North London maternity / childbirth

[Acer77]

Hi all,
I need to register for maternity services and obviously choose a hospital to give birth in eventually! I am currently 7 weeks PG. My doctor says I can choose any hospital I like in London but obviously it needs to be easy to get to - we are in North london.

Has anyone used North Middlesex since they had an overhaul and new maternity wing / birthing centre? That is our nearest hospital.
Other options are The Whittington, Barnet and UCLH

UCLH is easy to get to for antenatal care because I would go by public transport but I'd be worried about the traffic if driving during the day for the birth....but I expect it would have excellent care because they are a university hospital?

Any experiences in the last year or 2 would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Hi,

I am at North Middlesex. I am 34 weeks now so no birth experience yet.

yes, the maternity unit is brand new and beautiful. The birth center is amazing, huge room, huge pool, big double beds. All their medical equipment is new, including the ultrasound machines, trace machines etc.

I did all my appointments at this hospital and so far ok. The clinic gets very busy sometimes, you might have problem to get appointment according to NHS schedule as they are so busy they dont have free spots.
This is my only complaint so far, the appointment availability.

You will always be seen by different midwife, so not really personal relationship, althrough after we complained about appointments not being available we had 3 appointments with the same, very sweet and experienced senior midwife. I dont know if that is coincidence or not. Also was seen by student midwifes, who I found better and more attentive as the regular ones.

I was told that if I wish I can have student midwife at birth who will only care about me. I think that is great.

You also need to consider that later on it will be hard to get to hospital on public transport and that is the time you have to go more often. You might have some emergencies where maybe you will not want to go by public transport, so it is not only on the day of the birth.

I did not choose UCLH for this reason.

Whittington - they saved our lives so am grateful BUT the postnatal ward was awful. Although I think most of them are, I never hear anyone say they had a great time there! Very short staffed, very busy, partners can stay over - both good and bad as it's crowded, noisy, arguments etc but nice to have your own partner, bf support is only for those that life in Islington!!
I hear the birth centre is nice and the ward is having a refurb.

With the smaller hospitals do check if they have nicu / scbu etc. That's a big advantage of a big hospital is that you'll be in the same hospital as your baby if they need special care. Not something I would've even thought about until I had a preemie

Thanks ladies for the advice.

Lots of my friends had babies at the Whittington and their experiences varied wildly.... One loved it, she had two lovely births in the birthing centre and sings their praises.
Another 2 had serious complications but were ok. A third had such abysmal treatment that she made a formal complaint (her experience was quite horrific - postnatal with a terrible infection they dismissed)

I get the impression all hospitals have good and bad stories and it really depends on your birth... North mid has had a lot of investment though so that is real positive....

Zahrah - what is the name of the lovely midwife you saw? Always good to know who is recommended!

Barnet has been perfectly fine. Had DD there two years ago and having second DD in six weeks. Ante natal care consisting of a couple of consultant appointments and scans etc all fine. They do a group booking in session at 8-10 weeks so you would need to refer pretty quickly to get your scan dates etc.

It has similarly benefitted from the same investment that North Mid got, both as a consequence of Chase Farms maternity services closing. The post natal ward last time was utter hell but that's to be expected and is entirely based on the other women in the room, and the fact one talked all night and had a curry delivered. My only complaint is that they weren't asked to shut up. The birthing suites etc are all pretty good and you can now pay for a private room, and in the midwife led unit partners can stay overnight.

All in all happy to recommend. I tend to think everywhere has the good, the bad and the ugly. You mainly hear about the extremes!

hi

I'm at UCLH with first baby, now 29 weeks.

Hospital lovely and modern. Care has been fine so far, haven't seen the same midwife twice unfortunately but suspect that might be standard for London. As you know there is no car park so at crunch time parking may be tricky.

One thing that might be useful: UCLH is trialling a Harmony-type blood test for Down's etc which they're offering to women judged to be high risk. It'll save you £300+ at the Fetal Medicine Centre if you wanted to have the test.

That's great Intel on the harmony test Elsie!
I have been referred by my doctor to uch today as he says his wife gave birth there and he thought it was good! It is def the easiest to get to during ante natal stage because I can get the tube there easily. We shall have to cross the getting there togive birth brdge when we get to it!!