I gave birth at Barnet in December 2020.
Looking at my antenatal group specifically, we pretty much all had a traumatic experience. Of the 6 of us who gave birth at Barnet, between us we had 5 epidurals, 3 emergency sections, 2 episiotomies, 1 with forceps. Which I believe is much higher than the average rate of intervention. We were all low risk. At least one person is likely to need further surgery following a complication with their c section.
And as for me, I was repeatedly told I couldn’t possibly be in labour despite having contractions every 3 minutes and was forced to be in agony with no pain relief (not even gas and air) for hours until I was 8cm dilated and was screaming in pain. I was refused examinations for hours and my premature son wasn’t monitored for the majority of labour, which is pretty dangerous.
The postnatal care is also awful. They refused to let me have syringes to give colostrum for my premature son, resulting in me being forced to bottle feed despite wanting to breastfeed.
However, I also know someone who had the most traumatic birth I have heard of at Watford in Autumn 2020. I believe she had repeated botched forceps followed by an emergency c section, basically shoving the baby back in and dragging him out backwards though the c section.
I would avoid both to be honest.