Kingston hospital??

[Micha54178]

Has anyone given birth at either Kingston hospital or Malden suite?
I've just read my notes and have found that I'm due to have the baby at Kingston for consultant led care? I'd like to have a water birth and minimum intervention, not sure I'm going to get that from the hospital. 34 weeks at the moment and getting a bit worried now! This is baby number 3 and I would like to have the birth I want this time, especially as hubby says it's the last one! Any opinions would be good?

Hi had my two at Kingston on the medical ward not the Maldon one. I think if you have consultant led care they will guide you to the medical unit rather than Maldon. Tbh the only difference was the lack of birthing pools pretty much everything else is the same. The care at Kingston seems to be rather focused on the point of delivery not aftercare. But I had two good experiences with what where quite complex births.

I believe the Maldon suite is a low risk, MW led unit so you only go there if you are low risk. If you are consultant led care it suggests that you are not low risk?

Also I believe there are only a few pools. When I was there (medical ward) it was like grand central station! I have no idea how many women they have per day but it is a busy busy place. Much busier than any of the hospitals on OBEM in my opinion.

Midwife there told me C4 had talked with them about being the OBEM hospital but they turned them down!

Kingston was brilliant had ds there 4 months ago. Post natal ward was bliss compared to st George's!! Good luck :)

Thanks for the replies. I had my first two both in hospital, I'm keen to have this one in a birthing centre, with pool and not being messed about with so much. I'm only under the consultant because I have an under active thyroid, nothing else wrong with me, even the consultant has said he won't see me again until six weeks after the baby is born! I guess I need to see if I can get my consultant to agree? Baby is healthy and growing well, blood pressure is low, surely it can't be that bad if the consultant doesn't need to see me again till after baby is born?

I had my dd in Kingston last year & had wanted water birth with minimum intervention so managed to go to the Malden suite whilst in labour but it didn't help me much as only 2/3 birthing pools are available in the entire Malden suite & they were already being used so I was offered to sit in the (v tiny as it seemed I barely fit in there!) bath instead! I had a terrible experience with my birth there as they were incredibly busy & v understaffed, but despite that I'm planning to have my 2nd baby there in march as its still by far my closest hospital. Depending on where you live I believe st George's has more birth pools, but then if you have consultant led care I'm not sure whether st George's would let you deliver in midwife led unit anyway? Good luck!

I had DS in the Malden last month. Was fantastic, my first dd was also there but was quite a hectic delivery and like you I wanted this to be water birth. Like anywhere it depends if the pools are being used but they have 3 I think. I said I wanted to have gas, water and as little intervention as poss, they did just that - although, DS came a bit quick and took everyone by surprise so I did have about 4 midwifed in at the end because they weren't quite ready and practically played catch the baby!! The room was amazing, had this blue dull light in the ceiling which made it really calming. Can't praise them enough. Only crit would be that afterwards I went to Worcester ward where it was great to have my own room but had I been a first time mum would have felt a bit abandoned, DS was born in the evening so after dh went no one came to see me all night and I had to go out and find breakfast! Food is shocking and there is only the worst coffee shop with awful sandwiches so bring food! Once admitted you can get a parking ticket for the day from the reception.

Best of luck

I'm seeing the midwife on we'd next week, so I'll see what I can find out then. I will take your advice and make sure i take food! Is it bad that one of the first things to go in my hospital bag was a big bar of dairy milk!! Hopefully they will be happy for me to use the Malden centre. I really don't want to have to stay in over night' aiming for giving birth and then home within two hours!

Is a homebirth completely out of the question?

I researched Kingston Hospital and didn't like my odds. The homebirth team were fantastic!

I'm not sure about a home birth, as much as I want to have as little poking and prodding as possible I do like having them on hand and near by if anything happens.

You said you didn't like your chances with Kingston, what do you mean?

I had a quick and pleasant (?) delivery there 13 years ago.

Too busy, far too busy to do anything other than minimum meaning something critical may have been missed, and likely to be caught up into cascade of intervention due to not being able to labour optimally or having access to enviroment that will make the birth smooth i.e. delivery on time, birth pool etc.

Starlight have you actually had a baby at Kingston before? Show me a London hospital that's not busy. Understand your concerns but I thought their care during labour was fantastic, aftercare not so amazing but then I didn't demand lots and if I'd needed it, it would have been there.

I've got to be honest I'm happy with as little intervention as possible before, during and after! I'd like nothing more than to be left alone once baby is born. I am really worried about having to stay in hospital, being poked and messed about! It's stupid for me to feel this way, this is my third and I've never been nervous about giving birth before! Argh! Wish I knew why I felt this way! Sorry, a little rant goes a long way!

Not at Kingston, no, but other London Hospitals. I was mucked around so much trying to book in, get care, even get the correct telephone numbers and the mw woukd often leave the phone ringing forever and then pick up and put down without saying anything.

All I was trying to do was say I was moving to the area at 36 weeks from a long away and labour quickly!

Micha, I sympathise, I'm honestly scared of hospitals but my experience of Kingston Malden was v positive, they listened to my desire to be as left alone as possible, they were great. I was glad I did stay overnight though as it meant that I got the newborn tests, hearing check done while there, otherwise you have to go back for them. But if the lady selling hand/foot casts cones near your room, tell her to get lost!! She continued to try and flog it while I was trying to introduce my dd to her brother, so rude! Best if luck.

I am afraid I hated every minute of my DD's birth at Kingston. Awful place. West Middlesex with DD2 on the other hand was amazing. Presented OP each time but Felt out of control at Kingston and the MW did not even engage with meduring pushing stage. She was writing up notes in the corner on the other side of the room. Her attitude made me panic this all resulted in a ventouse delivery. Oh and had nasty tear which my GP identified a few years later and thought I must have had a terrible time with my second baby when the realty was it has happened 5 years previously with DD1. May not be so relevant now as places move on but if you come across similar more recent stories perhaps not so much changed. West Mid in 2009 was brilliant. MWs all human.....

I had a very bad experience at Kingston 18 months ago. The staff were busy but that's no excuse for negligence. I was refused gas & air in the new Malden suite at 4cm with back to back labour as it was deemed too early. My midwife then went on her lunch break & despite my constantly pushing the help button & saying I couldnt stop pushing I was left alone to push for 30 mins as other midwives who answered the call button stated I had to wait for my midwife as they were too busy. I pushed for 3 hrs in total before having to have an emergency venteuse with no pain relief as no time. Thankfully baby was gorgeous & fine. My midwife signed off shift 15 mins after my baby was born & didn't bother to sign anyone else on. I lay in a pool of blood for 5 hrs alone with my husband & baby feeling progressively worse & worse whilst my husbands pleas to get a midwife/dr to check me out were ignored as they were too busy with other patients. Eventually when I lost my sight, reflexes & could barely speak anymore finally a dr took notice of my now terrified husband who was chasing drs around insisting they come help. Turns out I had lost 5 litres of blood with an internal haemmorage. I had up have 4 hrs of surgery without general anaesthetic as no time to give me one.

All is well now & I recovered fully, however I was stunned at how close things went to getting life threatening. I was invited in for a meeting with the head of hospital & head of midwifery to discuss what went wrong. They were very apologetic, said this had never happened before, was awful & that training had been set up for all staff to ensure this never happened again. I accepted this & went home to look after my new baby. A month later I was horrified to meet another shell shocked mum in a playgroup who had exactly the same experience a few weeks after me.

Im sorry this post is so long & I hope it doesn't scare anyone. I feel the need to share it as I wish I'd known in advance how little I should trust the midwives as we were running under the assumption they knew best. Next time I'll know to kick & scream & refuse to take no for an answer when I know something is wrong.

We are currently 13 wks pregnant with my second child so I am going through the same fears as other posters here about Kingston. I'd love to try a home birth this time but the fact is that if I had a haemmorage like this again then to be honest I probably wouldn't survive unless I was at a hospital. Although it can be argued that I probably wouldn't have had the bleed in the first place if I hadn't pushed for way too long.

I'm thinking my compromise may be to use Kingston, but take a private midwife or doula with me to ensure I have someone there other than my husband & I who is really looking out for me.

Good luck to all & I really hope this doesn't scare anyone. Just to confirm recent experiences in Kingston, my Nct class had 7 mums & we had the following:

My experience above
1 emergency venteuse
3 emergency c sections
1 natural labour
1 labour with epidural & episiotomy

Hope this helps. Don't hate me for posting this!

Wow! Ok feeling much better now
Does anyone have any better experiences of the Malden birthing centre? I'm mot sure if I should be asking to move to the Malden unit or to a different hospital completely!
I had my last baby at Epsom three years ago, other than having to stay overnight, very few birthing pools, no midwives available that we're trained to use the pool...... I know safe arrival of baby is more important than anything, but it would be nice not to be hating being there the whole time.

Seriously try west mid they cand met me at the door and called me by my name. Had gas and air within minutes, checked dilation (6-7cm), straight down to the birthing centre. Midwife there with me the whole time apart from to go to the toilet,mshe told us how long she would be. Another midwife came in post birth to help me bf. had a retained placenta which had to be surgically removed and even this was a great experience. My original midwife came and saw me post surgery to check all ok and to see the baby. Post natal care fabulous too. Ward quite cramped but can get a private room. All was the opposite of Kingston and the result, delivered with gas and air as no fear on my part (Am convinced this had something to do with it). Midwife had a letter sent to manager to say what good care I had been given. Such a difference.