Private pushing - Chelsea or Kingston?

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Ladies - would be so grateful for your advice. I'm pregnant with my first child and due to previous health concerns, have decided to go private.
I'm deciding between Kingstons private BMI coombe wing (convenient as I live in hampton) or kensington and Chelsea - but would love to know your experience and recommendations. I plan to visit both also.
My biggest concern with Chelsea is that it could take an hour to Get to, which does worry me a little with childbirth and also the amount of visits id need to have as well, with it not being that close. My biggest worry with Kingston is that is seems very small with just two consultants...
All advice greatly welcomed. Thank you.

Think seriously about how long it takes to get to a hospital. Travelling to and from hospital in the back of a car in rush hour traffic is pretty horrific. Traffic in that part of London is pretty crap outside of rush hour as well

I don't know the hospitals, but I would think very, very seriously about having to travel to a hospital an hour away unless you are planning a planned section (and even then you have to factor in the possibility you will go into labour before the date set). It can be very painful sitting in a car in labour.

Kingston has a good local reputation. I'd go there if I lived in Hampton. Or West Mid. Actually maybe not West Mid because local gossip suggests they've been a bit chaotic recently

I don't know about their maternity facilities, but I've found Kingston horrendous on everything else. i wouldn't recommend it, unless a poster here has direct experience of the Coombe Wing and can vouch for it.

I'm almost an hour (55 minutes if we really drive fast!) from our maternity hospital, because we live fairly rurally. It's just how it is here, and has never really bothered me. None of my friends have ever failed to get to hospital on time, even with second and third babies (although one did have her third in triage). I suspect that with a first baby an hour away would be absolutely fine, it just might mean that you go in a little earlier than you might if you were ten minutes away.

SomeSunny - but rural hospitals are geared up for long journeys. Less so with private I imagine, but busy NHS hospitals regularly send people home for not being far enough along. So that could be 3 x 1 hour journey, or more...

Also , isn't it different to have one hour's journey fairly predictable and on quietish roads as opposed to contracting in a traffic jam with people on the bus next to you watching.

Hello, have you tried also posting this on our Kingston site?

local.mumsnet.com/Talk/kingston-upon-thames/local-active

Good luck with your decision making

Local Editor

Very helpful, thank you x

Thank you for your advice x

You might have more luck on the Richmond board than Kingston. Parents in that area tend to use either Chelsea and Westminster, Queen Charlottes or Kingston hospitals but fewer in Kingston will travel to C&W in my experience.

I had both my children via c section at Kingston with Carl Chow who is excellent although it wasn't private. I did consider private aftercare on the Coombe Wing but was told there are no private midwives. The nurses are general nurses so they don't help with breastfeeding advice etc. I opted to stay under NHS. If Carl Chow is one of the consultants you can have then I would definitely choose him. He really was so good with my two very complicated pregnancies.Good luck!

Excellent point. Ill do that

Thanks

Your advice is invaluable. Thank you