Moving to Lewisham

[jjj789]

Hi I'll be moving from outside London to Lewisham at 28 weeks. I'm not sure how things work in London, but you do seem to have more of a choice regarding hospitals. Do I need to register with a GP first and go from there, or get in touch directly with the midwives at the hospital? Also, any recommendations for where to give birth? We'll be living really close to Lewisham hospital so that seems to make sense, but not sure what my other options are and whether they are worth considering.
Thanks :)

I think you can contact the midwifes directly at Lewisham. There is the Midwife Led Unit for low risk pregnancies/births supported by labour ward in the same building: www.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk/maternity-information. Hopefully that helps you!

The midwife led unit at Lewisham is fab, the rest of it less so. You could go to Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich but that is anecdotally worse, or King's if they'll take you which is great for nicu/scbu but don't know about the rest. And a long journey in rush hour.

Yep, Lewisham will take self-referrals, just call them and they should email you the form. The MLU is brilliant. I ended up having DD on the labour ward which was not brilliant (but I think I got a dud agency midwife). I would try and have your antenatal in the community if you can though as the waits at the hospital clinic can be very long.

I had dd in lewisham labour ward who were great. I was turned away from the mlu which I was bitter about, as birth was completely straightforward, not because labouring in the ward was a problem, but because the post natal ward was lonely and terrifying when my dd would not latch on and the overnight midwives were too overstretched to be of much help, and I'd have avoided it if I'd been in the mlu. The big difference between Lewisham and Kings (from anecdata from my friends) is that at Kings dads are allowed to sleepover on the post natal ward. I would have loved this, but I know a lot of women hate the idea of strange men being around while they are bleeding on the floor etc. I would go to Lewisham again however, in the hope of getting into the mlu, as for a second child I doubt dp would be able to stay over anyway.

I had DS at Lewisham. EMCS, so no experience of MLU, but during the birth the staff couldn't be faulted. Neither could the ante-natal care. Post-natal wasn't great, but I've heard that nowhere is brilliant. I've moved slightly further away now, but I'd want to go there again should I have another.

You can also self refer at kings, I did that as had recently moved to the area. There's a number on the maternity section of their website.

At kings you'll get an extra scan at 32/33 weeks to look at how well the placenta is working and growth of the baby which is reassuring and if for any reason the baby needs to go to the SCBU or NICU they are amazing, my DS was there.

It can be however very busy, I has to wait 3 days on the ante natal ward for a bed before I would be induced. But great that partners can be there 24 hrs. Post natal is hit and miss, just depends on the midwife looking after you, I was there a week, some were great, the one on the last night... Could have punched her!

Thanks for all your replies, still in a bit of a quandary! @qumquat why were you turned away from the mlu? Sounds like that's the place to be, so really hoping for that.

King's is amazing but VERY busy. You don't labour there, you give birth there. I was turned away at 26 hours. They'll take you seriously only when you're screaming down the doors and crossing your legs. Having said that I think they have a new MLU too so definitely worth checking that out. You also get to be involved in some very cool stuff as it's a teaching hospital, which means far more thorough scans, etc. I had a water birth there with a MW who was a very high up and a proper waterbirthing expert apparently. Good luck!

I went to an early preg info session at lewisham (1st weds every month) and they said dads can stay over on post natal ward now. I loved the hospital, never considered going anywhere else despite dh (who lives further out in chislehurst) being horrified and initially refusing to come to appts there. Even he changed his mind and said he was impressed!