UCLH London - anyone know the hospital?

[JTN]

am wondering whats it like and if i should book my own indepen midwife?, any tips grateful thnaks

A labour coach would be great.

Book an amenity room if you can afford it(£180).

Be aware that once the baby is born they'll totally ignore you.

I gave birth there in june last year. The midwives allocated to me were fantastic one was a student and she was brilliant. They eased all my fears and made me feel in control and supported.

The first room I was put in when I arrived had broken glass on the floor, no pillow on the bed and the bed didn't work. I had another midwife who was nearing the end of her shift so that's why she prob didnt move me to better room, as soon as the 2 midwives i mentioned before came on they moved me when they saw state of the room I didnt even have to mention it.

I had to stay the night got a bay with one other woman there. The midwives on the ward weren't very attentive I was pretty much left to my own devices and being a first time mum I didnt realy know what was happening. DD was crying in the night and twice a midwife came to try to help me breastfeed.

I guess it depends if you get happy unstressed midwifes or not.

have to say though the hygienge wasn't very good. the place was pretty filthy in fact.

Overall my experience was good, because the birth was managed by good midwives once i got that done with and dd in my arms everything else became less important.
hth

I had dd there in july 2004, the midwife stayed with me all night 12hrs and even when I had to be induced in thertre at end of it she stayed with me ...even though the doctors tried to force her to leave. I didn't have an amenity room I was happy to be around other mothers.

I was happy with experience.

I had a fantastic experience of an elective caesarean UCH in 2004. The staff in the theatre were fantastic. The after care was a bit haphazzard though.

Incidentally there is a fantastic website that talks about caesareans and in particular how to make them a positive experience if you find that you need or want to have one. Check out the site

thanks for commnets everyone, are they still at the Elizabeth Garret building or moved accross to the new hospital, anyone know about that one?

Message withdrawn

two of my friends have had their babies there in the last 18 months and both said the actual birthing experience and care was good but that the aftercare was abominable...sorry!

hi jtn,
I was told they are not moving to the new hospital until 2008.

I had my baby there May 2005 and had a very mixed experience. Antenatal was fantastic, experience on the ward was absolutely awful Readmitted to their transitional care unit and they were fantastic. A long story but to say the service is pathcy is an understatment. However I hear this about virtually all of Londons hospitals.

I had all three of mine at UCH and would definitely echo what others have said here. Midwives at the birth all fantastic (my last one was in Nov 2003, like you HappyMum, and my midwife was the loveliest, most gentle and encouraging man). But postnatal ward very grungy (take your own Dettox!). What made me choose UCH in the first place was its reputation for looking after babies who need special care - thought that if, God forbid, there were any problems, that looked like the place to be.

thanks everyone - will pack some dettox - geting sacred got my scan appoint today - so its really happening!!

i would definately go back. midwife at birth was fantastic. doctors really nice too, all remembered me from various visits and stopped by me in post natal ward to see if i got the vbac i wanted.

first midwife in labour was nasty, couldn't wait till 8 to see her go. my mum is telling me i must complain for the sake of other women who will be with her. But would still go back.

Think you have to be lucky to have a good experience there. I know some people who got to see good midwives early on and thought it was great. I was pregnant around the same time as these people but only ever saw midwives who had made me wait for hours and then only had a few minutes to see me and never seemed to have enough time to answer any of my questions or fobbed me off by telling me to ask my gp (who also kept telling me to ask the midwife as they didn't have the information). They also managed to lose my gp referral letter 5 times (my gp had to send in 5 letters) - the last one only worked because they sent it to somebody else they know in the hospital and got them to walk it down to them, and then chase it up the next day - they told her they hadn't received it, she knew that she had put it on their in pile and reported it to their boss - I had an appt an hour later

Ended up that at my last 39 wk appt I saw a smarmy registrar who tried to give me a sweep to induce labout (thought you usually waited until at least 41 wks for one of those) and despite having protein in my urine and high blood pressure he told me to come back in a week as it was probably just an infection. He wasn't even going to do blood tests until I pressed him about whether or not it was pre-eclampsia, at which point he grudgingly said to get them done. but I had to go back the next day to get them done because the phlebotomist (sp?) had gone home and he couldn't be bothered to do it himself.

luckily I have a relly who is a pre-eclampsia specialist so rang her up to find out at what point did I need to be worried about my symptoms. She basically threw a fit and took me down to her hospital late at night to run the tests herself to double check and then one of her colleagues admitted me as I did have pre eclampsia and was then induced a couple of days later. Mind boggles as to what would have happened if I had had to wait for a week . very scary. guess it was kind of lucky that it did happen to me - formal complaint went to the registrar's boss (who my relative knows well) so hopefully he won't be making that mistake twice because his clinic is running late and he can't be bothered! apparently he got into quite a lot of trouble