Is St Georges Hospital a good place to have a baby ?

[REDFRUIT]

Hi Everybody !
I'm 5 weeks pregnant with my 2nd child and thinking of having it in St Georges hospital, anybody has been there ? I had my dd in Chelsea and West but it was horrible, one of the night midwife was pretty nasty to so I don't want to go back there...Is St Georges a good choice ? Thank you for your answers !!!

I had my ds at St Georges 6 years ago, and I've got nothing but praise for that hospital. Due to complications I was in the high dependency unit within the ward, and all the staff were really lovely. My ds had to spend some time in the SCBU as well and the nurses there were absolutely wonderful.

Hi Redfruit - there was a thread about this

here.

My experience at St George's was not a happy one.

I also wouldn't recommend St George's
Their SCBU has a good rep but I didn't require that

I'm not surprise by your answers for some of you..If it was up to me I'll have a homebirth but I'm renting the place where I live so I don't think I can have the baby at home but I wish I could...I'm dreading to go to St Georges really...Chelsea looked like a nice hospital but it was horrible...one of the midwife shouted at me because I was crying, she told me "but what do you expect being a mother ?" it was my first baby, what do you expect from a 1rst time mother ?? I ended up doing a post natal depression, because I convice myself I was a rubbish mother !

I doubt it says it your tenancy agreeement that you cannot give birth at home - go for it

Have a home birth

Redfruit, I can't see any reason why renting would stop you having a home birth? Are you sharing a house with lots of other people? Did you ask about it for your first and get knocked back?

Just wondering btw, no personal experience. But I certainly wouldn't expect any landlord to have an influence over your health choices, especially such an important one.

Hello lockets - congrats on your new arrival, hope all is going well

Nothing but praise from me as well. I have had two babies there and really can't say anything negative about it. Both times, however, I have gone home at the earliest possible opportunity so have not spent any time on a post-natal ward. With ds2 four years ago they had a brilliant system whereby your community midwife could come into hospital when you were giving birth so you were with someone you knew rather than a midwife you had never set eyes on. I don't know if they still do that.

I had a homebirth last year with dd and that was great, particularly because I knew St George's was round the corner if anything went wrong. The thing I hear time and time again about St George's is that it is brilliant if the baby needs any kind of specialist care.

My husband probably said as an excuse the fact we were renting the place...he doesn't want me to have an home birth..I'm living in Southfields so St georges is just around the corner, I'll give it a go for a homebirth ! Silly question, but can I have my baby in my bed ?

My husband probably said as an excuse the fact we were renting the place...he doesn't want me to have an home birth..I'm living in Southfields so St georges is just around the corner, I'll give it a go for a homebirth ! Silly question, but can I have my baby in my bed ?

yes redfruit you can. i had most of my birth at home (up until the last hour and a half which was a st georges.

they were great, but i couldn't wait to get out of there so was home within four hours!!!!

go for a home birth. and of course you can have your baby in bed....maybe cover it with something waterproof under your duvet etc???

I had my ds1 there in 2003, they probably saved his life, and he had a brief stay in Neo natal unit, but the wards are appalling. Dirty and the staff, all agency and so unpleasant. I got no help despite having had an emergency c section under ga.
Midwifes were patronising and sarcastic, and I did really well to bond with my son in after and awful birth experience (never saw the team who did ga afterwards, no idea what happened really), and no help on wards. No support for bfing despite what they say in their literature

I had a terrible time at St Georges 7 years ago this Nov and when having DD 20mths ago I choose Kings which was a much better experience although it wasn't perfect.

St Georges then ws dirty had dreadful staff and mismanaged my induced labour. ALl the midwives were either agency or from Finland. Language was a problem with the Finnish Midwives as you can expect.

They had 3 inductions going on at the same time which as you know can lead to assisted birth and by the time they wanted to use the Ventouse they discovered that the other inducted (or should it be induced) patients got there first and yes you guessed it the forceps were brought out. Sex was painful for about 1 year after this trauma. I was in such pain for a few weeks after I couldn't sit down and Bfing was very difficult.

I think the responses here show that it probably is the luck of the draw as to how good your experience is. A good midwife and you are away wherever you are.

I'll definetely have a homebirth...I don't want to take the risk of having another bad experience in hospital....It must be so nice to stay in the confort of your surrondings and not having deal with moody midwives...they are not all like that but still...

I'm glad you're going for what you want. There are loads of home birth threads and sites mentioned in the Childbirth board, but I'll just mention advice I've seen to make up your bed w/clean sheets, duvet etc, then put a plastic sheet over that, then another clean sheet on top, so that after the birth the midwife just takes off the plastic sheet and top sheet and you have a fresh clean bed to get into.

Thanks Acnebride, that's a very good tips...;-)

Had both my kids there...

To cut a long story short I have faith in their medical capability and found the midwives to be very good. The staff that man the ward after you birth, especially the night staff, are absoultely dreadful though and on both occasions I saw new Mums cry from the rudeness and generally bad attitude of the staff. There seems to be a culture of bad attitude and they even fight amongst themselves. I only had to stay one night each time and I'm in the process of writing a written complaint.

That said, if you're forwarned and are fortunate enough to not have to stay more than one night then I reckon you'll be fine.

That's the thing I find completely revolting..the rudeness form the miwife in the ward after birth. So I didn't imagine it, it didn't happen to me only...When I was at Chelsea, I was charing a room with 5 other ladies, I stayed 5 days there, and let me tell you I was dreading to be on my own when my husband had to leave...the dinner lady was awful, the midwives rude and not at all understanding...I felt like if I was in a boot camp...I cried a lot while I was there, non of the midwives tried to confort me.

hi, I think that poor postnatal care is an NHS thing. I was at Elizabeth Garrett Andersen, direct after delivery I was wheeled with drips, no wash due to shortstaffed labour ward, to postnatal ward where I was given a very public bollocking for getting blood on the sheets. I also received totally wrong advice about b/f, staff was extremely rude to all the women there, it was awful. Plus their bathrooms they only had two were filthy, one had only the shower working, the other had only the basin working.