Swap from Kingston hospital to st helier?

[leannac]

Has anyone swapped hospitals after being booked in? Just had my 13w scan at Kingston but visiting the hospital brought on a semi panic attack at remembering how awful my last labour was there. Thinking if swapping to home birth with st helier or st helier birth centre but
A) not sure if care in st helier is much better than Kingston (although like the look of new birth centre!)
B) not sure if drs will allow me to just change hospitals? Anyone had any experience of doing this?

No idea but my labour at Kingston was diabolical too! I've always said I'd go to Epsom or C&W next time. Sure your gp could sort it.

I think you are allowed to swap if you want to. When I went for my bookin appointment at Kingston they told me that actually I ought to have been at St Helier geographically speaking, but for various reasons I wanted Kingston.

I think if you play the 'traumatic birth last time' card they will be ok with it?

Hi girls,

I'm a midwife working on the Birth Centre at St Helier Hospital. Our Birth Centre has been open for nearly 3 years now and it has become an asset to the local community and further afield.

We have 3 labour rooms all fitted with birth pools and en suite wet rooms. The labour rooms really are beautiful. We have mood lighting to create a warm, calming and nurturing environment for you to feel safe to labour in. Each room has ipod speakers and DAB radio and we encourage you to bring your own playlists on your ipods or hypnobirthing mantras etc enabling you to relax into your labour.

We are keen to support you in breastfeeding your newborn and St Helier hospital has UNICEF baby friendly level 2. This means that all midwives and maternity assistants are fully trained in guiding you through effective positioning and attachment to enable you to breastfeed your baby. We have one private postnatal room within the birth centre for immediate postnatal support, if you so wish to stay with us overnight after the birth of your baby.

As a midwife that works on the birth centre I can assure you that we are all passionate about normal birth. We all share the same goal of a safe, natural, normal delivery as you do and we will endevour to facilitate this for you and your birthing partners.

As St Helier is the smallest of the surrounding hospitals I feel that we are sometimes not mentioned by GPs when being reffered to hospitals for maternity care. I really would urge you to come and have a look at the Birth Centre and meet some of the midwives. You can give us a call 24 hours a day on 02082962050 to make an appointment for a one to one tour of the Birth Centre.

I just picked a few cards off of our wall to find some comments that were written from some of the women who have delivered with us.......

"The care that we received in the Birth Centre including the overnight stay and breastfeeding support, was really exceptional and on reflection I felt I had enjoyed private care. We are so greatful! Your team is a credit to the NHS!"

"The relaxed, professional and caring approach by the midwives made it a really wonderful experience and we can't thank you enough for your care and support!"

"Thank you for 'upgrading' me to the birth centre, for the conversation and banter and of course the support, encouragement and back massages and the total care you gave to myself and my baby"

I wish I could put some photos up here to show off our facilities but unfortunately I can't!

I hope that we see some of you soon and please don't hesitate to call us if you want a look around!

That's fantastic info, thanks. I think I'll book in to come have a look around!

I had my last two babies at St Helier (labour ward not birth centre due to previous cs) one in Jan this year and one at the end of 2010. The midwives I had were brilliant and I would recommend it.

Swap from Kingston if you can. Had diabolical experience there.

I also had a terrible time in Kingston!

I must be the only person on Mumsnet to have had a positive experience at Kingston. Maybe it's a pre/post refurb thing? Wasn't the birth I'd dreamed of but then DS had other plans, really. And the postnatal care was actually really good (but perhaps I had low expectations).

Anyway - a friend went to St Helier at the same time as DS was born (a year ago) and had a decent experience.

How far into your pregnancy did you visit Kingston hospital I live in that area so guess that would be local hospital for me?

Hello
I am 11 weeks pregnant and due to a previous ectopic I have already had
2 scans at 6 weeks and 9 weeks I am due my 12 week scan next week.
My GP recommended St.Heliers hospital as she said if there are any complications it is better to be at St.Helier than Epsom. So my initial scans have been at St. Heliers. Obviously what is most important is to receive the best care but I really dont like the layout at St Heliers and overall I just don't get a good vibe there. Even though the staff I have encountered so far at St. Heliers have been lovely. With my previous ectopic I had been treated at Epsom and having experienced a combination of A&E staff and EPU staff they didnt instill me with confidence but somehow felt a better vibe there. Epsom hospital is closer to where I live. So I am really unsure what to do - stay with St. Helier or move to Epsom? I would be really grateful for your comments. Thanks

I had all 4 dcs at Kingston - one bad experience when I didn't get dealt with quickly enough following pph but otherwise good.

My sister has had 3 there including one v prem needing scbu for 2 months.

My friend had a bad experience the first time at Kingston and had an elcs the second time which was positive for her

I had both of mine at St Helier and couldn't recommend them enough. I was given early scans both times as my first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. I also had false alarms with my second labour which they were very good about. When I had my second DS they had the birthing centre, and although I didn't get to use it it seemed good. All in all couldn't fault the care I received.

I had DC1 at Kingston in early 2010. Had a wonderful experience so much so that I'm looking forward to giving birth to DC2 and had my own room after birth, which I hadn't requested nor was expecting.

Have only had a dating scan there for this pregnancy but the sonographer was lovely and waited for DP to get back from topping up the car park meter before scanning me, which was really thoughtful of her.

Mzungogirl...do you have wireless ctg monitoring on your main labour ward to allow mobility and use of water? Need monitoring so won't be suitable for what sounds like your lovely mw led unit but just wondering?