London Hospital Options

[Hopeful06]

Dear All,

This is my first pregnancy, very early stage. My GP suggested three hospitals I can go with:
St Mary's
Royal Free
UCLH
I would very much appreciate if you could share your experience with either hospital or provide any recommendations
Thank you

Which area are you based in? There are so many hospitals and maternity units.

The first thing to decide is where you want to give birth, at home or not. If at home you may be more limited as community midwife teams cover smaller areas.

My GP confirmed I will be accepted in either of 3 hospitals I mentioned in my initial post as I live right in the middle between them, so I need to decide between UCHL, Royal Free and St Mary's.
I most definitely don't want home birth
Thank you!

Im having my first at uchl in January, so far i feel like we made the right decision. The midwife team are all lovely and the appointment system just seems to work. The only downside is the phone lines are a disaster unless you call triage which is really only for emergencies.

It's difficult because not many women will have given birth in two of your hospitals to make any meaningful comparisons.

For what it's worth, I would avoid the Royal Free and go to go to. uch

Sorry. Phone having meltdown.

Uch very busy. I had huge queues at times. And both times I've had babies there I vent like we were chucked out ASAP to postnatal. But the standard of care is very high, post natal ward was lovely, it's the ideal place if you've any complications.

Consider transport - which will be easier to access if you have to attend more frequent appointments, which is easier to reach for delivery, what's parking like (if your partner plans to drive). Most people don't have these considerations as traffic isn't as much an issue (we also only have one maternity unit!) but as a former Londoner my biggest concern was getting to the hospital in labour knowing that the 3 mile journey could take an hour if it was rush hour (got lucky went in at 1pm and took 20 mins, a crazy long time still to go 3 miles - one of many reasons I will never live in London again, too busy)

I had my eldest at UCH a couple of years back and also would highly recommend them. Like a pp, I was midwife led and appointments were efficient and I was rarely kept waiting. Antenatal care and scans are exceptional. I delivered in the birth centre and majority of staff were fantastic, had the odd midwife I wasn't keen on but thats the case everywhere.

As a tertiary referral centre, there are a significant number of high risk cases so waiting times are long for seeing consultants and the labour and postnatal wards are significantly busier than birth centre but I am confident the care is great.