Newham, Homerton or Royal London

[RuJuAs]

Hi All,

I live in Newham and so know all too well how awful a hospital Newham General can be but I know nothing about their maternity unit. I keep hearing mixed reviews. Even when in need of urgent care or admittance to A&E, my family and I would much rather go to Royal London than Newham General. The care I’ve had in the past with Royal London has alwas been excellent but again, I have no experience with their maternity unit of which i’m again hearing mixed reviews but more negative than positive. I also use Homerton quite regularly as I used to work in their mental health unit and often had to take my patients there for appointments, emergencys etc. So I do like Homerton too but again, I know nothing about their maternity unit though despite their not so great past, I’ve recently been hearing good things about them.

Does anyone have any experience with these 3 hospitals?

I had my DS 7 years ago at Newham and I would not choose to give birth there again. It was a terrible experience. But things may have changed.

I think the main issue with most hospitals (when you're having a baby) is feeling like you're being listened to and you're wishes are respected where possible. Even if the birth is traumatic (which many can be) the aftercare needs to be there to support new parents and that was really lacking at Newham. There was little consideration for what any of us had been through and I would rather not experience that again.

I have heard far more positive stories about Homerton...

I had a fantastic experience at homerton a few months ago - water birth in the birth centre. Half my NCT group was Homerton and half Newham and all of us had good experiences so I don’t think it matters much. I’d avoid Whipps though!

PS how far are you from Homerton? Cos I would say that the 25 min taxi ride while in labour was pretty hellish!

I had one at Royal London 3 years ago and one at Newham this year, we paid for the private rooms for both. Newham the staff were friendlier, Royal London the rooms were newer, but both were fine with regards to giving birth.

We ended up admitted post-natally to Newham. Awful experience. Midwives ranged from incompetent (as in, not listening, not having sufficient English to do the job, eg not understanding what a breastfeeding counsellor was) through to actually really unpleasant and aggressive, very critical, not supportive at all. I would not have liked to have given birth there - we were lucky enough to have a private room for our stay but it was an awful experience. This was in 2015.

I've heard good and bad things about Homerton but only used to A & E (staff absolutely lovely).

Never used Royal London but was told after our Newham experience that we should have gone there as Royal London is excellent in terms of breastfeeding support (that was from a hospital breastfeeding counsellor).

Much like @marmite I gave birth 7 years ago, I was 19 and it was the worst experience! The nurses were awful, telling me I was starving ds when all he needed was a feed but I felt so faint (lost so much blood) that I almost collapsed! I had to ask for help and that's what I got. The birth itself was horrendous with so many nurses unable to get a sample from Ds head to test his oxygen levels, but they were unable to and ds came out black and blue over his head.

My advice is to avoid Newham if you have other choices.

Oh thank you ladies, you’ve really helped me make a decision, i really appreciate your responses.
My mum is my only support as my partner lives abroad. Bless my mum, she is so desperate for me to avoid newham at all costs because of her 2 horrendous experiences with my sisters when she went in to labour (many many years ago i might add) but from what i hear from friends, doesn’t sound like they’ve improved enough.
I think i’ll transfer to Homerton.

@harrietm87 i’m about 25/30mins from Homerton if there’s traffic on the highroad. Without traffic, i can be there in 15mins. So not completely terrible, just depends on the time (fingers crossed for a midnight labour to avoid traffic lol).

Homerton are fantastic, especially the midwife led unit. I have had one child there already and will have a second at the end of this year. In the past they have had issues, but they’ve really turned it around.

@RuJuAs you’re probably not far from me - that’s how long my journey took. Honestly, it was the worst part of my labour!

Sounds like you want to go to Homerton and I really rated it, but just to say the bad experiences about Newham on this thread are old. I know 5 people who had babies there in the last few months and had great experiences. You’d be fine in either one.

Avoid Newham hospital, the antenatal care is beyond terrible I’m 7 months pregnant and will definitely be transferring to homerton hospital as my sisters recent birth was a real pleasant experience there, she avoided Newham due to previous experience and ‘care’