Which London hospital and how far?

[Sdva]

Hello, I am looking for some advice please. I am 8weeks today and trying to decide about hospitals for antenatal and delivery options. My closest hospital is Princess Royal Farnborough. It's about a 15min drive. Not too keen after some not so great experiences there.

Therefore, have been looking for alternative options. We have been thinking about Kings and St Thomas as a a result. Kings is about 25min drive and St Thomas about 35mins. My preference at the moment is St Thomas as it gives us the option to go private at the lansdell suite later if we wanted/needed.

Any views please about distance/choice of hospital/nhs v private? Any help would be great. Thanks

Are you in the catchment area for St Thomas'? I know you can ask to give birth anyway but Tommy's is very popular and if you're out the area they will take you if they aren't busy. I gave birth there btw.

I went to the home from home part, used the pool etc. the midwife during the birth was lovely, afterwards overnight I got ignored and no-one showed me how to feed as they were too busy. Saying that I think I was unlucky as others from my Nct group had a better experience. Their neonatal unit is excellent.

How about Kingston? Is that not nearer?

*anywhere, not anyway.

If your closest hospital is the PRUH are you sure that your journey to St Thomas' would only take 35 minutes? I used to commute from East Dulwich to St Thomas' and it would often take much longer than that. I couldn't face the idea of being stuck on the Walworth Road mid labour and so chose to have my daughter at Kings.

I delivered my baby at PRUH 10 days ago. not a straight forward labour in the end and 4 nights stay in hospital. I'm about to write a review on the nhs website as the care from midwives, doctors, paediatric team and nurses was excellent.

Msg me if you want to hear about my experience, it was very good, really.

Oh and congratulations!!

What Jolly said. We lived in Clapham at the time and that was long enough when I was contracting in the car! What if you went into labour in rush hour? You'd never get there, (having just realised where you are).

You may not be too far from Lewisham. I had DS2 in the birth unit and it was amazing. Really kind, helpful midwives and a beautiful room to labour in. I only saw my midwife, no other staff came in and you hear very little noise around you, it was peaceful, calm and a wonderful experience.

I am also about 20 mins from Farnborough. I had both of my girls there & have nothing but positive things to say about it.

If you live in that area I have no idea how you would get to st Thomas' in that time frame. That being said my friends who live near there have all had positive experiences there.

Every hospital will have its 'good and bad' birth stories. Best thing is to visit them to get a feel if which suits you best. I had ds at King's and found them wonderful.

Hi Pobble. Kingston is too far from me. Thanks for sharing your feedback about Tommys. We wanted to check out the ward but were told they don't do tours anymore and can only see the virtual videos. The main reason for thinking about this hospital was for the flexibility to go private if we needed to. The consultants who see private also consult on the nhs, and some of them had some great feedback. The distance to the hospital does worry me the most.

Hi jollyb. You are absolutely right about the distance issue. And this is the only reason that is holding me back from going to Tommys

Hi gloti. Congratulations to you too :) thanks very much for your offer. I will message you soon

If you're near Lewisham, I can recommend it. My care has been outstanding.

Only other 'London' I have experience with is Chelsea and Westminster (too far) and Queen Elizabeth (sent me home septic...never again)!

Hi missmash. Thanks for the heads up on Lewisham, will check it out.

Hokeypokey: distance to Tommys is my main concern. Not sure how to circumvent the issue other than staying in a service apartment closer to the date? the very positive reviews and the access to private (if needed and post delivery private room) makes it very attractive, no to mention t
heir consultants. What other hospitals did you consider in the area and what made you choose Farnborough?

Theoneandonlyalpha: you are absolutely right about visiting the hospitals. However, kings, Tommys and other hospitals say have do not have ward tours anymore.

We went private at st Thomas & it was wonderful. Lovely staff, access to top class hospital facilities if you need them, plus DH could stay overnight. If you are worried about 'not making it in time' then you can basically show up whenever you like if you go private. I ended up with an ELCS so we arrived the night before, went for a walk along the river the next morning, DS was delivered around 4pm and by 7pm DH had gone to get me sushi . Wonderful experience all round and if we go for no. 2 I would definitely do the same again

My son was born at the Chelsea and Westminster and I was very happy with my care there and the multitude of restaurants that delivered as the food sucked. Not sure about the travel for you but private care available if your consultant has admitting privileges there.

Another vote for the Lewisham birth centre here. I had DD2 there and it was amazing - peaceful, beautiful room, amazing care and very un hospital-like. Better than many private places I thought.

Delivery care at St Thomas's was excellent for me, post natal care was awful. I had an EMCS and so was in for three days and they were the longest three days of my life. Midwives just don't have the time to look after everyone properly and unfortunately having had a section this particularly affected me as I wasn't able to pick up DD on my own without help, and it doesn't come quickly! But i think this is true of all london hospitals and you'd sidestep this if you went private. Plus side is post natal ward (and home from home birth centre) have incredible parliament views, and I had a window bed on the ward afterwards. Swings and roundabouts....

I had my DD at King's. Due to complications, I was in for 6 days after an EMCS and DD was born with a twisted leg. The care there was outstanding and she was seen by one of the World's top orthopaedic surgeons within hours of her birth who ascertained that everything would take care of itself and sure enough her leg rectified itself in a couple of weeks. But they still send us for x-rays, ultrasounds etc to make sure.

Some of the midwives are a bit surly but one absolutely saved my sanity when the post baby blues hit. There's also a lot of help in establishing breastfeeding if you want it.

Also partners are allowed to stay overnight but I would recommend getting a blow up bed which is what my DH did instead of in the rather uncomfortable hard sofa which is provided.

sdva, King's DO still do tours. www.kch.nhs.uk/service/a-z/maternity

I also had a brilliant time at Lewisham Birth Centre, midwives are wonderful and the rooms are perfect. I had a dire time on the postnatal ward though. If I was thinking about private care it'd be postnatal rather than labour.

[waves at showtunes from cookery bookclub]

Oh yes and Lewisham do tours too.

Ooh you're local too! [waves back]

Hi Ashingai. We went to see the private maternity ward at Tommys. Who was your doctor and midwife? We really liked what we saw :)

Passthe Creme Eggs: So sorry to hear about your post natal experience. We have heard this from many people who have had similar experiences of post natal care on the NHS and hence we were thinking private. Did you try shifting to a private ward after your delivery?

Showtunes: Will did try Kings to get a tour organised, but no luck so far. Will keep trying. :)

I've "done" Queen Elizabeth, Kings and Chelsea and Westminster.

Queen Elizabeth - The hospital midwife was incompetent and her mistakes caused short term issues (retained and then infected placenta parts necessitating a three night stay a few weeks later) and long term (she had me pushing for an hour against a cervical lip which probably was responsible for my later incompetent cervix). Medical negligence aside, the place is grim. By nature of the local area, there's a lot of people in there who don't give a shit about others trying to get rest, and the midwives are ridiculously outnumbered. It was also not hugely clean either.

Kings - Good medical service (failed induction then EMCS) and most of the midwives were fine, if overstretched. One was awful and had a go at me for crying because I should be grateful I had a baby, when I'd had a hugely traumatic pregnancy, nearly lost DD and my father had recently passed away. She also claimed formula was donor milk, and would not countenance me changing beds to one with some daylight. Thankfully her replacement was truly lovely and saw the state I was in. So the place was much of a muchness, dire midwife aside.

Chelsea and Westminster - Best by far. Excellent medical service, and despite a shared ward, everyone was very respectful of each others' space and privacy. Clean, as well. Just completely impractical for SE London, but as I was having an ELCS and was already seeing a consultant there for a very specialist pregnancy issue, it was not an issue to have the ELCS there too.

I've heard okay things about PRUH actually, and Lewisham.