Newham General Hospital - Recent experiences?

[Aubergenie]

My nearest hospital is Newham General and I'd welcome anyone's recent experiences there. This is my first baby. I had my midwife booking in appointment and she was lovely and reassuring, but when I enquired about home births, I was told that they were suspended at present in the area as they don't have enough midwives. I feel quite upset about this as, although I don't know if I definitely want a home birth, I feel angry that the choice has been taken away from me and worried that I'm going to get pushed into something I don't want.

She has recommended the Community Midwives Unit but I didn't think to ask whether I am guaranteed to get a place there on the day.

I had a miscarriage at Newham last year and although the care was fine, I ended up on a mixed temporary ward because they didn't have enough space, and I have a horror of something similar happening for the birth.

It would be good to hear some honest comments. Thanks!

hi aubergenie - i had dd at newham in december. think you were on the thread when i shared my experiences here. it was crap, so won't go into all that again

just wanted to explain re the midwife unit - it is first come first served, so you will get a room if there's one available. i think they have 4 or 5, maybe even 6 rooms. one has a birthing pool, also first come first served.

you can only go to this unit if there is zero risk - i was not allowed because i had slightly raised blood pressure in labour only (had been fine throughout pregnancy).

it's worth booking yourself on one of their labour unit tours. they do one a month at least. check with your midwife. you'll see that the midwife unit is far nicer than any other bit of the labour ward, as it's much newer. there are no beds in the rooms, just sofas

they don't do epidurals in there, but will give you gas and air and pethidine

as it's attached to the main labour ward, you have the reassurance of knowing you can be moved quickly if there are any problems or you need monitoring or whatever

they have 2 wards for after the birth, which, for all their faults, are definitely not mixed. although they do have women in early labour in there, which doesn't help when it comes to getting any sleep!

re home births - they really are very short of midwives. can see why they are doing this, as i would have been annoyed if 2 widwives had had to attend a home birth leaving me with even less care at the hospital. it was minimal anyway. that said, of course it is annoying they are taking away choice from people, especially when the labour ward is so old and shoddy.

anyway, i wish you lots of luck for your delivery - i'm sure not everyone's experience is like mine. if you want to know anything else specific, let me know - am happy to share

Hi Sanwi, Thanks for that. Yes I remember your experience was particularly awful. That was partly why I thought I'd start a new thread in the hope that I might hear something good. Nothing so far though...

I know what you're saying about taking away midwives from the hospital, but when said hospital sounds so awful, it would be good to have a choice.

You're right. I need to book myself in for a tour and do my homework now. Baby's not due till September, so there's plenty of time to sort it out. I think I'm going to consider Homerton as well as I've heard pretty good stories from there.

i completely agree re home birth. the problem is that no midwives want to work at newham, so they are desperately short

i think there are some comments about newham on netmums here a couple are positive...

the tour will really help you make up your own mind - i admit i left it very late (think i was about 38 weeks or something by the time i went), and couldn't have changed my mind at this point anyway. i should have gone much earlier and gone and looked round all my options, but i found it quite hard to do much other than eat, sleep and go to work while i was pregnant

good luck with it all

Until recently I used to live in that area of London, and although I never used the hospital, I was under the impression that it was considered one of the worst and that standards of care, cleanliness weren't high. Not sure about the maternity side of things though.
I remember reading on the blog of an ambulance-man in the area (called Random Acts of Reality) that it was appalling there, but I can't find the post now!
Can you ask to have your care transferred elsewhere?

Thanks for that Sanwi. There are a couple of positives, but rather outnumbered by the negatives aren't they! Actually my sister rang me yesterday to say that someone at her work had a good experience at Newham...

Did the tour raise any alarm bells for you when you went on it?

Cheerfulvicky, thanks for your reply. I know the hospital has a bad reputation, which is why I really want to hear from people who've actually gone through the maternity system recently as hospitals, like schools, change all the time.

I'll keep asking around.

yeah, the negatives do outweigh the positives, but at least there are a few positive ones, showing not everyone has an awful experience

the tour did ring alarm bells for me - the whole unit is horrible and shabby, and on the tour the midwife said they've applied to build a new one and maybe it would be there for our next babies (!) So, they know it's crap. mind you, i wouldn't have given a monkeys about the decor if the midwives had been nice and the place had been clean. plus, when you're walking about and a toilet looks a bit less than perfect, you don't worry about it so much. when you're in labour and NEED to sit down, it suddenly becomes a problem

the midwife centre is completely different though - in a corridor by itself and all new. if you get in there, i'm sure the whole experience is much better. the rooms are spotless, you can walk about and labour any way you want to. i personally didn't feel the urge to kneel or anything, which is lucky, as the floor in the main labour unit is made of bare concrete

as i said in my previous posts, even with my hideous experience there WERE positives - immediate epidural, very good c section team (probably a reflection of pay scales of midwives v surgeons!), baby monitoring and assessment was also good, and the midwife actually there during the labour really knew his stuff. so i never felt DD was at risk or anything like that

the problems in there are to do with general hygiene and midwife attitudes - unfortunately, the tour doesn't show up the second. when i went, they were all smiles

if i had to go there again, i would make sure DH was even more vocal (and he really wasn't backward in coming forward this time round!) and that i had some disinfectant wipes or something for the toilets etc

all that said, I have a gorgeous, healthy 4mo DD and once you're home and recovered you soon forget the birth.