Best UK consultant & hospital for elective caesarean

[Butterfly2022]

Hi everyone, my husband and I are planning for baby number 2 but, due to my previous experience with the birth of our daughter, I have a lot of fear around the birth and after-care in hospital. I had an elective caesarean with our DD (due to our baby being breech and also an underlying health condition) and I would love to hear about any recommendations you might have for the best UK consultants & hospitals for elective caesareans. We are considering private hospitals as well as NHS, and happy to travel to wherever the safest place / most brilliant consultant is! Postnatal care is also very important to us. Thank you in advance for any recommendations.

Bump

Hello!
I am sorry to hear about Your previous experience, that’s one of the main reasons I didn’t go with public health care. I was simply petrified.

I think You should start looking at which hospital You prefer and take it from there.
They will usually have list of consultants working for them.
I gave birth at the Lindo and I was very happy. So happy that in fact I am planning a second pregnancy soon.

Also just to clarify I was absolutely petrified of birth. So much that it took me 10 years to build courage to even get pregnant…🙄
Lindo and my consultant put me at ease so much that I can’t believe I was ever worried and looking forward to hopefully be blessed with second child soon!

If You have any questions please feel free to private message me x

Mine was Prof Phil Bennett at Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea, both c-sections were private but antenatal NHS. He was good.

That said, there's loads of good consultants/hospitals, it's a fairly straightforward procedure.

After having watched 'this is going to hurt' I'd never go private for maternity care.

If anything goes wrong they don't have the facilities for you or baby. You'll be transferred to the nearest NHS hospital. Plus all the consultants you see also work for the NHS.

You'll have no issue getting a c section on the NHS and you can pay for a private post natal room if you want. You can also look at hiring a doula to help with the post natal care in hospital.

It doesn't have to be an either/or though. Both Queen Charlotte and St Mary's are private wings in big London NHS hospitals with emergency departments. The Portland is different in that respect.

I have birth by caesarian in Private wing of St Thomas's. All good

I am not sure why a lot of people still believe that’s the case.
As somebody above me said Lindo it’s literally across the “bridge” of the Queen Mary’s A&E.

I felt as safe as I could there, definitely felt safer knowing I have doctor by my side from beginning and not counting on midwife’s to “maybe call doctor or maybe let’s wait a bit longer and see what happens” as we have all seen often ending in tragedies.

I had both of mine on the private wing of St Thomas with Mr Kumar Kunde. He's fantastic - works in both the NHS and privately. Super calm and reassuring.

I have chosen him too! Were your recoveries OK (if you had c sections)

I just wanted to say thank you for the kind and positive responses posted on this thread… they gave me the confidence I needed, and I am now pregnant with baby number 2! Thank you so much!