St Thomas v Kings

[firsttimer08]

I know this has been discussed before but I was wondering if there are some latest experiences on this topic.

Kings for me is literally 5 mins drive away as we are in Dulwich. Scanning department I have heard is amazing but due to recurrent miscarriages and other issues so far I have used the Fetal Medicine Centre which is basically run by the same Professor - privately. My 12 week scan is also going to be there. So I could take advantage of the 20 and 32 "advanced. Scan" offered at Kings - free of cost which is a plus.
However given its likely to be a high risk pregnancy and delivery and post natal care is v important to me I am veering a bit towards booking in at St Thomas.

I work in the city so probably getting to antenatal appointments from work to St Thomas should be ok.

So key question for me is which hospital has better consultants if I have a complicated pregnancy - assuming I make it this far - and more supportive delivery and facilities especially if it's a premature baby. Think that will be a swing factor for me rather than the excellent /adequate scanning.

Any thoughts? Grateful to hear any recent positive / negative stories. Thank you!!

Are you seeing the midwives at Midwives' House first timer?

Yes that is right - at midwives house. How are they?

Yes. I don't think you need the MWs at Midwives House if you're high risk. They're just an antenatal clinic. I saw them too when pregnant with twins. The lady I saw couldn't answer me one question I had about giving birth to twins. She hadn't done a birth in ages. They just do the normal things the antenatal clinic does, checking your urine, your blood pressure, taking bloods and measuring your bump.

I never got the impression they 'worked together' with the consultant either. They refer of course, but that seemed to be it. They're 2 different silos if you like.

The antenatal care there is fine, but I still feel a case load MWs are much more on the ball and much more accessible. As I am sure I mentioned I am high risk this time too/again and I fought tooth and nail to get a case load MW this time. (But don't let me scare you in to doing the same! It all depends on your own circumstances etc.)

I don't know of course why you will be high risk but I did learn a lot in this pregnancy as to how to get the NHS to work for you if you like. Whenever you have a consultant appt you can request to see the actual consultant, rather than the registrar that's on his/her team. Just ask when you show up for your appt. (Take a book and a snack for any appt at King's btw - you are going to be waiting, and waiting!) I think I saw the same MW at Midwives House, but again you can ask to see the same one every time, if that's important to you. If at one point you feel the care is not joined up (the silos I mentioned) I suggest emailing or calling the consultant midwife. The cons MW at St Thomas did a great job for me, pulling my care team together, on the same page and helped me write an elaborate birth plan. But again, it all depends on why you're high risk, what you want and what your own facts and circumstances are.

Thank you Dildals!!

This is so helpful. Can I just self refer now (after having been to midwives house) to a caseload midwife if I want? What is so special about them ie you think they are more experienced?

Great tip on registrar versus consultant. I was trying to look up the obs I will be seeing and cannot find the name on Kings website. So most likely the Dr assigned is a registrar and not consultant. Dr S - does the name ring any bells?

Just to say that if you have a high risk pregnancy, you don't get allocated the Westminster MW team at the Aylesbury. I was initially under them and let's say care was haphazard (eg blood getting lost, meaning a 4 week delay in the diagnosis of gestational diabetes.) However, following the diagnosis I was transferred to the Thames team at St Thomas', who were brilliant. You could just tell the level of training was completely different. If anyone else is reading this and trying to make a decision, my experience at St Thomas' was really good. The care during labour was fantastic and the garden room with views over tthe Thames and Westminster is lovely (not that I cared much about that further on in labour.) Postnatal not so good, but that was more down to other mothers on the ward.

I think it wouldn't hurt to give Oakwood (and potentially the others) a call.

The midwives at Midwives House (and apologies if I offend any of them now) are 'just' 9 to 5 midwives (same as with the ones at Aylesbury Health Centre that AA refers to). They just do the standard stuff. The case load midwives however are much more at the fore front. They see ladies from their booking in appt to their birth and postnatal care. I think they are much more attuned to risk, perhaps because they do a lot more home births. You develop much more of a relationship with them as well and they are contactable 24hrs. So if you're worrying in the middle of the night about shoulder dystocia or how they monitor baby's heartbeat in labour then you can text them (maybe add that you realise this does not require an urgent callback :-), they may or may not have the answer but at least they will do their best to find the answer for you. Whereas with MW House I was just met with a 'I don't know', end of. I am sure there's some great MWs at MWs House too, so maybe I am being too harsh. I am simply big (BIG) advocate of case load care. Everyone who's had it raves about it.

I think (but I don't know for sure) you get assigned a consultant, not a registrar, but in practice you can end up seeing one of their registrars. I was assigned Leonie Penna, she's the 'twin lady', but I never saw her. I saw Dr Subramanian at the time, I see from the King's Directory that she's a consultant too, not sure why she saw me instead of Leonie Penna. I saw Dr Jain and Dr Dennes during birth and after. Dr Dennes has moved to another hospital I thought, although I see he's still on the list. With Dr S you're not referring to Dr Subramanian?

AA You probably got transferred to the Thames team because of your specific diagnosis. LUCKY YOU! :-)

Hi Dildals

I will call Oakwood tomorrow. Are they the only ones who take from outside? I was reading that for Lanes you must be at a certain surgery?

Lanes do take from elsewhere in theory (they did for me) but the waiting list of DMC women is so long that in practice this is very rare. Worth a shot, though.

Previously you needed to be either attached to a certain surgery or in their catchment area, but as one of the other posters said they're changing the way things work and I simply don't know, so suggest to give them a call and see what they say. Perhaps the changes will only be introduced later.

The ones to try are The Lanes, Oakwood, Brierley (even though they seem to specialise in MH and HB, I do think they take others - worth a shot) or Aylesbury Midwives.

Good luck!

(PM me if you want the nr for Aylesbury Mws)

Just called Oakwood and they said Kings have changed the process and Brierely would look after my postcode. Is it worth it going with them given they specialise in HB and MH? I will definitely be going for hospital birth.

Brierley's remit may have changed with the new arrangements. Best call them.

Yes I left them a message and I read online they are around only between 9-10am. So will try tomorrow.

YES definitely give Brierley a call. I have only heard good stories about them.