotunda two weeks ago after being diagnosed with the extremely rare HELP syndrome. This codition is one of the hardest to diagnose as it's symptoms are similar to those that can regularly occur during pregnancy. After delivering the baby 5 weeks premature by emergancey CS the doctors managed to save the lives of both mother and child. For this reason alone I would recommend the Rotunda as the staff took great care of them both and had the skills and Knowledge needed when things turned bad.

Hope this helps and best of luck with the baby

 

[pinkyBear]

Hi there, the rotunda and hollis street are both excellent hospitals. There is a preconception that public hospitals provide a poorer service than private hospitals. That's not true at all, the problem with the public system is not the hospital as such but getting access to the hospital service.

 

[Mpsox]

Been to the Coombe twice, and whilst I can't fault the medical care or staff, we were left with the impression of a cold clinical soulless factory and their emergency waiting room has to be one of the most unwelcoming you can find.

One thing you should consider when choosing is what your potential route could be and the traffic, especially in rush hour. Strange as it may sound, when we had Number 1, we were living in Naas and it was quicker to get to Kilkenny then to get to Hollis Street or the Coombe during rush hour. We had the little un in Kilkenny and by and large couldn't fault them. Mrs Sox had a difficult 18 hours of it and even though we were public, the consultant who was there at the start, came in from home at the end (when there were issues), even though there was another doctor there as well.

I have heard (and I don't know if this is true) that Mount Carmel will not deal with premature births prior to 30 weeks, that might be worth checking out, just in case. Other thing to bear in mind is if the medical care is more or less the same, (and for most things it will be), is it worth paying a few thousand euro for more certainty around appointements and a private room for the couple of days you will actually be in there? I remain to be convinced that it is.

 

[kramer2006]

... if the medical care is more or less the same, (and for most things it will be), is it worth paying a few thousand euro for more certainty around appointements....?

It has a great deal of value if you're juggling maternity/paternity with a busy career. It is perfectly possible to combine both. Going private allows you to do this more easily.

... and a private room for the couple of days you will actually be in there?

That all depends on the person. My wife certainly valued having her own room for 3 nights and the "peace and quiet" following the birth.

There are other factors in choosing private over public. I'll give you some of our reasons:

• location - the private hospital in question might simply be "handier" for some people.
• we got many recommendations for our obstetrician who practices at MC, and who also delivered some of my sibling's babies
• great support for breast-feeding - dedicated lactation nurse, advice on-demand and no waiting around
• nurses on-call - we were never waiting long than 30 seconds for a nurse (for pain relief etc.)
• no queues - if you're the type of person who enjoys waiting hours on end to see a doctor/nurse, have at it...
• seeing the same consultant every time in the leadup to the birth is hugely reassuring to a first-time mother. My wife built up a relationship with our consultant during her pregnancy and was hugely reassured by him/her attending the birth.
• flexible visiting hours - I could visit my wife at any time during the day, and for as long as I wanted. This meant I got to spend plenty of time with our newborn during the first 3 days of her life. You can also specify "no visitors", which the nurses will take care of on your behalf.
• the calm atmosphere I alluded to earlier
• 6 weeks aftercare - including a 24-hour telephone advice service (manned by the very nurses who took care of our baby while she was in hospital) and access to their clinic.

 

[Mpsox]

There are other factors in choosing private over public. I'll give you some of our reasons:

• location - the private hospital in question might simply be "handier" for some people.
• we got many recommendations for our obstetrician who practices at MC, and who also delivered some of my sibling's babies
• great support for breast-feeding - dedicated lactation nurse, advice on-demand and no waiting around
• nurses on-call - we were never waiting long than 30 seconds for a nurse (for pain relief etc.)
• no queues - if you're the type of person who enjoys waiting hours on end to see a doctor/nurse, have at it...
• seeing the same consultant every time in the leadup to the birth is hugely reassuring to a first-time mother. My wife built up a relationship with our consultant during her pregnancy and was hugely reassured by him/her attending the birth.
• flexible visiting hours - I could visit my wife at any time during the day, and for as long as I wanted. This meant I got to spend plenty of time with our newborn during the first 3 days of her life. You can also specify "no visitors", which the nurses will take care of on your behalf.
• the calm atmosphere I alluded to earlier
• 6 weeks aftercare - including a 24-hour telephone advice service (manned by the very nurses who took care of our baby while she was in hospital) and access to their clinic.

Absolutely agree on location, it's crucial, last thing you need is to be stuck in traffic trying to get there. We found a country hospital to be much calmer then the city equivalents and there were no restrictions on visiting by myself either. Queues for scans etc weren't too bad, we were given a time and I don't think we were ever more then 30 minute delayed in there.

I'd be a bit wary on a recommendation from a doctor who also happens to work there though. He's hardly likely to say it's rubbish.

 

[kramer2006]

Hi there, the rotunda and hollis street are both excellent hospitals. There is a preconception that public hospitals provide a poorer service than private hospitals. That's not true at all, the problem with the public system is not the hospital as such but getting access to the hospital service.

With respect, pinkyBear, you're just playing with words there. Being unable to gain access to the hospital's services itself means poor service.

(that sounds like the kind of excuse Mary Harney has been attempting to dupe the public with over the last few years...... sorry.)

 

[kramer2006]

Absolutely agree on location, it's crucial, last thing you need is to be stuck in traffic trying to get there.

Definitely. Important for subsequent pregnancies if the mother has a "fast" labour on her first. I know several women who are.

 

[Pat Bateman]

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[Brighid]

+ 1Pat and I speak as a former midwife with 100 + years experience!!

 

[MelF]

Some people seem to wear Mount Carmel like a Gucci bag draped over their shoulder...others who do a bit of research and speak with the experts ensure that they attend a maternity hospital which has the facilities to deliver the best possible care to both mother and baby regardless of the circumstances.

It's simple really. Ask any doctor whether Mount Carmel or Holles Street is the better option and they'll ALL opt for the latter.

Choosing a maternity hospital shouldn't be about impressing the ladies over coffee up in Dundrum Shopping Centre...it should be about obtaining the best possible care for both mother and baby.

Oh man, this is such your typical blinkered Irish begrudgers' opinion and paying no heed to any of the facts that were put forward in this thread. If Mt Carmel wasn't a private hospital would you still have such a problem with it?

 

[Pat Bateman]

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