Chertsey St Peters maternity services - advice please

[MrsSBL]

I am moving to the area this week, due early 2013. Any up to date experiences of St Peters please? all information welcome to help me make a decision. Thanks!

What are you deciding between? Peters and Guildford? Peters and Kingston? Or whether to delay your move?

i think peters and kingston, guildford seems a long way? no delay to move, it's on Friday!! aaaahhh....

I don't know anyone who went to Kingston to compare, sorry.

Peters is fine as a facility, it is a big and busy unit so maybe postnatal feels a bit stretched, labour ward was fine for me and others i know. As it is big that does mean they have the NICU there which may be reassuring. Consider asking for a private room on the postnatal ward for some more peace and quiet.

thanks sweetthesting, that is just what i wanted to know! perfect.

Hi, I had my DS last May at st peters. I had heard a couple of bad things about it but I have to say I was 100% happy with it. I was offered the birthing pool as pain relief when I arrived at 4cm, had a relatively easy birth but everything was fab, lovely mid wife. The pool room was lovely and big nice shower room. We were left in there for 2 hrs afterwards which was great. Agree it is busy on the wards and did take along time to get paediatric check done before we were allowed home, but ward was clean and friendly so waiting around was not to bad. Would def recommend over Kingston my sil has just had a rather traumatic birth experience their just like one of my Nct friends. Good luck

totally unhelpful but wanted to say i was born there!

Hi,
I gave birth to my little one 8 weeks ago at St Peters. All was going ok - sent home twice from triage as was not far along enough. On the third occasion I did have to wait a little while as there were several other mums ahead of me. When I was seen I was 9cm and so headed up to labour. Unfortunately due to complications it was then another 6 hours before he was born. My midwife was amazing and in an ideal world I would want to have her present next time. The birth turned into an emergency and so I had a lot of other people rush in to the room to help. Whilst the birth was not at all as I would have wanted nature took over but the care I received was brilliant.

For the first night I had to stay on labour ward for monitoring. The midwives were great. When my son started crying in the middle of the night they came to settle him twice so I could get some rest.

I would agree with other postings that the discharge took some time but ultimately it was only because they were busy with lots of births going on. My husband and I happily accepted that the staff have to prioritise and births have to take priority over discharges.

We have also recently attended a birth reflection appointment which the hospital offers. Given the complications that arose we found this extremely helpful and useful to go through what happens and what this means for next time!!!!

Based on my experience i would recommend St Peters. 

Both of my daughters were due to have their babies on the same day as each other last year, (what a worry!!!)
But lucky for me my youngest daughter delivered first.
She went to triage and was looked after very well, where the midwife examined her and transferred her to the labour ward.
Her birth plan was looked at and her wish to use the pool was granted.
My grandson was delivered by a lovely midwife a few hours later in the pool.
Everything went very well and my daughter went home after 6 hours.
The whole experience was fabulous for us all.
My second daughter had to be induced, so had to remain on Joan Booker ward, which was fine. As her partner was at work I was allowed to stay with her. I found the staff very helpful and friendly, yet professional.
After being induced her labour really got going and she was then transferred to the labour ward. There she was introduced to her midwife who was brilliant and stayed with us all until after my grandson was born. Unlike my first daughter she had to stay in for the night and did manage to get some rest. She tells me the staff were very helpful and felt very rested after her night in. As a proud mother and grandmother I would have no hesitation recommending St Peters to anybody in the future :)