Help! hospitals to choose or avoid in London

[HeyBaby07]

I'm a first time mum-to-be and live in SW18, London. Would really appreciate recommendations of which hospitals are good for antenatal care and delivery and which ones are not.

cant really help I am in E14, but as far as I know your GP will allocate you a hospital in you area which if you are not happy with you can then look at others. We found the best thing to do was to make appointments to go on the tours of all the local hospitals and go from there. We were also told that if we choose a hospital that was not thew one allocated to us then all our ante natal care would be done at that hospital not at our GP's surgery.

HTH

We live in SW19. I think your local choices are St George's, Kingston and St Helier.

I had my two at St George's and have another due next month. From my experience and talking to other women, St George's is good for deliveries, always have anaesthetists, consultants and paediatricians around and the midwives are fine. However, the staff on the postnatal wards aren't very helpful or nice. It has 14 delivery rooms, but it can get full sometimes.

A good thing about St George's is that they have a self-referring EPU, so if you have any problems or bleeding or 'maternal anxiety', you can just turn up to EPU and they'll scan you. Their Day Assesment department is also very good and they don't treat you like an idiot for being worried about something.

try birthchoiceuk.com
that gives statistics on hospitals in your area in comparison with national average, so you can see if yours has better or worse rate of cs / assisted deliveries etc
Also gives you information on making a choice I think

However, I would say that whatever hospital you choose, you'll probably hear some people say they had a positive experience, and some will have had a less great one...

Thanks Julie, I had asked my GP to be referred to Chelsea and Westminster but just got a letter today from St Georges with my first scan date and wasn't happy as have heard unfavourable things about SG's. Now sure if my GP actually did the C&W referral or not, I believe there can be a problem with hosptials being too full to take you as well - hard to believe when I'm only 7 weeks!

Thanks for the advice about taking a tour of different places

Mungarra - does St George's have antenatal classes? and what is the normal length of stay post delivery? 24hrs?

Splishsplosh - thanks I'll look into that and i think you're right about good and bad experiences at any place you choose, would just be good to feel comfortable with the place from the start

just a quick add on, I was very unhappy with where I had to give birth moved to the area from overseas when I was nearly 20wks, and could not get into hospital of choice. But when push came to shove (pardon the pun)I could have been in outer mongolia didnt care where I was.

I think they do have antenatal classes (at least they did 5 years ago when I had DS1), but I didn't use them. I went to NHS antenatal classes, which the health visitor told me about and were in SW19 and more convenient for me.

I had an induction in the high-dependency unit (pre-eclampsia) for DS1. I was there for 3 nights in total. I had DS2 in the morning and with no problems and was told that I could go home the same day, but I chose to stay one night. I don't know how long people stay. I think it depends on the birth (I think it's about a 4-5 day stay for caesarians) and whether the baby has to stay for some reason (like jaundice).

Hello I had DS 20 months ago at Chelsea & Westminster and have no complaints. I would have had my twins (due in Feb) there too but we have now moved out of London. Everyone says the aftercare is not great but it was ok, and certainly didn't seem any worse than anywhere else. Have two friends who also had their babies there, both had non straightforward births (one retained placenta, one needed a c-section after a 3 day on off labour) and both said they were happy with the hospital too.

Forgot to say, had DS at 1am on Monday morning, and went home Tuesdsay evening. Might have gone earlier but had some probs breastfeeding and they wanted to see I was ok before I left.

I had DS (now 3) at St Mary's (NHS) in Paddington and didn't have a very positive experience I'm afraid. I think I was probably unlucky but one thing I will say is that at least they had all the relevant facilities in the event of emergency. To this end, my next baby (am currently about 8wks pg) will be born in the Lindo Wing which is a private wing of the same hospital. I'm also assured by the fact that my care is consultant-led this time, hopefully this will mean a less traumatic and terrifying experience for me.

Childbirth is a very individual experience and some people are more 'robust' (if that is the right word?!) than others when it comes to coping with no-frills NHS - I found out I wasn't and that's why I'm taking the reigns with choosing something different this time.

Am also in SW19 - have heard good things about the care in St Georges but recently VERY bad things about over booking. One example, my friend was sent home last month as her labour (2nd child 'wasn't progressing) She delivered her baby in her own hall 10 mins after the taxi dropped her off back at home. Another friend talked of being in established labour in a waiting room with 4 other women, also in varying degrees of labour. This all seems to be very recent though. R x
PS Had mine at home!

Rapunzelle, I met someone at a toddler group a few months ago who had her second child at St George's and spent most of the labour in the waiting room too. She only got into a delivery suite half and hour before the birth.

So I've heard this about St George's too. I had my second child there 3 years ago (which was fine) and am due next month, so I'm a bit worried about finding the delivery suites full up.

It's dreadful isn't it! If there was ever a time you need privacy and peace it's in labour, not in a waiting room of women competing for the next space in the delivery suite!

Update on St George's.

I had an antenatal appointment at St George's this morning and I asked about the problem of women labouring in the waiting room.

The midwife said that they've had a problem over the last few months and sometimes had 5 too many women having babies at the same time. This was because their midwife-led unit was closed.

However, their new birthing unit is opening today and she said that should solve the problem.

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Hi heybaby07

My GP applied to Queen Charlotte's hospital when I was just pregnant - seven weeks, in fact.
I was turned down because they were full up as well. But I'm booked in at the Brent Birthing Centre now which is close to home, so I don't mind.

This is all really helpful ladies, thanks. I you're right lennygirl, most likely good and bad stories for st g's and C&W depending on the day/night the baby decides to make its appearance. Unfortunately private midwives aren't an optionm we just cant afford that.

The waiting room in labour sounds horrendous! I really hope that problem's not a longterm one.

LOL I heard that as well about people choosing C&W because it sounds "posher". It does say on DS's birth certificate that he was born in Chelsea, which I guess sounds "better" than Tooting, but I assure you I chose it as it was nearer, and also midway between home and work, which meant easy to get to from work for scans etc, and I had heard St George's was very good if you had any complications etc, but also dirty... no idea if that is true though about the cleanliness.

I think it always depends on your circumstances at the time. I had dd at Kingston and couldn't praise it enough but I had a high risk pregnancy and delivery so was watched like a hawk.

I have had two friends have 2nd babies last week. Both had first at Kingston and second at St Georges (due to Kingston being full up). One favoured Kingston, the other St Georges.

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Homerton was great during the birth and completyely dire, inexplicably so, afterwards. some examples:

• no pillow for me
• no cot for ds
• midwife who put my feet in stirrups against my will then laughed at me.
• a midwive (same one) who told me to hurry up getting out of the birthing suite as she did have a home to go to! HEr name is Cynthia. She is absoltuely horrid. She delivered my first DC, was thankfully no where to be seen for my second, and then reared her ugly head for the 3rd, but luckily hero DH asked her politely to leave and we got another lovely one. If you get Cynthia at Homerton, go and give birth in the car park with a drunk street drinker assisting as it will be a more dignified experience.

I have heard two hideous experiences of St George's - one friend's baby was undiagnosed breech (24 hrs labour then c-sec - cd happen anywhere though) and another, my friend who laboured until 10cm in a side room with no pain relief and no midwife with her hubby bellowing for help down the corridor. She had to wait 3hrs to be stitched. Apparently they were busy as it was 9 months past 14th Feb! Another friend recently was very happy with C&W - I was there but private although even then the night midwives were not the greatest. Good luck. I think it's a lottery myself.

you've probably made up your mind but I@m also in SW18 and wasn't sure where to go. I opted for St Georges for anumber of reasons, not least it has really good care for any special needs babies - and it occured to me that if the worst happened I'd like to know the baby gets the care on the spot.
Also the EPU is fantastic there, you can just drop in - it's really useful and they don't mind if you're there just for anxiety. Ihaven't had the baby yet but have been a few times and always met really nice staff which is a bonus. Also worth checking with your gp, I see the Midwives at the doctors surgery rather than the hospital which is really helpful for me as doctor is v close to home. I think this will become even more useful the further on i get.
Anyway - v good luck...everywhere you ask about will have good and bad from everyone but just go for what's easiest for you....stress not - I did and really I don't think it matters too much!

Kingston was fantastic for me (low-risk, first baby, midwife led area). I honestly couldn't have asked for more.