Homerton or Royal London Hospital or St. Thomas

[june79]

Hello everyone,

I am 19 weeks PG and would like to decide where to give birth. I am confused between Homerton Hospital, Royal London Hospital or St. Thomas. Pls suggest. I understand that it mostly depends on luck as to how nice midwives I get during my time. I have also heard that RLH will shift to it's new building by March. So it would be a new birth centre but it hardly makes a difference in quality... Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks a lot!

I'm not a midwife but I'm in the trade so to speak. RLH or St Ts, not Homerton. St Ts still good but won't take out of borough women anymore as they got too popular. It depends where you live. I had DD there and they were great in the end, but initially sent me home because they had no beds.

Don't go to Homerton, it's a hovel

They misdiagnosed my dp's meningitis as cluster headaches - twice

Am planning to give birth at the Homerton MLU, and alarmed by this - should be I be considering trying to arrange to do it somewhere else, if I can even do so at 32 weeks?

Hardcheese - that's just our experience, I think that sounded a bit alarmist - I'm sorry

I haven't used homerton since that incident and neither dp nor I would again. I also have no experience of the maternity services there either, so probably shouldn't have commented anyway

It's just my knee-jerk reaction to anyone who mentions the place.

Apologies again if I've worried anyone

I had my babies at St Thomas' and the ant-natal care was wonderful. However, I don't think they take mothers who are out of area. I worked there so could give birth there. My other option was the Royal London- that the maternity ward is names the Mary Celeste says a lot. I didn't like it but surely the new hospital should be shiny and new? However, I have few good words for the post natal ward at St Thomas'...

Thanks for responding mumofjust1 - I can understand why you feel like that, and I can't begin to imagine how awful it must have been. My only non-pregnancy-related contact with the Homerton was with urology, and was really efficient and professional.

I'm just wondering whether I should be investigating other possibilities, and was interested in Homerton responses on this thread - will continue to read.

I used to work at RLH. I'd go for St Thomas.

I just had DS (my second) at Homerton and they were brilliant! I would highly recommend it now. The Birthing Centre and Delivery Ward are brand new - you could have eaten off of the floor in my room. The room in the birthing centre was bigger than my first flat and had everything you could possibly want in labour and more. Midwives were fabulous. I had SPD this pregnancy and I found the interactions with the Physio department excellent as well. Everyone I dealt with was highly professional and usually not much waiting. Postnatal ward is meant to be awful, but that's the same everywhere. Apparently you can pay £70 and get a private room.

It's had loads of investment recently due to the Olympics (it's the official hospital for the event), so it's really changed. Of course I also remember the days when it was a dirty frightening hovel - but I'd urge you to give it a chance now.

Thanks, Hodel - that's very encouraging, especially that you've just had your baby now. (Congratulations on your baby!) I've yet to do the labour ward visit, but the MLU looks great on the website video. I'll try and get a private room, definitely.

I am due to give birth at homerton - two of my neighbours had babies there in last few months and both had really good experiences - echoed everything the poster above said. One neighbour said she was treated very well, given everything she had asked for, spent the whole time in the amazing wet room attached to the birthing room - under huge hot shower, with room to get into all sorts ofp ositions...I also have a friend who is a medical/ health journalist - he says homerton is the best in north london ...I think the new birth unit is a real change from the old system..

Thank a lot everyone! It has been very helpful to hear your experiences. I'll try to get a referral from my GP to shift out from RLH.

I used homerton. The MLU to be precise. It was great. Amazing room, with great facilities, lovely midwife who was hands off when needed and very involved at the key bits. I had a water birth with minimal need for VE. HOWEVER the post natal ward is a pile of shit. Slow, inefficient, failed to diagnose tongue tie, failed to establish breast feeding properly...prob due to tongue tie, midwives seem too busy chatting to discharge you etc. I'd say the delivery bit is really top quality but not the aftercare.

Oh and during ante natal appointments if they think you might benefit from a growth scan etc they just send you straight up, no re booking, seen super quick. I was very impressed by the ante natal care too. Apart from the midwives (and this is not hospital specific I am sure) who rely on anecdote rather than fact...ie. oh yes all my patients deliver after their first sweep. Hmm.

Hi-jacking slightly, but thanks, coraltoes and waterrat. I was freaking out a bit after some other reactions to the Homerton, and wondering if I should rush off and try to transfer. I will add 'CHECK FOR TONGUE TIE' in huge block capitals to my birth plan, be very insistent on seeing a breast feeding counsellor, and attempt to be discharged within ten seconds of delivering. Can I ask whether either of you were able to use birthing pools (ie whether there was a run on them) if you wanted to labour in them, and/or to have private rooms after delivery, if you wanted one? Was wondering whether the postnatal experience would have been massively improved by a bit of space and privacy. Am planning to give birth in the MLU unless anything high-risk goes down before then. Thanks again.

hardcheese I had DS in the birthing pool in the MLU and had to wait about an hour before it was ready. Not sure if I was lucky, as I seem to recall them saying it was a busy day. I was able to be discharged after 6 hours as there were no complications. You have to ask and be insistent if that's what you want. They tried to persuade us to stay overnight in the postnatal ward, but I had heard it was crap and besides we only live a 5 minute drive away. The discharge process was painfully long but they never moved us out of the birthing room... which makes me wonder if some poor woman was waiting for a pool and didn't get it because they were dragging their heels discharging us!

[ As a total aside - DS also had tongue tie (are you me coraltoes?!). HOWEVER I was told that Homerton can't do anything about it anyway. Apparently the only place in London dealing with tongue-tie is King's via referral, and they are overwhelmed. I ended up paying a private midwife to do the snip rather than wait. Bloody, expensive, but soooo worth it! The head midwife asked me to write a letter as she wants to offer it locally, but is blocked by the Pediatricians who are currently very anti-snipping. ]

I used the pool. Admitted to MLU at 7am and all the rooms were available. So i got to pick! Apparently they are hardly ever all taken. Something to do with the fact most ladies actually use the consultant led bit due to being young (teens), having GD, twins whatever.

They will discharge you fast from MLU usually, and let you and DH stay in the room for a while with your baby if the unit is quiet until the paperwork is all done. I had a bad tear and surgery, so had to stay overnight. For what it is worth the surgery side was very good!

I asked for a private room but was denied one as it was in use by a lady recovering from a c section. Look, the ward sucks, but if you are firm with the midwives, and clued up in general you will be fine. In the grand scheme it was 24 hours. Sleepless but then so are so many subsequent nights with a baby!! Can I ask what borough you live in? islington send a breastfeeding counsellor to your home as a matter of routine!

Tongue tie. Yep they can't cut it there but they should tell you of your dc has it! I paid to cut it privately. They do it at the Portland for a few hundred quid.

Btw if you attend the final session of ante natal classes they run session 4 on their timetables they will do a tour of the unit with you. Crap class but handy tour.

Thanks Hodel and Coraltoes - that's all information I'm really grateful for. Great to hear someone was able to pick a room - my private horror is that I happen to go into labour on a busy day! I've only taken one antenatal class at the Homerton so far, but will do the others during February when I'm back in the country - haven't done class 4 with the tour yet. (To be honest, the first class was so bad, it put us off returning for more, but I know there are stand-alone tours of the MLU at specified times, so I will at least do that.)

Coraltoes, I'm about ten feet over the borough border into Haringey, so possibly no breast-feeding counsellor - must check it out, though.

I have had 4 babies at the homerton, first a natural birth almost 7 years ago, the staff were awful during my labour, they sent my partner and mum home then left me alone being sick and in pain, there were no beds so I was left to labour in an assesment unit with a curtain around me, then half gave birth in a lock toilet (head out!) finally managed to get me to a bed where dd1 was born seconds after, the staff were rubbish and I ended up having to go to theatre (who were brilliant) for a repair, postnatal ward AWFUL, noisy, crap care, stupidly hot, I walked out the next day, the next 3 were all planned sections (the last 7 months ago), I found the staff to be much better this time, theatre staff lovely, postnatal still utterly crap tho, the temperature on the ward after dd3 was tropical, I walked out the next day after all 3 sections!

Meant to say I tried to pay for a private room after the sections and there were none available, so do bear this in mind, the postnatal care is the reason I left the next morning after the sections as sleep was impossible, and I had a lunatic screamy woman next door whos baby was actually about 4 weeks old? and whos dp visited with a prison guard