Deciding whether to book in to Queen Charlotte or St. Mary's hospital for NHS care?

[Marshaware]

Hi, this is my first pregnancy and I live near Queens park. Whilst I would love to go private with my care we don't have 15-20k to spend on this. I am trying to decide between St. Mary's or Queen Charlotte. St. Mary's is closer to us but I have heard amazing things about Queen Charlotte and one thing that attracts me is the fact you can pay to stay a nigt or two after your delivery in a nice room. I think the cost is around 600 per night. If anyone has any views here please let me know. I was also hoping I may be able to get to the point of having an elected c section but I realise this can be difficult. We are due in march 2013.
Thanks

I had both DDs at QC, nhs up until point of delivery and then private as insurance kicked in when had to have c-sections, so can't comment on the other ward etc. My care there was excellent, although with dd2 waiting for ante-natal appts did seem quite long (although from what i hear from friends St marys isn't any better on that score). QC do have an amazing one to one midwive service which is brilliant if you're eligible (I had it for DD1 but not for DD2) find out if you can get yourself on it. On a practical level QC is a pain to get to for all your appts from QP unless you drive (andcosts a fortune to park!) St marys you can go by tube. From my 3 friends who have delivered at St marys I have not heard particularly favorable feedback, ranging from 1 terrible experience, to sort of ok experiences. No-one has raved about it iyswim. They all moaned about the ward. But this is a very small sample of experiences! I hope this helps. Mr kumar is an excellent consultant and surgeon if you do go for QC.

I gave birth at QCH a couple of months. I'd wanted the birth centre, but because of complications had to go to the delivery suite. They were absolutely amazing and still supported me in having a completely natural delivery, using tens and the birth pool. When the sh*t hit the fan straight after the delivery and I had a big medical emergency, the team were incredible and dealt with everything brilliantly - I owe them my life. However the nursing and midwife care on the wards (HDU and postnatal) was really dire - they're too busy to look after you properly, but more worryingly than that I actually felt bullied and badly treated by a number of staff. There was no proper support for breastfeeding and bottles of formula all too readily dispensed as a replacement for someone sitting down to help you. That said, I would still chose QCH again because at the end of the day the medical care is far more important than the ward care (although it felt awful at the time!). My friend gave birth there and then transferred to the private ward post-natally and she said it was great, so if you could afford to do that then it would be the best of both worlds.

Thebeandthebee - QCH isn't that hard to get to from Queens Park is it? A few changes, but probably still only half an hour on the tube. Agree that it's a long wait for antenatal appointments, but my antenatal care was split between the hospital and my GP so most of my appointments were with my GP, which I found much more convenient. The birth centre is where you get the 1-1 MW care, but you can only go there if you have a completely uncomplicated and intervention free delivery. I certainly felt like I was getting 1-1 care on the delivery suite though, but perhaps I was lucky as had a MW and student MW and maybe they just weren't too busy on there that day - I have heard other friends say they didn't get as much attention!

Hi blushingmare I do think it's a pain from QP by public transport, one of my non-driving friends didn't choose it for that reason. My one to one care was actually antenatal, all of my appts with DD1 were with the same lovely midwife and she was there during the section, had I not lived in a different borough from QC then she would have done all the after care at my house too. I think they keep it fairly quiet though and not entirely sure what the criteria was/is, maybe something the OP could ask. Yes you're right re some of your appts being at GP, that was the case for me too with DD2, DD1 I did everything at hospital.

And your friend is right the private ward is great! Was very thankful of DPs work insurance!

5.5 years ago I had the worst experience at st Mary's. I had to walk across the corridor in full view of the waiting room while in labour to use the loo. Following emergency cs was just dumped left on 4 bed ward, told that I couldn't keep asking for help lifting my 4 hour old baby, broken bed, told off for not reusing the stupid pill dispensing cups that I had to use to cup feed my dd as she had jaundice. Which they didn't spot until blood tests day 2 even ough I had asked them about it much earlier ("no you are just dark skinned" er no - and hubby is pale as milk!). No surgical stockings despite asking why my ankles looked like they belonged to an elephant. No post surgery advice. Toilets filthy with blood on the seats, walls and in the cracked plaster work around the toilet. I left at 1am because it took them 18 hours to do 2 blood tests 6 house apart and I was not prepared to stay another night with no care.

My doula said it was the worst birth and post natal experience she had ever seen!

So I would suggest QC.

Wow TheBean that 1-1 sounds amazing!

blushingmare I had no idea how lucky I was!

Thank you everyone. Very useful. I think I will stick to Queen Charlotte and hope for a good experience. MKP1 your experience at St. Mary's sounded awful. Poor you! This may have been before they did it up but enough to turn anyone away!

If its any help I too had a pretty awful experience at St. Mary's late 2010. I had an EMCs for a very poorly managed labour and their recovery ward was abysmal. The midwives were rude and unhelpful, my DD had to be taken to special care soon after the birth, she was gone for the whole first day and night and no one came to see me with updates, when I asked to go and see her I was refused as it would've needed someone to wheel me up in a wheelchair.

Friends of mine have also had recent births at St. Mary's and all have not had good things to say about the postnatal ward, one who had a c-section to deliver twins was asked to leave 2 hours post-op!! Think carefully before choosing St. Mary's.

Negative ante-natal experience at St. Mary's - messed up with my 12-week scan results (got a letter 1.5 months later, after complaining and the letter said in typed letters "you have 1 in ....chances of chromosomal abnormality" - they forgot to handwrite the exact number) ; long waits for the SCHEDULED appointment ("we are so busy we did not have a chance to have lunch yet so you'll have to wait"); and the worst was at 8 week booking appointment when I reported bleeding three days before. The response from the MW was "it's for A&E; you can come wit this to us only after 28 weeks" - and I was there already there sitting in front of her!! Switched the hospital in week 13.