Lewisham Hospital delivery suite and aftercare

[Xoxo2016]

Hi there,

I’m almost 35 weeks with my second baby (first is 18 months old) I’m planning to deliver at Lewisham in the delivery suite as I really want epidural (1st time round at St Thomas’s end up having it as it all got complicated, end up with suction cup, tear and episiotomy - all healed fine, but I felt utterly drained after 16hrs Labour).

This time round I’m doing it at Lewisham and I was wondering if you could share your recent experiences from the delivery suite and about the aftercare you received. I’m hoping to get a single room accommodation after birth but since it’s first come first served basis I’m keen to know your experiences with both single and shared.

Would be grateful for any recent stories.

Also are they quick with epidurals and no questions asked or they dilly dally and try to convince do it without?

Thank you :)

I gave birth at Lewisham in July (mid-heatwave!).

I was originally booked into the birth centre but after 10 hours of labouring at home with no progress I couldn’t cope and the birth centre advised me to go to the labour ward as I wanted an epidural.

They were initially reluctant to admit me as I wasn’t in established labour and they said I couldn’t have an epidural until I was. The midwife relented after I sobbed on the reception desk though! Also she realised my waters had been gone for quite a while so admitted me. That was around 10am. She came to do an examination after an hour or so, and then offered me pethidine while I waited for a delivery room to become available. Timescale goes a bit blurry after the pethidine but I got taken down to the delivery suite after a couple of hours and got my epidural sited at 3.30pm by a lovely anaesthetist and after that, things were mostly smooth. Overall, my care on the labour ward/delivery suite was good and mostly the staff were lovely.

I had a fairly straightforward delivery but had to stay on the post natal ward for a day and a half for baby to be monitored. I have to be honest...it was pretty hellish up there. Obscenely hot, no air con, no fans and understaffed. We asked for a private room when we were transferred up and were given one within a couple of hours. Definitely get one if you can (but avoid Room 1 if you can! It’s the only one where the window doesn’t open and it was unbearable!).

Care-wise, it was a mixed bag up there. The staff were nice enough, but it felt like they pretty much forgot about us. Because I was a ‘normal’ delivery, I wasn’t on a medication round, so I wasn’t even offered so much as a paracetamol. Take your own! At one point, we went an entire shift without any medical staff seeing us and I ended up having to buzz the night shift midwife to actually come and update me on why we were still there, what was happening with the baby and what else they needed to do before discharging us. Discharge took forever because of the lack of staffing - I think we were in for about 12 hours longer than we needed to be simply because there weren’t enough staff to do the baby checks and discharge paperwork.

All that said, the head of midwifery was in charge of our care on the last day and he told me it was an unusually busy week, so hopefully you’ll have better luck.

Overall, it was fine. I’d do it 1000 times over to have my little girl. Good luck!