Kingston or Chelsea and Westminster

[Flossie333]

Hello any London mothers,

I'm beginning to think about the hospital I will be choosing and the two closest to me are Kingston and C&W. I'm going the NHS route, with a few extra private scans etc.

I'm not sure whether I'll choose the midwife led unit or the labour ward (I suppose that will depend on pregnancy too).

I will go and take a look at both but would love to hear anyone's recent experiences of either of these!

Thank you Xx

I was in Kingston in April, it was fab and I didn't have a single complaint. The main benefit is that you get your own room on the postnatal ward and it is free, compared to £1500 a night in C&W. When you've just given birth you really want privacy but sadly that isn't a standard at most hospitals x

@blueskiesbrighteyes thank you that's really helpful. If you don't mind me asking, which ward did you choose? X

Kingston is AMAZING! Not to sound sad but I’ve had the experiences of live birth and stillbirth there. Absolutely amazing. No bells and whistles but when you need that hands on support, their midwives are heaven sent!
I had DC3 at the often ‘renowned’ holy grailed to death Queen Charlottes which was waaaay too busy. It all went fine and I can only praise Queen Charlotte’s but Kingston, in my experience was lovelier, calmer, less of a cattle market, and I felt that the midwives were slightly less rushed off their feet. It felt more personal both times I delivered there.

Though many friends have delivered at C&W and have had wonderful experiences. To be honest, I’d go to the one you live closer to. You can’t lose! We’re pretty spoiled for choice in London. We’re very fortunate.

Started on midwife in the pool but transferred to labour as I was shattered (prolonged second stage) and had a ventouse. All lovely and calm though and the pool was wonderful! There was no hurry to leave the delivery room and we went to Postnatal in our own time. I really couldn't praise Kingston enough, especially compared to the rest of my NCT group who didn't all have such good experiences x

One other thing is that Kingston don't put any pressure on BF - a friend gave birth at Chelsea in November and had a traumatic CS and couldn't move. She was told it isn't their 'policy' to provide any support with bottle feeding and she'd have to get up and do it herself...horrific

I had a baby in April in Kingston. I would recommend it unless you are close to having a baby during a major holiday period. Their holiday cover midwives were not up to the same standard as the regular midwives I had met with prior to giving birth (and who worked with my friends from my antenatal classes).

@blueskiesbrighteyes @TheVanguardSix @hypatiently thank you all so much- really appreciate it! Last question- if you did, at what point did you go and visit Kingston to have a look round? X

Quite late, 38 weeks I think. They don't advertise it but if you search on Eventbrite you can book onto a tour that way

I had a great experience at C&W despite what was on paper a traumatic birth. The staff were absolutely amazing and looked after us incredibly well during the four nights we spent in hospital. Some of them really went above and beyond. I also didn’t feel any pressure about the kind of birth I wanted. I this true that the private rooms cost £300/night though.

I had my baby at Kingston and an NCT friend had hers at Chelsea last year. She was there for 5 nights (c section problems) and on an open ward. Kingston were really good (I was high risk & had a lot of extra stuff going on as I have epilepsy), as others have said we had our private room on the post natal ward. I was only in labour there for 2 hours so didn't really have an "experience" but we had two midwifes with us throughout, and then as someone else has said, they were really proactive after the birth. I was shaking so much due to the speed of the birth (and he was a month early) so it ended up that my baby had formula from his dad as his first drink and the midwives were so relaxed about it. I went on to ebf for 10 months with zero issues which I'd put down to the masses of support I had at the hospital and in the early days. The only reason I've stopped bf now is due to my treatment needs and given I didn't even plan on bf I think I've done well!! One thing to note is that the tour of Kingston is about 5 mins and only of the midwife led bit which was a bit pointless for us as I was automatically being on the labour ward and I also queue jumped the "triage" ward as they examined me when I arrived, said I was 7cm and sent me straight into the delivery room.

I am so glad you asked this question about Kingston or CW, as those are my options as well!