UCH or Queen's

[Ticklemeelmo]

Hi all

Trying to decide whether to give birth at either UCH or Queen's in Romford. Really keen to hear from anyone who's had recent experiences of either?

UCLH - I live in Essex and Queens or Whipps are my locals but I wouldn’t dream of going there! Had a great experience with UCLH with DC1 and repeating with DC2 in December

UCLH is appalling

@MrsMummyBx same, so those would be the closest and most practical.

What did you do about parking while you were giving birth at UCH? The one thing that puts me off is lack of available parking near there given that we don't live that close

@PatricksRum why was it bad?

@Ticklemeelmo I had an elective c section so I just went in a cab. If you don’t think you can handle a cab journey in labour then there’s a big car park at Euston station and also if you’re in labor at night (usually seems the case!!) then on Endsleigh Gardens and Taviton street and the surrounding small steeets there is meter parking which is free after 6 and you can park on yellow lines around there too after 6. Avoid the Tottenham court road side from UCH as it’s more tricky to park. No doubt the hospital offers some official blurb about parking and they might have some good recommendations as many people must have this issue - but that’s what i would do - i went to Uni at UCL so I know the area quite well. I was so paranoid I would go into labour and have to get in a cab in rush hour (would take well over an hour in rush hour from me) as my section date was 10 days past my due date but I was ok in the end! Goodness knows what it will be this time! Will cross that bridge if it comes! If I go into labour my plan is to take a cab and give them a big tip!! Personally I think the access to the doctors is worth the hassle - they are amazing. Anyone worth their salt in the London area will pick a world class teaching hospital to work at rather than a district general hospital.

Queens is local to me and was one of my choices - I opted to go to Harlow Princess Alexandra - I would avoid Queens / Whipps at all cost

Avoid Queens . UCH miles better

@MrsMummyBx that's really helpful thanks! The official website blurb just said there was no parking available nearby and referred to a 3rd party parking site which all looked extortionate.

I think the taxi idea may be best, I'm 50 mins drive away though so my concern would be if I arrive too early and get sent away

Yes I think driving may be a bit of hassle as your DP will have to drop you at the door then go off and find parking while you’re in labour. I worried about this early labor situ first time round - do you know anyone who lives fairly close by? My MIL lives in North London so I was planning to use hers as a base if i decided on a VBAC and went into early labor. Otherwise my plan B was to get a hotel room at the holiday inn that’s nearby if I got sent away. You definitely don’t want to be schlepping backwards and forwards to home but realistically there’s probably a low chance of that happening anyway. Plus I’m sure you can explain you live too far away to do this! If you’re really worried about the practicalities, would definitely concur with crazycatlady that princess alexandra is the best out of the more local options - for me, I’m still 40 mins drive away from there so thought I would just go to UCH as it’s not that different a journey and a different class hospital but could be an option for you? Other thing to think about (but didn’t bother me as long as me and my child were safe) is that there are v few private rooms at UCH (only 4) and they cost £895 a night. Absolute extortion. To be honest after spending a night on the ward, I would have paid any sum to have a private room but they are usually full so you will definitely need to be prepared to be on the ward which was not pleasant. But for me it was important just to have a good delivery with excellent obstetricians. I didn’t really care about the frills or lack thereof!