king's college hospital now on youtube

[MiauMau]

Has anyone seen this? I went to my 34 weeks appointment and the midwife told me to watch it.

Is it accurate or the camera angle in both prenatal and postnatal is just picking up the one lady?

I was a bit concerned by the bit when the midwife was talking about monitoring. She just said it's Doppler if you're low risk, standard belt hooked up to a machine if you're high risk but I've read they also have wireless waterproof monitors so even if you're high risk you can move around in labour and even have a water birth. I wonder why this wasn't in the video.

mmm, not enough time? You'd think that this would be an important thing to add.

I've had both my children at Kings, the youngest only 17 days ago :)
I can't fault the care I received throughout both pregnancies and births - the first one was uncomplicated until 40 weeks when I developed preeclampsia and ended up having an EMCS after 8 days of failed inductions on the labour ward, the second one was more difficult with gestational diabetes, monitoring for suspected PE again and then an elective section which ended up in a blood pressure crash and then a PPH! So I reckon I've probably used the services on offer there to the absolute max, but I have always been impressed at how lovely and supportive everyone there is from consultant level right down to the support workers on the ward. Even the food is ok on the labour ward!

Wow zgaze that sounds really reassuring, I'm now 34+3 and the hospital is one of those things that is constantly on my mind. Especially now that the midwife has already started talking about contractions and calling the labour ward

I'd second the good experience at Kings. Had DD there three months ago and received excellent care before and after. Lovely people, very responsive. The midwives looking after me during labour were incredible.

Thank you mpops one thing that is worrying me is that we don't have car therefore we're not going to buy a baby car seat. does anyone know if they give out the number of cabs that have them at the hospital? or do you ladies know of ay cab companies that have baby car seats?

Could you borrow one from a friend? That's what we did as I was worried about hygiene. I'll ask around about cabs.

Thank you, that's very kind of you. Unfortunately the few friends that I have with kids won't be able to lend me their car seats as their own baby's are still quite small.

It's only for a few hours though, isn't it? When you're discharged from hospital it usually takes a few hours so you could ask a friend if they could drop their car seat off at Kings for you to use and then you could return it. Just as an alternative in case you can't find a taxi firm that has car seats.

Maybe you could give these cab companies a ring to see if they can help (they all mention providing baby car seats on their websites):

www.ladyminicabs.co.uk/pages/main.html
www.londonblack-cab.com/aboutus.html
www.theairporttransfer.com

Make sure to specify it's for a newborn!

King's College Hospital are excellent. I would not have my DS now if it wasn't for them. Brilliant staff and exceptional care.

Can you organise a black cab and take the baby home in a pram? We don't have a car and that was what the hospital (not King's but also central London) advised us to do. The doors swing open extra wide (for wheelchairs) and then the pram is strapped in like a wheelchair to the panel between the drivers and the passengers. We confirmed that this was ok the next time we caught a cab and the driver was totally fine with the suggestion.

Thank you all for your help! :)
ghislaine I'm not a fan of prams to be honest, so for now we're not going to get one. But, thank you for your idea.

I also had one of my babies at King's,it was fab.DS was in SCBU for a week and we were well looked after.
I had my first baby at lewisham and it was awful.

My LO was born at Kings 7 weeks ago. I was aiming for a homebirth but ending up in hospital turned out to be a very positive experience.

I had to be constantly monitored due to meconium in the waters but I had the wireless monitor so could still spend time in the birth pool. I suspect they don't mention this as standard because there aren't enough to guarantee you could have one. There wasn't a wireless monitor in my room but my midwife went and found me one.

Thank you mashpot. hmmm, interesting. I just had a consultant appointment. I'm hoping to have a VBAC which they are encouraging, but she said I might decide to go for a caesarean because of the continuous monitoring and having to be on the bed throughout. I asked about the wireless monitors and she said 'Oh no, we don't have those here' - wtf? Maybe they've got rid of them? Bizarre. But she seemed to think they'd never had them.

It is a great hospital though, I definitely recommend them (and I am going to keep pestering them about those bloody monitors!)

Oh and I have a King's VBAC checklist in my notes which says 'consider wireless telemetry', ie wireless monitors. Curiouser and curiouser! It's a conspiracy, I tell you!

The consultant doesn't know what she's talking about!

However, even without the wireless monitor you don't need to be 'on' the bed. I used the wireless monitor in the pool but then went back to the usual monitor (just because the wireless one kept slipping whereas the normal one didn't) but I spent zero time on my back. I kneeled on the bed/over the bed/spent lots of time on a ball etc.

Good luck

mashpot how's the pre and post natal care? Was it really packed or did you get some privacy? Is there a nice waiting room?
Sorry for all the questions :)

Thanks again mash, that's really reassuring. I just have a vision of being like the women on one born every minute who are flat on their backs on the bed. I can just sense how painful that would be. I really want to use a birthing ball as well so that's a relief.

No problem frustrated.

miau I can't comment on pre-natal care (unless you mean scans, where I found the service excellent) because I was straight into a delivery room when I arrived at hospital.

I found the post natal care excellent but from people that I know I think the experience of post natal is more mixed. The ward is busy with people coming and going at all hours so it is quite noisy and can be difficult to sleep - plus you're trying to get to grips with your new baby! But the MWs I met (over 2 nights) were mainly wonderful. However most people don't stay on the ward long so you might be out of there within hours.

mashpot What I meant pre natal was when you first get there... Sorry for not explaining myself properly :)
I also found them excellent, especially the sonographer team, they were all awesome and very competent. I found that the midwives at the midwife house are a bit of a mix bag really, ranging from really nice but, scared of blood to really competent but totally unsympathetic (been seen by 4 midwives up to now).