East Kent

[Twinsincoming23]

Hi,
Does anyone have experience recently of East Kent maternity?

I am currently pregnant with twins, at an outstanding trust.
Moving house around 28 weeks and choices will be William Harvey (1hr drive) or QEQM (30 mins drive). Staying at current is not an option as its 100 miles away.

I've heard much worse things about QEQM and also that the Neo unit is at WH so think this could be preferred, but I'm absolutely terrified of giving birth at either of these hospitals.

If it was a singleton, I'd feel slightly more confident knowing I'd be able to have more control over what's happening, but with twins, the level of intervention and the risks are what worries me.

Any experiences welcome please!

Also, does anyone know after you give birth if they have private rooms, or open wards? My last birth I had a room so my DH could stay with me and baby.

Thanks

I don't want to worry you and I don't have direct experience, but this article came out in May:

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/risk-of-baby-swaps-at-chaotic-hospitals-287473/

Thank you. Yes i am aware and I have read the report in full hence why i am worried and scared about my birth options

QEQM had some absolutely horrific stories come out in the past year so you would have thought they would have put in a lot of safeguards to improve and it should be better now. Both my sisters had their babies there (over 4 and 10 years ago though) and neither had good experiences.

I also have family members currently working there (albeit not in maternity) and they don't speak fondly of how the hospital is managed. However, once again, not direct maternity related.

Unfortunately the time may be your issue- if things need to happen, you would probably end up at QEQM. Perhaps if you can though, it sounds like WH might be better if it has a dedicated neo unit especially with twins? It's my understanding that any complex patients at QEQM tend to get shifted to Ashford or London, so that might factor in.

Sorry, I hate to be that person who is doom and gloom. Your birth might go swimmingly at QEQM and i know a lot of others who also gave birth there (but don't know the ins and outs- presume fine though as their kids are!)

I would go out of area and choose Maidstone Hospital or Pembury, although that's quite a bit further.

You haven't said if you want a vaginal or C-section birth, obviously the latter would be very easy to organise with the slightly longer journey but even with a VB you could make a plan with your midwife to go in earlier than usually recommended.

You are totally entitled to choose your hospital x

Thank you for the advice. Going too far afield is not practical even if it's a planned section, as I also have a toddler and don't want to be too far away from them.
My gut is saying to avoid QEQM as I've heard such awful things, going back decades before and after the report.
And go for WH but obviously as things progress if it looks like things may be planned for a specific date I could transfer to Pembury or Maidstone which I've heard excellent things about.
Would obviously prefer the least intervention possible and to get home ASAP so a natural birth will be preferred but of course with twins this might be more difficult x

Call me crazy, but you could go for a home birth? You'd probably be safer at home in East Kent!

Worth looking in to!

You’re right, it’s crazy.

A home birth with twins would be a horrible idea. Multiples don’t usually make it to full-term and the babies often need immediate care, which can’t be provided at home. Home birth for a low-risk singleton pregnancy, sure, but not for twins!

Of the two, I’d probably go for WHH because they have NICU whereas QEQM ‘only’ has SCBU. The post-natal ward at WHH is a mixture of 4-bedded bays and several single rooms.

Thanks.. yes for an uncomplicated single pregnancy I'd consider home birth but with twins I think it unlikely as if they don't come before 37 weeks I'll be induced.
Its very sad though that women have to consider being safer away from hospitals since the reports in East kent (and many other places) showed such failures in basic care to mothers and babies.
I shouldn't have to be terrified of giving birth because of the options available :(

I am going to go for WH but will explore options further afield if it seems I have the birth 'booked in'. Will be making sure I have as much control as possible of the birth and options available, and that DH is fully aware of my choices and we both will have to be hyper aware of any signs of things that might cause problems.

I've had 2 babies at QEQM (not twins) and had a positive experience overall. They are being very OTT cautious with everything these days. I had a ridiculous and very unnecessary test for gestational diabetes in my second pregnancy and countless growth scans again despite everything being ok. No private room for postnatal but at one point the whole ward was empty so I did kind of temporarily have a giant private room type experience! The staff brought me plenty of tea and helped me whenever I needed it.

I travelled from NE London to give birth to DC1 at Pembury and don’t regret it for a second- my local hospitals were a shit show, and we drove down very late at night so only took about an hour to get there. It’s a fantastic place to give birth IME (also had DC2 there and will be having DC3 in a few months, but I only live a mile and a half away now!).

Hello - I’ve never left a comment on MumsNet but saw this and I had to comment. I gave birth to my baby boy in June at William Harvey, 10 days after this (and subsequent reports) were published and I felt the exact same concerns, naturally. I was so worried I was even considering renting in Nottingham to give birth there were my fiancés family live. I can honestly say my entire labour, and pre and post-natal experiences at WH were nothing but wonderful. The Labour ward at WH was wonderful, I was given everything I’d asked for (room with birth pool, bath etc etc) and the midwives are lovely. If you look on EK hospital Instagram page, they’ve posted contact details of two senior midwifery directors, I spoke to them directly before my birth and they were hugely reassuring. The reports are damning for sure, but I genuinely believe steps have been put in place to improve the situation. I was personally very happy with the service I received as were all the other girls in the NCT class who gave birth there this summer, including the NICU. The hospital seemed to me like any other NHS environment. Health visiting service in Kent was another story however. I had very negative interaction with East Kent health visitors (discrimination etc) Feel free to msg me direct if you have questions. Good luck x

Just FYI maidstone doesn't have a maternity ward, they have a midwife led birth centre and have scans and an antenatal clinic on site, but no delivery suite or obstetric theatre. These are are Tunbridge Wells hospital at Pembury

Not that recent. I had dc1 in Ashford 8 years ago and dc2 in qeqm 5 years ago so both in the peak of East Kent maternity services worst period where many babies needlessly died.

Ashford was appalling. Lots of talk about their lovely ward with the pools and birthing rooms etc. never saw any of it. I had 4 shift changes during the course of my induction, 3/4 midwives were awful, no communication and eventually left me for 2 hours after I said I needed to push. Doctors came in, saw the charts and had to take over as the midwives had failed to pick up everything going wrong. I genuinely think I'm very very lucky to have dc1. Baby was in distress, they messed up a drip into my hand and I was left with it dripping blood on the floor for an hour. Doctor said he'd give me an hour to try and push the baby out and then to theatre, at which point the mw walked off and we never saw them again, so I was laying trying to work out how to do it with my dh. Of course I went to theatre for forceps birth. Post partum even worse, no help, I just lay and cried while baby cried as I couldnt feed them (I discharged myself in the end and did manage to feed with the help of mumsnet advice!)

Qeqm much better but I went in saying I wanted communication above all else. I went in on my own without a birthing partner and the team of midwives and consultants treated me very well and talked me through everything, which is what I hadn't had first time round (then, just been met with a stoney silent stare). Post partum ward was awful though but this time I knew what to expect, I knew how to breastfeed.

My advice is go to either but demand they talk to you every step of the way, assume they will roll their eyes and bin any birth plans. Take paracetamol and neurofen in your bag as they won't provide these for hours and hours on the postpartum ward and also take food and drink as you won't be offered any for over a day after you've had the baby. Try to get someone who is a pro at bf if you want to to give you complete support in those first few hours/days to get you established. (If you pm me I'd happily come along and support!)

How was the experience @Twinsincoming23 ?