best hospital near N1

[veryworriedme]

does anyone know which is the best one for those with potential dvt problems but also generally? i thought uch but they do not seem to offer a tour which is not very reassuring. When i miscarried a few months ago i went to the homerton and it seemed ok there but then i wasnt in the maternity bit. am 9 weeks now and have not even seen my doctor yet. worrying a bit that i need to have a plan!

[makipuppy]

I was N1 and had ante-natal care at UCL - the midwives were brilliant as far as I could tell and it's in a nice new block with a walk-in EPU. Frankly I would pick it over Homerton.

Take a good book when you go for your scan though...

Make an appt with your doc and they'll arrange your 'booking appt' at the hospital with the midwife, and a 12 week scan (probably combined with a nuchal scan if you choose to have one).

Sorry about your mc and good luck with this pg

[MrsMattie]

You've got the Whittington, Royal Free and UCH all fairly close by. Homerton isn't that far away, either.

UCH has got a good reputation for managing high risk pregnancies.

[audreyraines]

UCH has brand new maternity wing which everyone says is lovely. some people love the care they have gotten and other people say it's a bit patchy and you tend to not have much consistency of care from midwives (ie. you could see a diff person each time and they might not spend much time with you).

whittington is an old hospital, a bit grungy in part, but has a new birth centre. people say all the midwives are excellent and lovely, they consistently get better reports than the UCH ones.

i think either is totally fine, but fwiw i think if i felt that i might have complications, i would go with UCH.

[veryworriedme]

thanks so much everyone, have my doctors appointment on Monday so I can get all set now. good to hear UCH will be ok for complications. do you know if you can just walk in and have a look at the maternity wing? i feel that maybe doing some practical stuff will stop me endlessly worrying about miscarrying again

[becksydee]

hi veryworriedme

i agree that UCH is better than whittington for high risk pregnancies. the new birth centre at the whittington is gorgeous but they won't let you use it if you have any kind of complication (as i found out when i got diagnosed with GD!), the rest of the maternity wing isn't so great. i'm booked into UCH and have a week and a bit til my EDD, overall i've been happy with my antenatal care and the facilities are top notch, although there have been a few rough moments. you'll actually probably get more consistent care because of the potential complications.

if you google for "bloomsbury birthing centre virtual tour" (don't bother trying to look for it via the UCH website, its search function is crap) you'll be able to do a virtual tour of the midwife led birthing centre and a few other bits of the maternity wing, not of the labour ward though unfortunately. you could try ringing and asking?

oh, and the EPU at UCH is fantastic - you can self-refer before midday monday-friday and you'll generally be seen very quickly. i had some bleeding at 9 weeks and they were able to check it out and reassure me, thankfully, and they were really lovely too.

good luck with everything

[veryworriedme]

becksydee - brilliant! just had a look on the virtual tour,why on earth do they make it so difficult to find! wow so you only have a week to go, seems like a lifetime away for me at the moment. good luck!!!!!!!!

[becksydee]

i know, you'd think they'd have an obvious link to it from their maternity services pages but nope! very silly.

once you get past the 1st trimester, the time will fly by, trust me! well, until you get to about 30 weeks anyway and start to feel like a big waddly hippo, then it reeeeaaaally starts dragging again ... at this stage, i would do (almost) anything for this baby to make an appearance!

[itsalwaysthequietones]

Hi veryworried - not sure if you have already made your decision but I had DD1 at UCH and am now booked in to have DC2 there. I'm coming up to 13 weeks.

Had EMCS w/DD1 and have to stay the surgical staff and doctors there were absolutely brilliant, would definitely choose UCH over Whittington if any complications involved.

There were other issues there w/ standard of aftercare when DD was born, which I can go into if you're interested but they haven't stopped me going back. Also quite excited about the new building! Let us know what you decide.

BTW I'm also in N1 and this time around will be seeing a midwife locally - at the New River Green Centre (rather than trekking to UCH each tie) and I think seeing the same person throughout (or one of two at least), which will be great compared to last time where I never saw the same midwife twice.

[veryworriedme]

Hi itsalwaysthequietones - I saw the doctor yesterday and she faxed off the booking for UCH. I was still a bit undecided and so it is good to hear another positive report. New river green would be really handy for me. Do i just ask about that at my booking in appointment? I am so clueless i dont even know when you see the midwife and what for. I take it they are not there for the birth?
What happened with the aftercare?
Also, when did you have your 12 weeks scan (odd question i know!)?
Sorry, questions questions

[shoesies]

Hi veryworried me

I'm 26+6 with my first baby and had the choice of UCH, Whittington, Royal Free or Homerton. We went for UCH and I have to say the care so far has been excellent. I've had two scans, one at 12 weeks and one at 22. Both times the sonographers were absolutely lovely and very patient, answering all my stupid questions! Although (as I believe someone already said - take a book - very long wait times!)
A friend of mine works as a childrens nurse at Great Ormond Street and she was telling me that sadly, in London, the aftercare nearly everywhere for most new mums is pretty bad. The amount of home visits and time you get with health visitors is shocking compared to other places in the UK so I don't think it really makes too much difference which hospital you're in

[becksydee]

veryworriedme - my booking in appointment came through really quickly - within about a week. when you arrive they'll give you your book of maternity notes (which you keep hold of), the inside front cover has a full schedule of the appointments you'll need to go to, what they're for and who they're with. i had my 12 week scan at 12+6 and my 20 week scan at 19+6. as shoesies said, the clinic waiting times (especially for scans) can be pretty bad so make sure you take a book, a drink and some snacks with you!

[itsalwaysthequietones]

veryworried sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. away yesterday and not online today.

I didn't ask specifically for the New River Green practice, I've not been v proactive about the whole thing to be honest. I just received an appointment letter for my first MW appt and it was at NRG, which was a great relief and the MW was really lovely.

Re aftercare, well I honestly don't want to go into detail because it seems a bit negative when I've basically recommended the hospital but when I was there they were massively understaffed, there seemed to be no continuity and I was given tonnes of conflicting advice, also the bathrooms were really dirty, which didn't exactly inspire confidence. But that was in the old building, don't imagine there'll be the same issues in the new one plus the wards are much smaller now, which presumably avoids the situation I was in on a surgical ward with 8 mums and their babies (including a set of twins) none of whom could pick them up because of EMCS and catheters all covered by one very harassed MW.

Having said all that, I was stuck in hospital for a week after CS (9 days in total from before birth) due to complications with me and baby, so I guess I wasn't too well-disposed to the place by the end but as I've said before the care from the doctors was incredible, it was just the MWs and some of the nurses who I felt could have been a lot more helpful.

Had my 12-week scan last week at 11+6 (I'd been booked in later but I'm away on holiday as of tomorrow and asked to bring the appt forward). 20 weeks scan is at 20+6.

One final bit of advice, I'd say really be prepared to shout for what you want. I was so keen not to seem pushy that I basically allowed myself to be bumped to the back of the queue quite a lot (in various ways) when DD was born. Next time around I will be a lot firmer in requesting help/advice/action when I think I need it. If your DP is keen to get involved give him a pep talk about really standing up for you during the birth because sometimes in a v busy hospital you do need to nag a bit.

I'm off on holiday 'til end of Aug but best of luck with your decision and will look out for you in future threads

[itsalwaysthequietones]

veryworried sorry, just re-read both posts and realised I'd been completely contradictory i.e. offering details on aftercare and then saying I didn't want to give them not trying to be contrary just on reflection thought I might make you worry unnecessarily. Mine were a v specific set of circumstances and much of it was probably just bad luck. The most important thing is that you and your baby will always be safe there. The medical care there genuinely is top notch and they are fab in an emergency, they are just v busy.