KINGS vs MAYDAY vs ST GEORGES

[nurse95]

I am pregnant with my first baby and have just visited my GP. Due to the baby boom at the moment it is unlikely that I will be accepted at St Georges or St Thomas' which is where I had thought I would like to go to. She has referred me to St Georges anyway and i will find out in a couple of weeks if I am accepted.

I am now worried about where to go to if I'm not accepted. Should I push for St Georges - have any of you got good/bad experiences. If I can't get in there should I go to Kings? I have heard bad things of Kings and Mayday and now am in a fluster.

Any advice would be truly appreciated.

Thank you
First time Mum!

I have given birth at both Kings (2yrs ago) and Mayday (11wks ago). No experience of St. George's.

We chose Kings with DS1 because it had the better reputation of the two. Prenatal care was based very far away, not very good either (different midwives every time, they didn't know that DS was breech until 41wks and we only discovered it a few hours before I went into labour!) Scans at the hospital were always very over-crowded and we had to wait hours after our appointment times. C-Section was successful but ward was over-crowded and we got put pretty much alone in pre-natal ward so I got no support with BF and ended up FF very quickly.

We chose Mayday for DS2 because the prenatal care was offered through our GP rather than miles away with Kings. Scans were always on time and not busy, staff were really nice and supportive of my VBAC and BF plans. Birthcentre was not available to me but is there - Labour Ward was not busy on the day, midwives were excellent and I had a very successful, totally intervention-free VBAC. Sent home within a few hours, stitches healed brilliantly.

Mayday has had a lot of bad press but if we ever have DC3, I would choose it over Kings.

OP, what bad things have you heard about Kings?? I am due to have my baby there in...well, anytime now really. I really hope it turns out to be a good experience, wasn't that impressed when we went on the labour ward tour, but at this point I don't have a choice

I'm due on Weds and hopefully giving birth in the Carmen Suite at St.George's. So far the midwifery care has been fantastic.

Good luck!

Can't fault St Gs except the parking situation is a nightmare/expensive! Have delivered here twice previously and the care has been outstanding. Booked here again and due to have my twins here any day now.

I have no experience of Kings.

I have been under Mayday or Croydon University I think its called now, twice. Fine for antenatal care, very thorough and couldn't fault it. I never delivered here as have always been transferred to St Gs due to high risk labours and my care is completely under St Gs with twin pregnancy. My sister has a c-sec in October at Mayday and all was fine, just very slow when you ring the bell which is obviously a pain when you can't move after your section!

The main gripe is always lack of midwives on the post natal wards and this seems to be across the board.

I had DD at King's 2 years ago & it was fine. I booked with Kings because their homebirth team is great (they have specific homebirth midwives & you see the same midwife throughout your pregnancy & hopefully at the birth). Even though we transferred from home to hospital the midwife stayed with us the whole time (a 16 hr shift for her I guess).

I've booked with Kings again.

I wasn't hugely impressed with Kings - I had DC2 there in November 2008. I had to see the hospital midwives antenatally and whilst some were okay, some most definitely were not and I had to wonder why they were in the profession. The one who did my booking in couldn't even get my skin colour right on the computer, let alone any of my past obstetric history. I'd also get letters several days after appointments informing me of said appointments.

On the big day though I had a couple of lovely, lovely midwives who I cannot praise enough. Just a shame I'd encountered an awful one ten days earlier when I'd had PTL and she wasn't remotely interested when I said I thought my hindwaters had gone (it was later proven that they had) and then a different set had a go at me later for not saving the sheets I'd been on (with the waters on) even though I'd pestered the first awful midwife to do so.

I had a failed induction and c-section at 35 weeks and can't fault anything there aside from doctors who could never agree with each other over anything!

The postnatal ward was a nightmare though, including yet another awful midwife who told me to pull myself together and not be so stupid when I was in tears on day two. If she'd bothered to listen for an instant she'd have found out I'd nearly lost my daughter to incompetent cervix four months previously and had spent the pregnancy on tenterhooks not knowing if she would make it, and had lost my dad suddenly five months earlier and it had all come to a head in this stinking hot (in November!) shared ward with no air or natural light and being unable to sleep due to all the noise. Never mind the baby or the major operation.

Oh, and my baby got fed formula after a midwife made a mistake with labelling bottles - it should have been donor milk as I am very passionate about exclusive breastfeeding with my babies. She had low blood sugar so we had to supplement but one lovely midwife had found me donor milk which I'd been using. It was 2am and I asked the horrible midwife if she was sure the latest bottle was donor milk and she said it was (I don't even know what formula looks like up close!) - it wasn't until the next day that different midwives checked again for me and the mistake was spotted.

Thank goodness for a lovely midwife the next day who saw the state I was in and got me a window bay and took extra care of me.

Not going back to Kings. They are great for high risk, especially the fetal medicine centre there (would trust them with anything) but for the routine bits? Bleh. No thank you, not again. As wonderful as some of the midwives were, I don't fancy playing midwife lottery again either.

Sorry for the essay - once I got started and all that..! I know when I read these posts I like to see exactly what the problems were with a place so I can decide for myself.

I had a positive experience of the Mayday. The size is easier to manage compared to Kings, where I had my initial scans and would always wait for ages and then the docs always seemed to be in a bad mood.

The Mayday staff were friendly and supportive and the community mw's (bar one dodgy one) were amazing. I had complications afterwards and the Mayday were straight on it suggesting surgery, whereas someone I knew with the same issues/same time waited 6 weeks at kings. I also loved the Mayday food - very comforting!

Thanks for all your comments. It's definitely not an easy decision. Lets hope I get accepted at Georges.

I had this choice 2 years ago and went for Georges as it was easiest to get to and I knew it already.
All three are large and busy - the verdict of most people I knew who gave birth at them was delivery is great, postnatal care is an afterthought.

In retrospect, if your address or GP is in one PCT, it may help a lot to give birth in the same one. If you give birth in one borough, live in another, and have a GP in a third (and then register the baby with a different GP near your house), it creates confusion. Not a reason not to do it, but be aware that having to chase up appts, home visits etc will be required to be done by you even more than usual!

I gave birth on the Carmen Suite at St George's in September and received excellent care.

The only issue was that it was very busy and I almost didn't get in.

I gave birth at Kings last month and can't fault the care at all. Great antenatal care, detailed scans and further support if needed.

I had a great midwife during birth, immediate skin on skin contact, breast feeding advice and support and all round an amazing experience. I'll definately be there for next one!

bump

I second the bump...I'm giving birth at Kings any day now and would love to hear what others have recently experienced.

Im having my third at St Georges in July. I also work here so it was easier for me with regards appointments etc.
I have to say though, it is really busy. I have waited over an hour everytime for MW appointments so far and I have requested first one of the day too !
I waited nearly two hours for my 12 week scan. As I say I work here so i know that we are totally over run at the minute but the care is good, when you finally get seen !

I have also requested the Carmen Suite but the beds are very limited so its a fingers crossed situation !

Don't know where you live, but I had my first DD at St George's a couple of years ago and if you are reasonably low risk, then the care isn't that good. It also seems to close a lot at the moment due to being over subscribed. I would highly recommend the birth centre at St Heliers. Had DD2 there a month ago and was fantastic.

I would not recommend St George's and certainly not for a first baby.

They have a great reputation based on an amazing paediatric intensive care unit (and that really is wonderful) but the obstetric care is not that great and they certainly do not seem very caring. With our second son who was born there (1st at Epsom) it was all about what they could write in the notes to justify why they did not have a labour ward room for us, rather than best care for my wife and baby. I could give you more details but suffice it to say we were in a side room (nice view) throughout the labour until an obstetrician rushed in at the last moment, decided to have a review of the file during the pushing stage, and then an unseemly (and probably unnecessary (had the obstetrician not forced my wife to changge positions at a critical time) rush to theatre for a forceps delivery.

And, as for skin to skin, I had to manouevre our hungry newborn onto my wife (she was full of drips at this point) as the midwife was too busy writing up the notes of the labour which she had not been present for.

There were a couple of mitigating circumstances. We did have a private midwife with us so they probably felt we could look after ourselves a bit more (which was true). On the other hand a private midwife is (officially) only there as an advocate and is actually not allowed to perform any procedures. Also, apparently, there had been a major haemmorhage which required all hands on deck.

Net/net, though, not good enough. It was meant to be a "high risk" labour as it was a VBAC and that means we should have been looked after regardless.

Had DS at Kings in Sept and it was fine. Antenatal care was a bit random and rarely saw same midwife twice, but scans were excellent. They were able to tell he was a boy at 12 weeks!

Lovely midwife on the big day. Was induced and that was handled v well. Skin-to-skin and BF support after the birth. Suspect it depends on which midwife you get.

Oh, and the food was pretty good, for hospital food!

Both my DC's were born at St Georges (in the last 2 years)

With both, the antenatel care was fine and for my first I had extra scans as there were some anomolies they wanted to montitor. All very organised and got free 3D pictures by the kind consultant!

In terms of my experience of giving birth:

DC1 - got "stuck" in the midwife led Carmen Suite as no beds down on the labour ward. This meant that I waited 9 hours for an epidural. The midwifes on the Carmen Suite were great though, as too were those on the main labour ward. Postnatel ward was grim but this seems to be the general experience of all my friends who have had babies in large London hospitals.

DC2 - Again turned up and they had no beds on the labour ward so got transfered up to the Carmen Suite. In the end had a very fast labour so no time for any drugs anyway! Again, Midwifes fab but postnatel ward MUCH better in the Carmen Suite.

In summary, St Georges v busy so if you want an epidural you might have to wait for a bed to come available i.e. if they are busy they will send you upstairs and you might get stuck up there (I spent a lot of time yelling "but I don't want a drug free labour!!")

Had ELCS 8 weeks ago at St George's.

Antenatal care was reasonable at first - then I needed to be referred to mental health team and once I got on their books I was very well looked after.

C section was fine. Post natal was a nightmare, wasn't shown how to move my bed and the buzzer to call midwives was constantly "tidied away" out of my reach so I couldn't call anyone. Also, I caught one of the midwives complaining about me ("Is that f*ing bed 22 again?! Silly bitch" etc etc) which really upset me.

But then it was Christmas Day so perhaps they had the worst agency staff they could find on shift.

Great. Overdue and giving birth to my first child at St.G's. Had been quite calm, not so sure now. Shouldn't have opened the thread again

Cocoa,

I think it is quite random really. On a quiet day, I am sure they are excellent. And, if it does come to the crunch for either you or your baby, I think they are one of the top places to be. The post natal ward is a shocker, though. My wife spent one night there and that was more than enough. It was heated to about 30 degrees (they need to be warm for neonates but not that warm!), overcrowded and not very friendly. And the food is dreadful. However, as I am sure you know by now, St G's has an M&S food on site which is where a lot of people get all their food from.

There does seem to be one theme running through all of the above. They are too busy and cannot accommodate everyone in the labour ward proper. We were in a HDU side room until we ended up in theatre, and that was for a VBAC. I think they owe you a room if you are in established labour. However I suspect they fudge that one.

My wife came in 3-4cms dilated and regular contractions about 5 minutes apart. Four hours later she was examined (waters had broken, and contractions were now 3 minutes) and told she was a "good 4-5". At which point, reasonably enough given the VBAC protocol, we figured she was never going to dilate enough in time to avoid a C section, so asked for a C as soon as possible. At this point the midwife reddened a bit and said it was a "really good 4-5 and the cervix was exceptionally favourable" (what?!). We suspect they neither had a room nor monitoring equipment available and wanted to write in the notes "not in established labour". Sure enough, 2 hours later my wife was "7cm" and another hour later was pushing.

Yep totally agree. I will be having my baby at Georges as I stated earlier and I also work there but its SO overbooked. I feel for the staff actually. There are clearly not enough beds, two many women booked into the same time appointment slot just to get them in etc. I have never known a clinic be allowed to quadruple book so much.
Plus the need for interpreters is massive at Georges which raises the expense and takes all the time. It sometimes does fee like a cattle market.

My first 2 labours were quick so I wasnt on the labour ward too long but being actually on the ward once baby was born was horrid. I discharged myself with DD2 and can see myself doing it again tbh. Too hot, MW's are too busy to help with anyone, No one showed me anything with DD1 and I didnt have a clue. The showers werent woking on the ward either so I had to leave my baby alone while they wheeled me downstairs to use the shower that they insisted I have after delivery !!

Actually I wonder if I can change to St helier !!!

I had DD at Kings Feb 2010 and will be having my next there in July. All the midwives were rubbish but my elective csection was brilliant. All scans were great and post-natally I was put in an ante-natal ward which worked well because it was quiet. Ihave heard dire things about the post-natal ward.

If you are considering Kings, have you thought about Lewisham? It would be about the same distance from Tooting. Despite bad press I had a good experience there in November, can't fault the care I had at all. They have a brand new birth centre attached to the hospital which I have heard good things about, I was on the regular labour ward though. They also have an excellent neenatal unit which my son was in for 5 days, staff there were excellent.

Try visiting all three and see what vibe you get (but not from the person giving the tour as she is usually not the MW you end up getting!) All three are busy, oversubscribed places. Only difference if any is that King's specialises in obstetrics so if you need more specialist medical input for a not straighforward birth (like diabetes, hypertension, SPD, etc) that's the best to go for. Might be worth checking out if there are any good birth centres in the area too, like the one Poppy1969 suggested at Lewisham Hospital. If your doctor and antenatal checks suggest your pregnancy is uncomplicated so far, then a birth centre might be the way to go. But visit first before committing to any particular one. For recent care, a friend delivered at Mayday in 2006 and 2009 and said the care was ok, not brilliant but not terrible. Don't know anyone who delivered at SGH or KCH recently, sorry.