sorry for the late post - have only just seen this thread. This is really long, sorry. I don't want to be negative and can agree with many of the positive things that have been said on the thread but you did ask for people's experiences of UCH and mine were a bit mixed. I should preface all this by saying that I'm pregnant again and will nonetheless be choosing UCH again, purely on the basis of their emergency care/surgical team etc.
Had DD there end of 2007 so it was the old building and admittedly a lot is improved just by moving away from some of the built-up grime. (I ended up in hospital for a week and when I asked after 5 days whether I could have a bath, MW said "oooh no, I wouldn't do that here, dear. Wait til you get home." Bathrooms were pretty dire.)
I had an e-c-s after failed induction/fetal distress etc and the surgical team were absolutely fantastic. couldn't have hoped for a more efficient, reassuring team and it was such a comfort to know that in an emergency experts were on hand to get the baby out as soon as poss.
But the care before and after the birth (for me, not DD) was pretty atrocious at times. To give a few examples:
- I was very ill with a virus on the first day of induction. Spent hours in the bathroom with serious V&D and although I kept saying I thought something was wrong I kept being told it was normal in labour, there was nothing wrong with me, stop fussing etc. Wasn't til I collapsed and my BP went through the floor and DD's heart rate started to drop that they believed something was wrong and had to put me on a drip and monitor DD constantly.
- Skip forward a couple of days, a couple more cock-ups, a few more failed attempts at progress labour (that bit not their fault at all of course), and a lot of nagging from me and DH to get me a bed on labour ward as promised 24 hrs before and the v grumpy, uncommunicative MW puts the catheter in wrong, which doesn't get noticed until someone new comes on shift.
- after the birth am in pretty hellish ward with nowhere near enough staff to cover it. Angry midwives complaining about being overworked etc. Not allowed to move from bed for 1st night because c-section, see DD rooting, ask MW to pass her to me. MW snaps "she's not crying, there's nothing wrong with her, you can't just keep fussing over them, just leave her". I feel stupid and shut up, DD falls asleep and doesn't feed until the next morning, a day later she's diagnosed with low blood sugar and given a lumber puncture and various other antibiotics in case she has infection when in fact she just hasn't been fed enough. Cue huge guilt from me, really bad start to breastfeeding and a week-long stay in hospital while they check she's ok. Let me reiterate though how good the care of DD was, the doctors were on top of everything.
- towards end of my stay, MW comes to take out my CS stitches, pulls them out and the scar comes open and starts bleeding really quite a lot. Her reaction is "Oh God", thrusts a bit of gauze at me and tells me to hold it over the scar. Then she disappeared. Leaving me, alone, at night, exhausted and v hormonal, watching blood seeping rapidly through the gauze, wondering where the hell she'd got to. A Dr eventually turned up, restitched it and was v reassuring but still...
Anyway, it sounds from other posts as if a lot has improved and I'm sorry if I sound overly negative. I'm not trying to freak anyone out with horror stories and like I say, I will go back there again because the doctors were just brilliant. But what I learnt was that you really have to be prepared to shout to get what you want and also to trust your own instincts. To be fair to them, it's a very busy hospital and they have a lot to cope with. But if you think something is wrong, just make a fuss until someone checks you out, and if you want someone to hand you your baby, keep persisting until they do - it's your baby after all. I was so scared of being the annoying, nagging patient that for the most part I just did as I was told and I don't think I'll be doing that again. I met two other mothers there who I have stayed friends with and their experiences were similar to mine.