which hospital would you recommend out of St MARYS'S HOSPITAL PADDINGTON AND UCL HOSPITAL AT EUSTON LONDON

[Laylaj1]

I was wondering if anyone can help me i am 6/7weeks pregnant and i still have not been referred to a hospital and i have a week to give an answer to my GP or make a self referral to one of these hospitals. I live quite close to both these hospitals as i am based in kilburn, i would prefer St Marys as i was born there :) and just thought it be nice if i have baby there. However i am hearing unfortunate bad experiences from mothers who have given birth at this hospital, UCL hospital at euston seems nice in the sense of cleanliness i've been there before but have not really heard or read about anyones experience giving birth at this hospital. So i would really really appreciate it if anyone can help me with this... just a bit confused really and at the end of the day its just depends on the individuals experience and not entirely the hospitals. thanks so much. :)

Hi Layla - I haven't heard anything about the other one but am booked at UCH for my second. I have friends who have given birth here and all seems positive and it is definitely lovely and shiny. You get a more thorough and medical-ised experience I believe (for example the scans are very thorough and take 90 minutes which is longer than other places I think) which may be a good thing or not!
The antenatal set up is a bit shambolic - when I went for my first appointment I and other women waited in the wrong waiting room for an hour because the receptionist had not turned up and unlocked the door to the right one and I have had blood tests had to be repeated cause of labelling issues. However all the staff have been niceand Ive never had to wait too long.
I would say that if there's not much to choose between then location should be an important consideration (you may end up going there a lot, plus family visiting etc) and also not to be too swayed by other people's experiences - everyone's is going to be different wherever you are. Also remember post natal care in most places is going to be crap!

I gave birth at St Mary's. I didn't have any problem with the ante-natal care, staff all efficient and nice. Our aim was to deliver in the birthing centre, which is absolutely lovely and lovely staff. The last few weeks of ante-natal appointments are there so you get to know the place and the staff. I did start off at the birthing centre but DD got stuck so had to be transferred to the delivery suite which, to be honest, is not a pretty place. But staff did their job and got baby out which is what it's all about of course! Post-natal care is a different story, basically it didn't happen but think this fairly common.

I gave birth at UCH.

Antenatal care was good, but shambolic in terms of bookings/appointments - receptionists were hopeless. If you can arrange antenatal through your GP, this seems a much better way of doing it (that I wasn't aware of).

Birth experience at UCH however could not have been better - tons of staff, no waiting for anything, excellent cleanliness, good breastfeeding help once DD was born. I was in the labour ward because I wanted an epidural from the outset, but I have also heard very good things about the birth centre at UCH.

So overall, I would recommend it.

I had ds at st mary's nearly 5 years ago. I'm high risk and an and labour ward were great post natal a different story. I then tried uch 2 yrs later. Didn't get very far cos I mc'd but an care was shambolic to the extent that it felt like a clinical meg case waiting to happen. I then got pg with dts 2 yrs later and tried st mary's again. An and labour still good but post natal massive improvement . Culturally it felt like the staff with a few exceptions on nights were actively trying to help rather than obstruct. No difficulty getting meals even when running Btwn pn and scbu , sterile wipes all over the place. Still not always perfect and it was an improvement cos this time I was post vbac not emcs plus you know more what you can ask for and get. I'd definitely recommend it and birth centre looks lovely if you Di get to use it.

Sorry about phone typos