Homerton Hospital.

[macdat]

I've seen a couple of questions on here recently about Homerton so thought others may like to know about this. Last year, as many know, there were some deaths of mothers and babies. They were put under investigation because of this. Their death records were much higher than the average.
I did think that since they're under investigation they'd be a lot better recently. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to have happened.

www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/disturbing_number_of_baby_deaths_at_homerton_hospital_maternity_unit_revealed_as_information_commissioner_orders_transparency_over_12_maternal_deaths_1_4451862

This is really scary! I was booked for Homerton, but think I may try and change now.

Sorry, I don't know how to do links properly on here, but you can copy and paste the address.

I've recently given birth at the Homerton and had a very positive experience there. I'm surprised to read this as the level of care there exceeded all my expectations...

My my mum went into labour with me the ambulance wants to take her to Homerton but she made them take her to UCL.

That was over 30 years ago, am surprised it's still not got a great reputation [unhelpful]

*When my mum

*wanted - bloody phone!

I gave birth there last Jan.

I have mixed comments.

Care right through until week 38 was great. Then went to see midwife for routine appointment and as she was flicking through my notes (it was a different midwife to my usual one) she noticed that my placenta was mature and had been from week 32 so had to be induced immediately. Needless to say I was shocked, I was still working! I had to call DH and they gave me a sweep there and then, and I walked home to get my bags.

Once I returned to hospital that evening I was seen my a lovely midwife, newly qualified, she put me and DH at ease and was so kind. The doctor came round to induce me and it was a slow process. But they made me and DH comfortable (they may him a bed next to mine out of chairs and bean bags)

Once labour started I was moved to the delivery suite, we had two great midwives, baby came all was smooth. We were then moved to the ward. It was horrid. It was loud, smelly and so uncomfortable. DH couldn't stay with me, and we were only allowed one visitor at a time. It was shit. They were taking ages to discharge us. It got the point where I said to DH I know they aren't worried about baby (just me, I had lost a lot of blood, but felt fine) so let's just walk out. Luckily enough they came through not long after and we left. There are gems and there are lazy sods. It's hit and miss. I will, without a doubt, aim for a home birth next time.

I've posted about this before. I've had two babies at the Homerton, most recently in October of last year, and I've always found the standard of care to be excellent. I'm aware that's anecdotal, but I hate to think of pregnant women currently booked in at the Homerton being scared witless by these stories.

The figures in this article are presented out of context, without the background information needed to establish just how worrying they really are. For one thing, the demographics of Homerton's catchment area mean that it deals with a particularly high number of complex obstetric cases due to factors such as poverty, age, and religious beliefs. At least one of the maternal deaths mentioned was in a case where a woman refused a blood transfusion on religious grounds. This is not intended as a defence as I don't have all the information, and I would fight for every woman's right to the best possible maternity care, but I just think we need to be careful about introducing more anxieties for women at a time which is stressful enough already.

I gave birth at Homerton last May and have only positive things to say. I had a great relationship with my community midwife and when I suffered a placental abruption during early labour not only did the staff work amazingly quickly to save the life of me and my baby, they were all (midwife, anaesthetist, obstetrician) kind and professional at all times too. Post natal ward is noisy and hot but so is any ward full of mums and newborns. I have no hesitation recommending the maternity care at Homerton.

Hackney is a very mixed borough and the women giving birth at Homerton may have greater health needs than the general population. In particular many women having 8+ babies for cultural and religious reasons, a large proportion of recently arrived immigrants from deprived country's and general poverty. Also the information is confusing, it says it relates to stillbirths but then says it's actually the deaths of babies admitted to neonatal intensive care? Homerton has a neonatal intensive care unit and can receive the sickest babies from whole of North East London, this isn't mentioned in the article. Please take a look at Homerton for yourself and talk to your midwife, don't get your info from a poorly written newspaper article.