Whittington or uch?

[Tilly2b]

Does anyone have any recent experience? I had my two previous babies at uch and thought they were fantastic but have now moved house to much nearer to the Whittington and I am worried about being too far from hospital.

Thanks!

I had my DS at the Whittington in 2011 and it was very good. I'm due with dc2 there in October and again am happy so far.

Did you go to the labour ward or birth centre? I heard the birth centre at the Whittington is new and very nice.

Well I had best intentions to go to the birth centre but my blood pressure had other ideas! I was induced on labour ward and had an emcs, 7 days on the post natal ward. I really have no complaints as those circumstances could have happened anywhere.
My friend had her DS in the birth centre and was very happy.

I had a baby at The Whittington in 2010 and in 2013 at UCLH.

My personal experience was that UCLH is much more modern and organised than The Whittington. You didn't wait nearly as long for appointments or blood test results and scans were more detailed at UCLH. The teams at UCLH seemed better staffed than at The Whittington. (I chose UCLH after a very bad birth for my first child and didn't want to go to the same hospital.)

The birth centre at The Whittington is nice so if you had a good chance of a low risk birth, that would be a good option. I haven't seen the UCLH one but my friend gave birth there last year and said it was great.

However, the staff at The Whittington were brilliant when I had unforeseen problems after my second birth and had to be admitted to a hospital.

I have heard that The Whittington has now capped births at the hospital so it might be worth checking that out.

Capped births no longer going ahead
I am having a high risk pregnancy his time and am havin lots of scans. Everyone is pleasant and waiting times are better than my first pregnancy.

Currently in an NCT group which is 50/50 UCH and Whittington and the babies are popping out on a daily basis. The difference between the two hospitals so far doesn't seem like much when it comes to actually having the baby.

It seems like if you want a shiny progressive hospital with lots of checks and you're happy with a big group of midwives go UCH - and if you have complications you could end up being referred there anyway.

However if you have no complications but you want your midwife to be a bit more familiar go Whittington. Also private rooms at the whit are way cheaper than UCH.

I went UCH as I had a couple of little issues and I think they're great (but Baba hasn't made his appearance yet!)

That is great news about the Whittington downsizing not going ahead, PseudoBadger. (Sorry for slight derailing, OP...) I'd missed seeing that reported but I couldn't understand how it could go ahead. That is very good news!

I had dd at the whittington 8 months ago. The staff could not have been nicer and I had a regular midwife who I saw for 90% of checks which was good - no need to keep explaining problems. I was booked into the midwife led centre but had to go into the labour ward because there was meconium in my waters so I was high risk. Good job because dd was undiagnosed breech. Very very speedy route to theatre for emcs. Tried to get a private room post cs - had heard they were about £50 per night but all the rooms were full so was on the ward which wasn't much fun. All the staff were lovely. Couldn't fault them or the service but facilities a bit ropey.

Will go there for next baby but will insist on more checks and a scan if in any doubt about position of the baby - I wish I had trusted my instincts more. It also helps that we live close by in crouch end so it was really easy for dh to flit between hospital and home whilst I was there.

I was very lucky (although they may have taken pity on me as DS was in NICU and I was ill) - I had a private room from the second night at no charge - without asking for it!

It was only reported yesterday Ruby so don't worry!

I had a great experience w/ UCH for birth 11 wks ago. I had a home birth, with ante natal checks at local children's centre 2 mins down road from me - so saw same mw for all check ups. Scans were excellent, they do a 3rd one as standard (at 30-something wks) and results came v quickly from bloods, etc. All very efficient on the hospital side and I can't rave enough about how brilliant the community mw team are.

I'm going to the Whittington. Had a look around the birth centre at the weekend and it was amazing! All the midwives I've met there have been great, so friendly, informed and supportive. I also had a brief visit to the labour ward as I needed to be assessed and that looked very nice too. I live in the area and work with members of the public who all tell me how great their experiences of the Whittington were.

I had DD in Whittington in 2011. Antenatal care was hit and miss so if you can have a same community midwife is better, I saw new person every time and not always good. I was denied few appointments at the end of the pregnancy because they were overcrowded. Likely I had complication free pregnancy and ended up having water birth in the birth centere. It was great, the midwifes there were much much nicer and really supported my birth plan. I had complications few days after the birth and had to return to the hospital, they took an excellent care of me then as well. Overall I would highly recommend them but if you know ahead of time that you might end up with section or some complications, may be from previous births, I would head straight to UCH, Whittington wards are horrendous.

Just thought I'd return to this thread as I read it when I was trying to make my mind up between UCLH (having had my fist baby there) and the Whittington which was closer as we'd moved between baby 1 and 2. I opted for Whittington second time around and generally I preferred it to UCLH. I asked my partner (who works in research for UCLH) to check the stats and they are pretty much statistically on a par (weighted for the fact UCLH has more complicated cases) so for a straightforward pregnancy there is no difference in outcome. Whittington was less busy and had a great community midwife programme. They weren't as thorough with some of the tests/scans as they aren't using the data for research as much but I don't think that matters for standard pregnancies. The staff in the maternity wards seemed less busy/overworked at the Whittington - at UCLH my experience was that they were abrupt and unhelpful - particularly with breastfeeding issue, and when my stitches came apart a few days after being discharged. That might be an unfair comparison though as I was more experienced second time round and didn't need any help. The actual birth when exactly the same - a few hours in the birthing centre followed by transfer to the labour ward and assisted delivery with forceps. I was glad a chose the closest hospital for follow visits because of jaundice etc... and the after care was better in my experience at the Whittington. They also handled my miscarriage between babies very well.

I had DS at the Whittington last autumn. I guess many of the problems are typical of busy London hospitals but for what it's worth here's my pros and considered:

Pros:

• Good transport links
• everything on site e.g.SCBU / NICU
• Midwife appointments near home in the community

Cons:

• Difficult to get scans on time and midwife appointments without constant phoning, very overstretched.
• Postnatal ward had 24 bays and was overcrowded as partners could stay 24/7. Obviously partners staying might be a pro for some people but it made my week + stay awful for me personally.
• No breastfeeding support if you live outside of Islington!
• Understaffed and not very knowledgeable on preterm babies, breastfeeding. They made an error with an injection for DS as "no time to read notes"

That being said I hear the birth centre is lovely and UCH is probably equally crowded.