Whittington versus Ridgeway at Chase farm or Edgeware birthing centre

[babynelly2010]

Hello,
I just found out that I am pregnant again. My clinic is served by the chase farm barnet midwife team which is the closes hospital to me. Last time I had a water birth at the Whittington hospital and it was very wonderful and would like to have my next baby as well there but it is now about 35 minute drive to us was about 15-20 minutes before but we did not have a car we had a taxi.
Chase farm and barnet have a ridge way birth centre and edgeware birth centre.

The travel time by car is this
Whittington 35 minutes
Edgeware 25 minutes
Ridgeway 17 minutes

I heard wonderful things about edgeware but it is about 53 minute transfer to the hospital if something goes wrong. Does anyone have experience with this?

Ridgeway I don't really know much about but it is the closest to me.

Whittington I know is great from my own experience.

Here are my questions:

1. Would you book with the maternity unit that is 35 minutes away?
2. If I am booked with Whittington but have an emergency could I go to chasefarm or barnet?
3. Could I have booking appointment, all diagnostics tests and birth with whittington but see chasefarm mw at my gp sometimes?

Any other information about chase farm ridgeway and edgeware are welcome.

Thank you

Hi

1 yes I would it's notthat imo.
im pretty sure you can, if you turn upinan emergency I don't thinkthey'd turn you away
3 I was going to do that with Whittington but my other hospital was in Chelmsford. They said itwas fine, as it happened I then moved to London anyway. I dont know if you can do that if you live in London anyway.

Sorry for rubbish typing im on my phone!

"I heard wonderful things about edgeware but it is about 53 minute transfer to the hospital if something goes wrong. Does anyone have experience with this?"

It is not a 53 minute transfer. Call up the birth centre (02087326777) and find out the real time before making a decision.

I loved Edgware birth centre- I just didn't like the lack of an epidural :P

Ridgeway is meant to be amazing as many of my friends have delivered there and it's on the floor above the labour ward if needed! I have only been allowed to give birth on labour ward (boo) which has been fine too, but Ridgeway has felt very tranquil and calm whenever I have been up there.

I was at the Ridgeway and thought it was great. The midwives there let us get one with it and only intervened when things slowed down (had to transfer to the hospital delivery ward which is one floor down in the end). I would have any future children there without a doubt.

I'm sorry but I still suffer from PTSD from the neglect and abuse I experienced at the Ridgeway with an undx OP baby, refusal of water birth coz they were busy, insistence by them of pethedine despite my protests and subsequent denial of epidural transfer. Refusal to allow me to birth upright and insistence that I pushed before I was ready due to imminent shift end. Undx pph until it was clear I was immobile.

I gave birth to no. 2 at the Edgeware which was piss easy and more like a birthing spa. DH and I shared a double bed with ensuite and access to a kitchen. Bliss.

Home water birth for no.3. Wish I'd done that for no.1.

chase farm is our nearest and have to be honest i did not want to have ours there as the hospital has a bad reputation locally. However- since having DS and DD I have spent lots of time at A and E and DS recently had an op there and it was great. My point being that bad reputations arent necessarily fair or reflective. 3 of my NCT group had their DC at chase farm and were reasonably happy.

Edgware (I work there actually) did not appeal beacuse of the possible transfer to barnet if there was a problem- i agree its not 50 mins- maybe 25? But did not fancy being carted off in an ambulance if i needed the labour ward.

so we went for the birth centre at the royal free which has labour ward accross the corridor. didnt find out til late in pregnancy that RF had a bad rep for pregnancy and the ante natal care was in some ways terrible- but the midwives during labour were fantastic.

sorry- thats prob not helpful!

ps just wanted to clarify that i dont work at edgware birthing centre but at the main hospital and the birth centre has a very good reputation.

Hi all

Congratulations babynelly

Just thought Id add my bit, I had my daughter 16 yrs ago at chase farm and my son 12 yrs ago, All the midwives were wonderful on the labour ward - Even had a visit from the midwife which helped me through my late miscarriage with my first son 17 yrs ago after the birth of the both of my children.

We moved back to the area and found that we are expecting again. Im now 5 days overdue and Im happy to be going back the chase farm. I will hopefully be up in the ridgeway very soon!!

We did think about Edgware but the travelling distance was too far for my liking from both home and if a transfer was needed. Have been told by the mw that if Barnet is getting close to full you are sent to chase farm also if you are late/need an induction go early they send you to chase farm!! Was also told that they try to ship you out the door quicker at barnet - which can be both a good and bad thing. Seems stupid really as Barnet is the newer hospital and they are closing the maternity unit at Chase farm.

Anyway You really need to visit all of your options, you can get a feel of which one would be best for you - if you change you mind latter in the your pregnancy then you can. I had doubts about a month ago and had a long cat with my local midwife, and then visited all my options again but decided to stick with my original option.

I realise that my experiences were a long time ago but as I said I am happy with my choice after my last visits.

Hi,

I'm down for the ridgeway and I hose this as I like the comfort that the labour ward is only 1 floor down hence no ambulance transfers.

A friend had her baby their earlier in the month and couldn't speak highly enough of the mws and whole experience there.

I'm actually booked in for my tour next week so I can report back!

Good luck x

Edgware is wonderful, I made it there from E17 10 years ago so it is possible.
Personally I wouldn't go to Chase Farm after all the recent failures.
Have you considered a homebirth? It may be an option if you think you won't need more pain relief than G&A.
You can hire pools from the Active Birth Centre (N19)

I made it Edgeware in rush hour from EN8!

Apparently people come from as far away as Norfolk. I think it is worth adding that in their 3 rooms, the Edgeware are responsible for 80% of the UKs water births which tells you a lot about the number of women that get pools elsewhere!

Hi. I was in exactly the same situation. I lived 10 mins frm Whittington when I had my first baby. I had an amazing experience and midwives were amazing. We then moved further afield when we had baby number 2 but I really wanted to go to Whittington because I knew how lovely it was. I also had a scare with baby number two at about 29 weeks and was soooooo happy I was there as everyone was wonderful and helpful. The distance is a pain ( roughly 30mns depending on traffic ) ESP with visits in between. However baby delivered with the same wonderful experience as baby number 1. What did Happen though was that baby number 2 decided to start entering the world at 730am ... Rush hour and the roads near Broomfield park were closed for road works so I did nearly have her in the car !!! We got there just in time to lay on a bed and push her out. They said any third child would need to be a home birth : ) . I guess it depends on the timing and traffic etc.

I hope this helps ... Good luck with your decision

Sorry, to answer your questions Unless hints have changed I was not allowed to go anywhere but Whittington once my decision had been made. My gp would always refer me there, but maybe your gp is different ?