Has anyone here been hospitalised PRE birth (for safety reasons eg placenta praevia) at St Mary's Paddington?

[VictorVictoria]

It is looking increasingly likely that I am going to be admitted for a few weeks before this baby is taken out (at 35 weeks) as I have a rare placenta problem which means that going into labour would be catastrophic. I spent 4 days in the post natal ward at St Mary's after DS1 which was unbelievably dreadful and I am hoping against hope that the ante natal ward might be slightly better as it looks like our medical insurance (though work) will pay for the csection and post natal care but not the prenatal admission......

My mother had this with my youngest sibling nearly 18 years ago. They admitted her for a few days and wanted to keep her in till end of pregnancy - I think she was in the 2nd trimester. She managed to persuade them that given how long it would take them to get a theatre ready (about 20 mins)and the distance we lived from the hospital it wouldn't make much a difference having her at home. She organised a rota of friends who were ready at a call to immediately take her to the hospital. They agreed and fortunately the placenta moved and baby came out very late and by the normal exit.

The PN ward is still dreadful. When I was there this year they split AN and PN but when they had too many PN admissions they moved them into AN and one of the mws said that if labour ward was too full they put labouring ladies on AN.

Thank you for that. Given the sort of problem I have, they are not going to let me get away with the "only being 20 mins from the hospital" thing as aparently if I go into labour then the baby immediately is at risk of too much blood loss in a matter of minutes to be that far away.

Am just going to have to hope that a combination of my DH and my extremely scary consultant will persuuade the insurancd company that they HAVE to pay

Hiya, I was there on and off for 12 long weeks before I delivered my twins at 37 weeks. I was at very high risk of premature labour and as I kept having very strong BH contractions they kept admitting me on to the labour ward and I was then sent up to the anti ward for observation. In total I was probably there for almost 2 weeks.

On some days (and nights) it was fine. It was very quiet and I had the ward to myself. However, at other time it was hellish, there were ladies in active labour together with screaming babies (they use it as an overflow when the post natal ward is full). I also found it noisy due to the fact that some of the other patients had lots of visitors who seemed to stay for most of the day and evening.

If your insurance company won't pay, I would definitely take in ear plugs, and a face mask for night time (there was always someone on the ward who kept her light on all night!)

Best of luck, despite my experience on the anti natal ward, I can't fault the actual care I received at St Marys

do you have a major (grade iii or iV) placenta preavia? and have you already had some bleeding? yes then possibly you will be admitted. no then you need to give your ob the Royal College of G&O guidlines on managing PP as outpatient management is possible.

I donn't have placenta praevia. I have vasa praevia - much rarer and seldom diagnosed with often fatal consequences if you go into labour NOT in hospital. So I don't think I am going to have much choice in the matter.

I had a couple of days on the AN ward (this was in 1999, before their Much Boasted Of Renovations, but from what tigger says not much has changed) and it was quiet & calm - clearly I missed one of the overflow times Milly had to live through.

The quietness & calmness wasn't entirely benign though - I think it was (at least partly) because the staff had SO much work on the PN ward that the AN ward women were just left to themselves unless something really needed attention.