PLEASE HELP - Choosing a hospital based in ESSEX

[Mountain88]

Hello, Just found out that I am pregnant with my second, I had a traumatic birth with my first so I am trying to avoid hospitals that is has a bad reputation. I live in Essex/East London, my nearest is Whipps Cross, Queens Romford or Basildon which all have bad reputations.

I am considering
1)PAH
2)Broomsfield
3)Homerton

since they are within 45mins car ride but do they have good rep? Has anyone had any good experience with them recently? I have found threads thats really old so any help will be great. I am hoping it will be. a vaginal birth with epidural, the gas just made me puke up all throughout my first birth, I definitely want the epidural.

PLEASE HELP!

I gave birth at Homerton in November and I'd say the experience was mixed. The consensus of my NCT group who gave birth recently was that post-natal care is bad everywhere (a mix of Homerton, PAH and Whipps Cross). No one had super terrible experiences though, PAH was definitely recommended. I would also check out North Mids, I have heard really good things about here for maternity from local parents.

Good things about Homerton:

• Dealt with my Gestational Diabetes very well. Super knowledgeable and empathetic diabetes nurses, great up to date nutritional advice and it was all about supporting me and making sure I was eating enough
• Very supportive when I wanted a planned C section rather than an induction (advised to give birth at 38 weeks due to the GD)
• Surgical team excellent, and caring midwife during C section
• Triage midwives generally good and friendly when we went in with worries pre-birth.
• Every Dr I met was super nice and caring.
• Partners could stay in post-natal ward with you overnight which I know isn't the case everywhere.

Bad things:

• Super busy. Sometimes appointments were 2-3 hours delayed as it's a very busy hospital. I think Fridays are less busy but this is a common experience. I had to go on a wed during the GD clinic so it was extra busy and dads had to go outside/stand because not enough chairs in the waiting room.
• Post-natal care was not good (again think this is universal experience). Place felt understaffed and lacked support. Moved me beds by making me walk before they should as needed my bed back in the high dependency area, my lunch was an hour late after fasting all morning and then completely wrong, completely forgot to give me any dinner, had to remind them about giving me pain meds, the midwife on night duty made me cry (by telling me off for giving baby "too much" formula at 5am when she'd been crying all night because she wouldn't latch and the previous advice was just keep shoving them on), they watched me hobble to the loo with zero help or support etc.
• You get different midwives at every pre-natal appointment so not consistent care. Some were good, some were only OK. I felt as soon as I had GD and went under Dr led care they couldn't answer any of my questions (this might be universal not sure).

Hopefully that's helpful to get an understanding. I had a different birth to what you want (although I had initially pictured a lovely water birth before the GD), but let me know if you have any specific questions.