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.

Hi - I'm also in SW18 and have chosen C&W for my second baby (first was born in St Thomas's when we lived in another part of London.

My reasons for choosing were:

• GP said my practice was linked to C&W and St Georges' so, if I had my care at one of those, my midwife would be locally based. Actually this hasn't been my experience as I've been deemed 'hih risk' so having all my appointments at hospital.
• GP also said that both hospitals were pretty similar in terms of results and that he and colleagues had had experiences of both, good and both in both cases.
• I rang them both for a tour. C&W were really helpful and I visited the next week. SG not at all helpful.
• When I visited C&W it seemed really nice. I felt comfortable there and so did DP, so due to lack of tour at SG we decided to go with C&W.

Not very scientific I know but I am happy with the choice so far.

Hope this helps.

Ashley - There is a specific area for media requests such as this. This thread is about which hospital to choose not how to help a journalist write an article.

To the OP - I had my DC1 at St Georges. Great ante natal care and care in labour (MW called Anika I think - fab woman). Post natal care not great but OK. Wards are a bit run down but nothing terrible. Must admit I discharged myself as I was exhauated after sharing a room with 3 other women and their babies for 2 nights. I have since moved and am disappointed that I cant go back there with DC2.

TBH - doing what the previous poster said is not a bad idea for making a decision as if you ask people here you will find an array of opinions as birth is such an individual experience. Good luck

I had my dd at St George's - antenatal care was second to none, and my actual delivery was fantastic - they have really good monitoring equipment which saved me from an emergency cs and like others I was very reassured by the fact there's a first class SCBU on-site if anything goes wrong. Postnatal was not great, I had zero help with breastfeeding and was generally very unhappy with how I was treated. Having said that, if we still lived in London I'd happily have my second child (due in a few weeks) at St G's, but would probably discharge myself as soon as possible after the birth.

Queen Charlotte is lovely, if you can get in.

ante natal care at C & W was good, birth ok, post natal care was absolutely shocking. very very poor. I still feel angry & traumatised about it, and ds is now 8.5!

I found Kingston excellent. Happy to answer specific queries if you have any.

Have you seen the website www.drfoster.co.uk/localservices/birth/? It compares the statistics and offerings for all the hospitals, and I found it enormously helpful in making my choice. I'm at QC, by the way.