Decision: Which hospital in North London? :(

[Aga2012]

Hi there,

I am new here and was hoping for some advise. I am pregnant with my second child, it is still early days but as everyone might know I have to decide what hospital to go for.

I gave birth at the North Mid hospital in August 2011 and had a pretty bad experience. Everything was fine with the antenatal care and I had lovely midwives (except very first appt) up until the midwife who was going to deliver my baby walked in. Thinking about it is still quite painful. Baby had to be delivered with the help of forceps in the end, before that I had three hours of pushing contractions where the midwife treated me quite bad. When I asked for the epidural to be topped up she walked out just to come back after a couple of minutes saying she didn't find anyone. (I was on a drip and was advised to have an epidural, wouldn't have had one otherwise).

Now it is really clear to me that I do not want to go back there just because I feel I couldn't relax.

I would go for ie the Edgware Birthcentre but as there might be a high chance that I will require some help during childbirth I would prefer to go to a MLU within a hospital.

My first choice was Whittington as they have six rooms of which five have a birthing pool which I would love to try (they didn't let me with my first cos my baby was too big).

After someone telling me that Whittington isn't that well I opted for Barnet, but they only have three rooms with one movable pool :(

My GP suggested to also think about UCH, I had it on my mind but it is quite far, I live in Palmers Green North London.

I hope there are some mums here who would share their experience so that I can make my decision in the end.

Thank you!

I can't comment on the hospitals but I can relate to your experience of heart sinking when midwife who was going to deliver walked in! Same thing hapened to me with DD1. As soon as I saw her my hackles went up and I didn;'t have a good birth (apart from the result of course)

I wonder in retrospect if it wasn't the fact (partly) that I was already distressed and knew this was "it". Looking back, an angel could have walked in and I'd have been on the back foot....I would wait to see if you get any advice here...if not, post again in chat with a title like "Who has given birth in North London?"

LOADS of people will have and there's a lot more traffic there too. xx Good luck.

Hi it is my first pregnancy so not sure how much help I can be, but I have been with the Royal Free hospital until now and have found the midwives and staff really lovely and always happy to help...

Ps have you called the hospitals you are considering, to ask for a tour? I know the Royal Free do them regularly, although UCH said they didn't, when I called.

There's a 'virtual tour' on the UCH website.

I'm meant to be having an ELCS at UCH tomorrow and have been happy with the antenatal care so far. You do always see different midwives, but all of them have been nice, some seem really brilliant.

Nice facilities, and the antenatal class run there was really good I thought, more useful than NCT in lots of ways.

I'm booked for my first baby at UCH and have been really impressed with their set up so far. I do worry a bit about having a long treck in in a hurry as I live quite far away.

Having heard lots of scare stories about my local choices, Whipps Cross or North Midd, I don't really feel like their is much of a choice to make.

I've also been treated on Royal Free's labour ward after an accident earlier in this pregnancy and I thought it was an absolute shambles there. Maybe they were just having a bad day but when I arrived a birth had just taken place in the triage room as there were no beds available and the co-ordinator was walking around shouting random really unhelpful insults at her own staff and patients/families who were all standing around waiting to be seen I various states of distress. It was absolute chaos and seemed like an accident waiting to happen.

There are a couple of good sites that let you compare hospitals by patient feedback eg number of complaints per year, rate of interventions etc. but I can't seem to find the link now. Have a look at BirthchoiceUK too for some basic stats too