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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Giving birth at St Thomas?

18 replies

rach6122 · 03/09/2012 16:17

Wondering if anyone has given brith recently at St Thomas in London as i've heard mixed opinions and a little worried! due to give birth there in December. thanks

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cooper44 · 03/09/2012 20:01

Hi there - I gave birth there three years ago and am having my second there in Three weeks. I absolutely love St Thomas's - can't think of anything bad to say despite having a very long and at times very stressful birth first time round. Everyone I came in contact with was amazing and when things got a bit hairy after delivery the neonatal team were incredible.
I just moved house and am now a bit of a drive away (40 mins) but was determined to stick with St Thomas's.

Jules125 · 03/09/2012 20:07

Had DD2 there in Deccember 2010 (ELCS - high risk) and having care for DD3 (due nov 2012) there.

Ante-natal care and care during delivery were excellent, really superb. I had to spend time in hospital ante-natally but I was really well looked after.

Post-natal care was awful though. But if you are low risk and all goes smoothly you migt not get to experience that!

Best wises

blueshoes · 03/09/2012 20:10

Agree with jules that St Thomas is great for high risk deliveries (good NICU/SCBU) but not great for post natal care.

cooper44 · 03/09/2012 21:21

yes I probably should have added than post-delivery we managed to get a private room for one night. It was expensive (about £800 I think) but worth it to avoid the post-natal wards......

Badgerina · 04/09/2012 00:30

If you give birth in the Home from Home unit, the chances are that you won't need to go onto the postnatal ward. I didn't - I gave birth at 4.30pm on the Wednesday, stayed the night in my lovely room (over looking the houses of parliament and the Thames!) and was discharged by 4.30pm the next day.

I gave birth there 8 years ago ( ) so not really recently, but I was extremely well looked after.

NellyJob · 04/09/2012 00:39

well it was a while ago now, but I had amazing care there, single room overlooking parliament for 10 days, cos of having tiny twins (did we have the same room badgerina?) and very well looked after all round.

Whiteshoes · 04/09/2012 00:40

Gave birth year a half ago, with the high risk midwives. They were amazing. i felt utterly safe in their hands. Post natal is a bit yuk. Really busy and inconsistent. But still with lovely views! Just leg it as soon as you can.

cs2012 · 04/09/2012 09:38

I gave birth there 7 weeks ago. Tried to get into home from home unit but ended up in the obstetric lead unit instead. The care I received was excellent (30 hr labour ending in emergency c section).

had a week long stay in the post natal ward. Care from midwives was at times inconsistent and sketchy but I did meet some amazing midwives who were brilliant.

HTH

Original poster

rach6122 · 04/09/2012 11:42

thanks for all the replies - feel a bit better about it as mostly positive, i hope to be in the home from home so fingers crossed i dotn end up on the post-natal ward!

OP posts:

Pyrrah · 08/09/2012 23:07

Had DD there 3 years ago.

Birth went very wrong (no-ones fault) and surgeons were amazing and saved both of us. Spent 2 days in HDU having transfusions - wonderful care. Then 6 days in single room on postnatal - one great midwife, one total bitch and the rest mixed bag.

Was with high-risk midwife team before birth who were fab.

Would definitely choose St T's again.

blossombath · 08/09/2012 23:22

I gave birth under care of St Thomas in March, though was actually a not entirely planned home birth (so I missed those views!). I loved the care i got, and if there is any way you can get onto one of the caseload midwives teams I would recommend them- one's in Kennington, not sure on the other. I know several mums who had the caseload mws, some at home and some in hospital, and they all rave about them. They also do post natal follow ups and were brilliant for me.

Of my mum friends who gave birth in St T's, not one had a bad experience because of the hospital iykwim.

Badgerina · 09/09/2012 01:18

Oh yes, I second the caseload team recommendation. I'm with the Clapham team and they've been ace! Just waiting to see what they're like in action (come one baby!)

Southwest · 09/09/2012 01:28

I've had some of mine there!!

TBH my most recent birth there was a cock up from start to finish I actually still find the whole thing really quite difficult to talk about but eg one of the highlights was 2 midwives standing screaming at each other in front of me, which would have been a bit off however one was actually telling the other that she was not to talk to me as I was someone else's responsibility, not that I was or had even seen the other person for over 24 hours, I also went over 24 hours with no food or water except tap water from a bathroom sink then they tried to persuade me to stay because they couldn't find the paperwork (this was after the screaming). There was loads of other stuff some rel. unimportant some medical so not by any means all trivial.

Admittedly I should have 'kicked off' like so many others do but I had a variety of reasons for not wanting to do so.

I do have 2 friends who gave birth more recently (last one about 5 months ago) and they both had really good experiences.

Southwest · 09/09/2012 01:31

Oh actually I've just realised that sounds really bad!!

What I should emphasise is that chances are you will be fine and just because one person had a bad time clearly most others will not.

Also I don't believe it is worse than anywhere else, postnatal has a rep for being worse than the others but TBH it seems to be pretty average in most of the surrounding alternatives, there are advantages to giving birth in your local that can be quite important

Good luck for Dec!

Badgerina · 09/09/2012 01:38

Southwest !!!!!! PLEASE tell me you made a formal complaint?? That sounds so, unbelievably unprofessional. I'm quite shocked.

Southwest · 09/09/2012 01:39

Sorry to be clear postnatal is worse than prenatal, delivery theatre etc not worse than other hospitals!!

Southwest · 09/09/2012 01:47

No I didn't I'm afraid in the grand scheme of things going on those were minor teeny tiny titchy issues they of course didn't help!
I have been wondering about complaining but since 2 friends have now told me it was very different for them in the last year, I'm trying to persue my complaint against a staff member in another trust who gave my dc a massive overdose of a non prescribed drug since I have to prioritise.

I suspect the problem that night was that every single member of staff appeared to be agency. There is a bit of a back story as well of course!

Badgerina · 09/09/2012 07:16

SouthWest I'm sorry that happened. Especially on top of everything else you describe.

I have heard bad things about agency staff on other wards at Tommies actually. Someone I know, recently had an op there and was left to recover all night with no pain relief, without being able to move, and had to beg for a catheter. She was also told to "shut up your whingeing" because she cried all night due to the pain

I've never heard similar from postnatal though. Makes me very sad It's meant to be such a precious time.

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