Best hospital to have c-section.

[HopeCalvary]

This week my local hospital was slammed and criticised by inspectors for patient care being far below standards. It made the front of the local paper.

I have witnessed this myself, having a third/fourth degree tear which was never seen to, and having to wait two years for surgery to repair the damage. Whilst in hospital, I have other stories about patient care, which because I'm preggers, can't be bothered to go into (that's one of my symptoms when I'm preggers, I'm so much more to the point lol)

To the point. Does anyone know of any good hospitals in the south east or london area for c-sections? I just don't want to go through the same bad experiences again!

Thanks.

I've had a section at St Georges Tooting. No complaints from me, post natal care leaves a little to be desired though. Similar reports from my NCT friends who also had cs's there.

Thankyou, headfairy :) How bad was the patient care? Has anyone had a good experience anywhere? I literally almost legged it with my baby, only I couldn't straighten my back to stand, so I wouldn't have got very far.

I've heard excellent things about King's.

Oh no, I've just read loads of bad stuff on Kings! lol

I had an ELCS at Kings last year and will be having another there this year. The actual csection was amazingly brilliant and the cut has healed fab. Because the post-natal ward was full I was put in the ante-natal - which was good. Quiet and I could have as many vistors I wanted for as long as I wanted. With one notable exception all the MW were horrible and hopeless and the nurse/MW tried to give me too strong a dosage blood thinner injection - which I spotted and stopped. Their discharge process was atrocious as well - but all in all it was only 48 hours and I could live with it.

when I say the post natal care wasn't great, I mean it's a really big busy hospital, the wards are chock full and it's hot and noisy in there. The staff are brilliant but rushed off their feet. I did have a lovely mw sit with me for an hour the second night when I was trying to feed ds, but to be honest I didn't see the same face twice. The food is dreadful, but they've opened an M&S food downstairs in reception so I'd say anyone coming to visit you has to buy you something nice and appetising from there first!

DS was my first so I didn't really have anything to compare with. I didn't think at the time "God this is terrible", I did think it was pretty noisy on that ward but then it's full of newborn babies so I didn't expect any different. The showers weren't luxury, pretty small and old but as far as I could tell, clean.

It was only when I went for my second cs at a different hospital (East Surrey) that I realised the postnatal ward was so awful at George's. At East Surrey the rooms are much much larger with far fewer beds in so that bit of space means it feels less noisy. There were only four of us in a huge room. There was also a seperate dining room with a tv in which was really nice. It felt so good to get out of bed and sit somewhere that wasn't my bed. The food was pretty good aswell, they came around with menu cards and you could choose between three or four things, most of which were pretty decent for mass catering.

The mws were obviously able to spend much more time with each person too, at the change of each shift the lead mw went round to every bed and introduced herself and had a good ten min chat with every mother about any concerns they had. It was also nice to see the same faces coming back for their next shift. It was great to be able to see someone on day 3 that I'd seen on day 1, it was lovely to have someone recognise me and say "oooh aren't you doing well?" or something similar. They knew all the mothers and babies and took real care getting to know everyone, mostly because they had the time to do so.

Oh and my cs scar was much neater after my cs at East Surrey, at George's they left it looking pretty messy. Nothing horrendous but it was noticeably neater second time around :o

I have done Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich, Kings and Chelsea and Westminster.

Queen Elizabeth: Never again. It was a natural birth but they screwed up and I ended up in for 3 nights later on with a post partum infection. Really opened my eyes as to how under-resourced they are and many of the patients were rude and selfish too.

Kings: Actual emergency c-section (2.5 years ago) was good, post-natal ward - never again. Some lovely midwives especially on labour ward, but the awful ones ruined it.

Chelsea and Westminster: Very happy indeed with my ELCS there 3 weeks ago. Even the postnatal ward was tolerable and the staff generally all very nice.

Depends on your surgeon, surely?

Thank you all so much for your replies. I will let you know where I go and what my experience is xx

Haven't had a cs there but was recently in William Harvey in Ashford and it seemed fab. I was 21w and having tightening and sickness, dehydration etc and the mws were fab. There were lots of single rooms and the ward was made up of rooms with four beds in each. It was clean and the care I received was really good. Might be a bit far to travel?