Queens, King George, Newham and Homerton for delivery

[bonnetscotch]

I am presently thinking about where to get booked in for delivery. I am presently outside the UK but my address is in the Redbridge Borough. I think the hospitals nearest are Kings George, Queens, Newham.

I REALLY will not go to King George and Queens sound like a right fit of hormonal midwives!! From what I can read of Newham it is a tip. Any experiences with these hospitals.

I know a Senior Midwife who works at Newham and that is a "slight" motivating factor because I think she would treat me "special-ish". She travelled across the globe for my wedding. Nevertheless, I have read Newham is a tip. Read an article in the paper November 07 where mothers were swarmed by flies and thir newborns were also swarmed. Have not spoken to her about this yet...as I know there is nothing she can do if this is how the hospital is. She just told me to come in to hospital when I get to UK.

I am thinking about Homerton though.....any comments?

I would really appreciate any feedback on any of these hospitals.

Many thanks.

Oh, delivery would be July/August 2008.

I don't have any experience of the maternity services at Hommerton but I have used other parts of the hospital and I was really quite impressed with the service I received.

It also got foundation status in the first round so must be one of the best hospitals in the country - doesn't necessarily follow that the maternity services will be brilliant but they can't be that bad.

I haven't had experience of the maternity wards in any of these hospitals, but I was a gynae in-patient at the Homerton. The staff were good, but the ward was very dirty (the toilet was disgusting - bloody sanitary towels all over the floor, overflowing bin, filthy toilet bowl) and despite several patients complaining, they were very short staffed and it was still only cleaned once a day, which just wasn't enough for a toilet that was used by so many people 9some of whom were obviously pigs!).

Thanks for your responses. Ewwww....Love Angel that experiene sounds horrible!! Ewwwww!!!

There was a recent thread about this on which Homerton got lots of positive reports (I had all three of my DSs at the Homerton, but not recently - 1999, 2001 and 2004). Marslady who is a doula says Homerton is her favourite at the moment! Let me see if I can find the thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=49&threadid=434355#8797333

Can't comment on King George and Queens but Newham is a tip so avoid like the plague.

Homerton - I had both my DDs there and whilst it's rough and ready the staff were excellent and helped me well through 1st very very long birth and my second one extraordinarily fast bith when DD2 was breech and they delivered her without me having to have a C section.

HTH

Homerton! Every day and twice on Sundays!

I had my dd in 2002 at the homerton and then had ds1 there in 2003 and it was lovely. I really liked it and the midwives were lovely to me. I had ds2 in Cambridge at the Rosie this year which was also lovely.

Had ds at the Homerton in 2003 and it was pretty good, antenatally and labour-wise. Mws were genarlly friendly and competent.
Post-natal care as crap as everywhere else, really. I don't remember seeing a mw the whole time I was in post-natally but I suppose I must have done! Community mw was lovely (although fond of giving babies formula to 'help' post-natal knackeredness )

Still, I started midwifery training two years later, so they must have done something right

Oh Thankd for that thread DINO! Homerton seems to come up good - only it ain't in Redbridge catchment area....so may be difficult to get into.

Another option for me is Kings Cross is I use my South London address. LOL. But I think I have decided to AVOID Newham!!!

I had both my boys at newham general in Nov 2002 and April 2005. When talking to others the general feeling amongst my post natal group was there are two differents parts - CMU Community midwife Unit is good and midwives are excellent. Consultants labour ward - dirty, short staffed and not clean. It depends on what care you need if straight forward simple birthing pool/gas and air Newham is great, anything more forget it. Recent news article is about flies due to change in recycling policy and was resolved very quickly.

Had a good experience at the Homerton, thought the wards were dirty though. Midwives on delivery fantastic and followed my birth plan, even though ds didn't!
Don't expect too much post natally, I was on a mad ecstatic high, so didn't care too much. Actually, some of the mws are a bit mean on the pn wards.

Bonnetscotch
I'm in Redbridge, had DD there 3 years ago, am booked for DC 2 in June there. I don't think there is such a thing as a catchment area as such, it seems tobe more flexible than that. I just went to my GP and asked to be referred, and they wrote a letter. They did wonder why i wasn't going to Whipps or King George but didn't dwell on it or say i couldn't. HOmerton has never asked any questions. Several friends in Wanstead went there. it's apparently increasingly popular in our area.

I'm surprised Newham is one of your recommended hospitals, I've never heard anyone mention this in Redbridge although I guess it depends where you are. People in my area have also gone to Harlow hospital...

I had dc1 at Homerton in 99 and had good (midwives) and bad (consultants/anaesthetist) experiences. Was induced and felt like i should have had a stopwatch dangling from my drip - I felt everyone was looking to see me 'reach targets' by certain times.
I paid £100 for a private room just off the ward afterwards and this made a world of difference to me. Don't believe in private or 'paid for' healthcare as a rule, but when I'd been wheeled back onto ward and had two other mums on either side of me shouting 'yeah, I was like, you fckin C!!' when they was stichin' me, naaaah!' I decided I wanted my baby's first moments in life to be a bit more sedate (!!). Didn;t pay the council tax and gas bill for a month and put the dosh to good use, I thought.
I loved the toast and butter in the morning, the lovely Jamaican and Indian midwives I had who made it all seem so special.
THEN, four days later, my sister had her dc1 at King George. I went up there with my new baby to visit and was expecting at least someone to stop me and check ID or something - there I was, walking out of unlocked ward with tiny newborn, etc. Nothing!
I also felt all the beds were incredibly close together - more so than in Hom.
So I can't pretend to be an expert, and I realise this post is making me sound like Mrs Middle-Class de Nightmare (I'm not, honest), but just giving you my well out of date impressions of two of your options. I've learned that no two births are the same, just like no two experiences of the same hospital are. it's all a lottery I suppose. Good luck!

Thanks for all your responses.

I am veering towards Homerton - . So I'm going to try my luck!

Miss Runawayquickly - Am so with you that one. I would surely have done the same! In fact I've already said I want a private room. I could not really stand that kind of drama around me when I wanted to just - rest and enjoy my miracle!!

Thanks all for your responses!

I had both my girls at King Georges, the staff were lovely, and the premises were clean.

My sister had her first at Homerton, and she found the place to be dirty, and the staff in the maternity ward afterwards to be disinterested and rude, it was my sisters first child and she'd had an emergency c-section (the staff in the labour ward were fantastic), but afterwards the maternity staff were really horrible to her, and she ended up checking herself out early. Reading the other posts, maybe it's changed my sisters experience was in 2003.

redbridge is big, which area are you? surprised you haven't got whipps cross on list. anyway avoid that too.

deffo not newham, if your pal isn't on duty you'll be stuffed. i had an appalling time there, pain relief denied, bullied and ended up with em cs i was there for the longest week of my life.

the new centre on isle of dogs sounds good. and have you considered home birth? if i get to give birth again will either be elective cs or home birth, not putting myself at mercy of newham hosp midwives ever again. thecommunity ones are ok though.

I actually live in Hainault. Deffo won't go to Whipps X. Hell no - and from what I hear and read of Newham - I really don't want to - pal or no pal !

Fishie - I'm too much of a whimp for a home birth!! I would chance a birthing centre but it would have to be within a hospial unit where I know it's a case of just being wheeled down in case of an emergency or having to wait. This is my first - so i'm very anxious and coward . Maybe I will be more confident with a second pregnancy.