Barnet vs UCH

[Pookychops]

Hi,

I'm currently booked into Barnet for antenatal care and to give birth. I have an IVF twin pregnancy and I also have Graves disease which was treated but could still pass onto the babies and have an impact on them.

A few friends have mentioned that I should transfer to UCH for care and delivery as they are really good and have a great unit if there are any problems with the babies after birth.

So far at Barnet I have been given the wrong info by the midwife, booked into the wrong clinic and found the sonographer to be really distant and unfriendly in the 12 week scan. Barnet sent me to UCH for a twin scan to check that they weren't identical and I learnt more from them about graves disease than I did at Barnet. Barnet has taken steps to get me in the correct clinic for my thyroid and book all of my post 20 weeks scans and appointments.

Has anyone got any experience of Barnet or UCH antenatal care and delivery they could share to help me make a decision?

From what I've heard of Barnet, both the midwives and doctors are a bit rubbish. I've heard of a few people being sent to Chase Farm to deliver because Barnet is often overbooked. They also haven't supported a friend in terms of getting IV antibiotics to prevent transfer of Group B Strep to the baby which meant she had to stay in hospital for a few days unecessarily. The ward midwives are pretty mean from memory when I went to visit her.

UCH isn't perfect either but it does have a good reputation for special care - if you genuinely are high risk (which you obviously are), you and your babies will be well looked after. I'd add to your consideration list though the journey time to each hospital.

UCH. Brilliant for any sort of risk.

Barnet isnt great. I have experience of their early pregnancy unit and the specialist maternity A&E and they were both absolutely shite.

I have had all mine at Uch and am about to have DC 4 in May. I am high risk due to a blood condition and they really are great all staff members ( Barr a couple of the midwives . ) have been amazing and care second to none.
The appointments always run really late but I think that's normal everywhere! Also postnatal care is hit and miss but again similar story everywhere.
Scbu is supposed to amazing!

A lot of my friends have transferred from barnet to chase farm and found them 100x better. Also have you thought about the Whittington they have a good reputation as well.

Had my DS (8) at Barnet, it was an horrendous experience. I would never give birth there again. Antenatal care wasn't too bad until I was allowed to go 10 days overdue despite my BP spiking. Ended up with an emergency induction due to suspected PE. My whole labour and delivery were handled badly, ending up with me in theatre for two hours post birth. The care once on the ward was awful. Second time around I had moved away from the area and when I had my DD the experience was so different that now I realise how dreadful Barnet actually was. Had I still lived in the area there would be no way I'd have a baby at Barnet again. HTH

I have had both my dc's at Barnet had two emergency sections and in one case my dc was very poorly and had to spend time in sbu. I can't fault the care we received and they saved my dc's life twice

My sis was booked into Barnet with twins. Transferred to UCH as a problem with one of them and the care was excellent. It is a very busy, noisy, large postnatal unit and she was in a tiny cubicle with both babies after c-section, very crowded but she was medically very well looked after.

I found Barnet to be very good but that was in the midwife-led unit not the consultant/ward area.

I was transfered to Barnet from Edgware for emergency delivery (forceps), I felt well cared for during the delivery & immediate recovery.

DS spent 2 weeks in scbu, we were very pleased with his care & cannot praise the scbu team enough.

For me the downfall was the postnatal ward where the staff seemed rushed off their feet & the postnatal midwife care (where I was seen as an outpatient because we weren't home yet), waited for hours some days to have general checks which was stressful as I was trying to demand feed DS. Once I saw the midwifes they were lovely-just v busy.

I found the special care baby unit at UCH an utter disgrace. You should have seen on how nurses dealt with tiny babies. They did not give a toss, how much they hurt them. They kept saying babies don't feel pain. Also, when they initially forgot to switch on dd's light treatment and we told them they point blank denied it was not switched on and refused to go and check. DH had to kick up a huge stink as it was really urgent to prevent dd from having brain damage (very severely jaundiced). We had to give her formula milk but the nurses kept forgetting to give me bottles. We were given a feeding schedule by the paediatrician and we couldn't adhere to it because we were not given the bottles and when we asked we were told to wait (FOR HOURS, WITH DD DETERIORATING EVEN FURTHER). We spent a long time there. I was up all night with DD, there were always lots of lights on, loud music at the nurses station and lots of loud laughing of the nurses whereas mums were trying to sleep. If asked if music could be turned down, they just ignored the question. If you needn't help you had to ask many times before they came as they were too busy gossiping and reading magazines. The nights were the worse. They had to carry out heelpricks on dd, they literally squeezed her feet till blue then stabbed the needle in without success, and then saying really annoyed 'This baby does not want to bleed for me' and stabbed again, and again and again and again (all in same session). You can imagine what dd looked like by the end, she had no tears left, I got upset and was told off for being overly emotional. Especially the nights in the Special Care Baby Unit at UCH when I was there were truly hell on earth. Not just for me, also for the other mothers. It was AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL. So unless they sacked the whole lot I would most definitely not go there it will change your life for ever.

I had my very prem DS at UCH and they were amazing. Saved his life without a doubt.

However we ended up there because Barnet transferred us knowing it was the best place, and the midwife who took care of me at Barnet was brilliant.

In your situation i'd choose UCH.

I had really bad antenatal care from uch - 6 years ago now so I don't know if theyve changed.

Not just the appointments running late but taking 6 weeks to even set up the initial appointment, forgetting to tell me I was anaemic, prescribing antibiotics I was allergic to, dismissing bad SPD as one of those things I had to grin and bear, saying there wasn't time for any questions in appointments when they were running so late as they wanted to go home and squeezing what should have been a 20 min appointment into 5 and a whole host of other things. Worst one was saying that I didn't have pre-eclampsia when I did and sending me off for a week.

Pure fluke I had a relative who worked in obstetrics at a different hospital who was horrified when I double checked with her about symptoms and took me down to her hospital to check herself. Did have PE and was admitted there so thankfully didn't experience uch for delivery and post natal care. But if I had taken the doctors advice and not gone back for a week it could have been pretty bad if not fatal.

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of uch.

I have a friend who has had both her babies at Barnet (DC1 two years ago and DC2 a few weeks ago) and had a positive experience both times. This time she even sent a card commending the midwives.

You will hear bad things and the occasional horror story about any big city hospital, due to the huge numbers of women giving birth there. But the majority of women will have no major complaints. I'm currently booked into the Whittington, where I also had DD two years ago, and I've read complaints about it on here, but I'm going back because my experience was fine. Antenatal very busy, postnatal staff a bit grumpy, but that seems to be common in most of the big London hospitals.

I'd be tempted to go with your gut based on what you've experienced so far, and take into account which is easiest to get to when the time comes. You can always change at a later date if you don't feel comfortable with your choice.

Hi

I had my DD at barnet in 2010 and am booked in to have my 2nd in August this year - the actual labour ward was ok and I felt like I had good care - unfortunately we got to the postnatal ward in the middle of what appeared to be the mother of all shifts - staff had phoned in sick/short staffed, staff meeting, rushed drug round. no one around if you needed help for most of the morning etc - HOWEVER overall the care was good.
I have a lot of friends who have had babies at UCH - I also trained there as a nurse and have a friend who works in the maternity unit - experiences have included at least 2 friends ending up actually in labour sat in the waiting room as no beds available, and poor ante and post natal care there, as well as very good care. You have to bear in mind that because of its reputation/status it can get very very busy - and as with all hospitals your care will only be as good as the staff you come in to contact with.

I have heard many good reports about the Whittington - my friend who has worked in most of the maternity units in North London rates it as one of the best especially as they now have a MLU i think don't they??

You need to go where you feel most comfortable - have you asked to go and look round the unit in the different hospitals you are considering? Especially as you have Graves I think most of them should be happy to let you have a look round and get a gut feeling for the place.

Good luck - and congratulations on the twins!!
xx

Thanks for the feedback. I think I will discuss the options with my gp when he gives me my next antenatal check up. I found it really hard to make the decision in the first place and as I had a few bleeds the gp didn't want to refer me to maternity care until it was all ok. He was then on holiday and a locum referred me in the end as I had to make a decision quite quickly as I had to get in for my 12 week scan.

I'll also see how it goes and how my next hospital appointment is - not for another four weeks though.

Personally I would never choose barnet, had a dreadful experience there and three good experiences at UCH. UCH is specifically for problematic pregnancies. I just don't trust Barnet at all.

I had a bad experience with uch in early pg with mcs and went back to st marys. I later had twins there and have type 1 diabetes . The care was good throughout and even post natal had improved. My only complaint was they discharged us too early partly I think cos their scbu and nicu cater for the really sick babies and although the dts were 33 weekers their issues were temp regulation and feeding. Uch is linked to barnet, whittington and rf so I understand that if babies need care but not at uch level they can be transferred. Obviously that's difficult if you're somewhere else. BTW the st marys scbu was amazing and the staff really lovely and helpful . Royal free where we spent another 2 weeks was also very good.