Giving birth at King's College Hospital (London)

[MLWfirsttimemum]

Any experience (good or bad) of giving birth at King's College Hospital (London)? Its our local hospital and we've been happy with the prenatal scans etc but it seems very very busy and would like to hear from anyone who has actually given birth there....

[peachsmuggler]

Hiya

I had dd there in March and I have to say I was very impressed. I had a two day labour which ended with an epidural and forceps and I had to be induced in the middle of it as contractions had disappeared. As a result of lots of different medical professionals and they were all great. I thought the room was birthing room was pretty nice as was the ward after where I stayed for one night. I couldn't fault the staff really especially the midwives. We had 3 different shifts and they were all great. We also had a student midwife who was teh best of the lot. The care afterwards in the ward was also good. We had been warned that it woudl be very busy but they came round to see you a lot and came quickly if you rang the bell. I know a few other people who had their babies there and they also thought it was pretty good.

[edd021208]

I had ds there and I had a pretty mixed experience. The midwives who were with me during the very very long labour and who actually delivered my baby were super-nice and considerate. However, the midwives on the post-n ward were pretty brutal and in general I found Kings to be fairly chaotic and dirty.
I think you are right to feel concerned about the busyness - I asked for an epidural SIX hours before actually receiving one as the anaethesists were so busy! Honestly, if you want an epidural you want it asap! Also, a midwife forgot to switch off my drip so I was numb down one side for hours after the baby was born and could barely hold him and there was blood all over the bathroom floor that wasn't cleaned up for 2 hours after someone being told about it. I could go on but maybe you get the picture - basically you have to sort of fend for yourself but if you get the right midwives, it makes it all ok!

[kangel]

Hi,

I had my DS there in December '05, a while ago so things could well have changed. I found the whole experience very traumatic from the start. I was fobbed off by my Midwife who was nothing to do with Kings but because of this I turned up already pushing. I'd had no drugs and was asking for Gas & Air to be told there was none on tap in the room they put me in so they ran off trying to find some. They eventually turned up with a canister which they could not get into, by the time they did I got about 2-3 puffs before being taken in for and emergency cs.

I cannot fault the surgeons at all, they were all fantastic and made me feel at ease even with the major complications with my cs.

However my aftercare was shocking! There were 2 nurses covering 40 women. My DH had to change me and my bedding before he left that evening because no-one turned up to do it and he refused to leave me in the state I was in. He was even pointed in the direction to the supplies cupboard to get the things he needed himself. I was not checked on and no observations were done from at all throughout the whole first night even though my ds was screaming all night and I had just had major complicated surgery and lost alot of blood.

To cut an already long story short, my DH had to do everything that the nurses should have been doing - all the changing etc. The only time I saw the nurses was when they came round to give me my meds.

The reason my DS was screaming was because he was starving as I was attempting to bf him with no guidance which I finally receieved on the morning of day 3!

The reason for this aftercare was apparently, we were told, because it was Christmas.

Surgeons were once again fantastic though!