Any experiences of delivering in Newham General?

[MissHairspray]

Hi, am booked in to Newham General but was wondering if anyone has any good /bad experiences of this and how it compares to other hospitals in the area?

my cousin and he's fiancee had there son there and they was really bad! Midwife tried to discharge them when there ds was 2 days old and had not had a poo since being born! Luckily my cousins fiancee refused to leave until they looked further at him and it was discovered that he had a problem with he's stomach! And they had to air lifted to the london hospital for emergency treatment/opperation!

Sorry for the negative feedback, but i dont rate this hospital at all, but if you decide to stay with this hospital then you may have a different experience with them!

Good luck with whatever dicision you make!

Thanks for the info, that is pretty worrying but I think its always best to be informed Am hoping that we will have managed to move out of london by then so this could be last last resort.

I lived in Stratford when I had DD and chose to go to Royal london as had heard bad things about Newham. However, haver had friends give birth at Newham since and it wasn't too bad (labour ward good, post natal not so bad) although i don't know that they would recommend it!
I recently had DS at Whipps Cross and they were fantastic, have also heard good things about Homerton so you could always transfer care to one of those if you don't mind a slightly longer journey

i had DD in newham general in december 07 - it was horrendous from start to finish

i posted about it here using my old MN name

avoid it if you can - I've heard Homerton is meant to be much better

Hi Pinata thanks for the tips and the link - scary thread I must say. Didn't realise it was the worst hospital in the country 5 years ago! Eeek, better think about other options.

definitely do - giving birth is enough pain and everything else. you don't want to have to be worrying about the level of care you and your baby are getting

as i said on my post, there is a community midwife unit - if you have a nice easy labour/birth maybe newham is just fine, as that unit is clean and new. but i wouldn't risk it. i was very low risk and ended up having the works...

best of luck with choosing somewhere

Hi Miss Hairspray, I would ignore the fact that it was a terrible hospital 5 years ago. Like schools, hospitals can change very quickly. I would say to focus on people's recent experiences as that will give you a clearer picture.

That said, I posted the same question about Newham recently and the responses were overwhelmingly depressing. Since then I met a couple of people who said it wasn't too bad, and another whose SIL had to give birth on the general ward with visitors coming in and out because they didn't have enough room on the labour ward!

I'm currently booked with Newham but want a home birth. Unfortunately they won't support home births because they don't have enough staff (I even took this up with the consultant midwife who confirmed this.) I could fight it, but given the stories I've heard, I've decided to switch my care to Homerton, as I've heard some very good stories about it both on MN and in RL recently, and they will support home births.

Could switching be an option for you?

To follow up on this thread, I have met 4 people in the week who have all given birth at Newham General in the last couple of months. All of them were very positive about their experiences there. It seems that the hospital was in crisis a while back but they've recruited a lot more midwives and also cleaned it up - certainly I never thought cleanliness was a problem when I visited there for ante-natal appointments and monitoring.

I was swayed by the negative things I'd heard about the place and switched my care elsewhere but talking to these women has made me wonder whether it was really necessary.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post in case anyone else is booked in there and feeling worried about all the bad things they've heard.

I was booked to have my baby at Newham, have to say that I wasn't impressed with the hospital, but didn't end up having my baby there - we moved out of London, and I had a brilliant birth experience just this tuesday. I just know that Newham has serious issues. They were the hospital that recently had an infestation of flies, and they were even crawling over patients and into their mouths and stuff!!

Glad you had a great experience Ann. Congratulations!

The fly thing was awful. I remember sitting in the dermatology dept and there were loads of flies around. Horrible. The point I was making was that they seem to have sorted some of the issues out recently. I did hear that there's a new person in charge of the maternity dept so maybe that's why, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear so many people having positive experiences, so maybe they've turned things around. I certainly hope so!

I had my baby at newham general in march 2007 and it was the worst and most traumatic experience of my life. i knew never again at this hospital!! anyway in april found out i was pregnant and decided i wanted a homebirth and like you aubergenie was told no due to midwife shortages and was determined spoke to this consultant midwife you spoke to and she said no.

since april ive been battling with newham to have a homebirth even the head of the maternity ward came to my house to convince me to come to hospital telling me how she has changed alot of things as she has recently started and things were alot better...i really wasnt intrested even if things were better as all i could see were flash backs of my previous birth with them.

i was soo determined to get what i want and didnt give in to their bulling and not to repeat my previous unplasant birth in their care that i decided not to deal with this consultant midwife and spoke to the Head of midwives wrote to the local MP, chief executive at newham and several other people that newham gave in after 7months of war with them now I am pleased to say newham have employed an Independant Midwife to do all their homebirth requests until january when by then they will have a team doing homebirth which they are training at the moment apearantly this takes 2-3 months i wonder why they havent bother to this since december 2007 when they suspended homebirths due to staff shortages. i have received personal appologies from the the HOM, Chief exec of newham and also received a letter of appology from my MP.

i am sooo pleased i battled on even though i have had a shi* pregnancy of worries and depression of thoughts of having to give birth at newham, i am already enjoying my last 3weeks with the IM who is fantastic and very experienced. i suppose all the stress has been worth it as hopefully know anyone that wants a homebirth can have one.

also aubergenie are you booked for a homebirth with homerton??? i tried that but they said they cant do me a homebirth because i lived in newham so do you live in their borough?? ive also heard that appearantly what homerton and whipps cross do is book you for a homebirth then when you call in labour they tell to come in as they dont have anyone to send to you and of course by this time you cant be asked to argue.

YumMum, Is it now confirmed that Newham are doing homebirths from Jan, As my cousin due in Feb has been told no chance of a home birth

Sorry for the Hijack

well in the letter i received from the chief exec and from my conversation with the HOM i think it should be back by feb. in one of the letters from the chief exec it says "the trust has developed a proposal for a homebirth team that has been agreed with newham PCT. however it will take at least 2 or 3 months to have staff recruited into that team." i received that on the 2nd of sept. the IM said she has a contract with them until january. so i assume they think it will be up and running by then.

Sorry you had such a terrible time at Newham Yummum. I had heard that they had been in trouble and now had to support home births with an IM. Brilliant news that you've got the homebirth you wanted, but terrible that you should have had to fight so long and hard with them in order to get it. Good for you for keeping on at them. I really hope it goes well for you.

No, I'm booked to give birth at Homerton itself. I've had some problems develop late in this pregnancy and so feel that I would rather have that hospital back up. You're right - they won't support home birth out of the area anyhow. A friend of mine (who lives in Hackney) was booked to have a home birth via Homerton. They gave her a pool to use and sent midwives to her on the day. Unfortunately she had to be transferred so didn't actually have the baby at home, but she didn't have any problems with them sending support to her. Don't know much about Whipps.

It sounds as if a precedent has been set with Yummum, Norks. If all this has been decided recently, it's probably worth your cousin going back and pushing them.

Another place she could try is the Barkantine in Canary Wharf. It's a new midwife led birth centre and absolutely lovely. She can call them up and self-refer, but she'll need to be quick as they only take a limited number of people each month. I was booked there (when I found out I couldn't have a home birth at Newham or Homerton) but because I'm no longer low risk they won't let me have the baby there, which is how I ended up back at Homerton!

Incidentally Yummum, will you have to transfer to Newham if things don't go according to plan with the home birth, or do you have another plan?

thanks aubergenie..

oooh wonder if that was down to me they are in trouble im quite pleased where did you hear that from as am the first and only person the IM has at the moment from them.

though the IM has said she received a phonecall from BBC or ITV asking her about newham not doing homebirths and thats before they took her on..so not all down to me i guess.

if i couldnt have a HB it will also be homerton definately for me. ive even said to the IM that if i was to be transferd ill want to go to homerton but she has said if it was an emergency she will want to get to the nearest hospital which will be newham as its only 5mins from me.

hope you get a great birth

I a friend who involved the local news about the whole homebirth thing at newham quite a while back, I wonder if it was to do with her. In the end she decided that she couldn't face fighting it all and went to the Barkantine instead.

I heard about the IM thing from someone who is involved in the Yahoo homebirth group or something. I'm really glad you managed to shake thing up for them! It makes me angry to think of all the people who've been fobbed off in the past.

Fingers crossed your home birth is a wonderful experience and you won't need to be transferred (but if you do, don't forget that things do seem to be better there now. I was surprised to hear so many positive things from different people who've given birth there recently)!

YumMum I have sent my cousin a link to this thread, I hope you might be able to give her a bit more info if possible.

Oops just realised have outed myself, fel a name change coming on.......

Hijack, YumMum!

Definitely get your cousin to go back and repeat her request for a home birth with Newham. I am guessing here that Newham has very recently been obliged by powers outside their control to reinstate HBs using an Independent Midwife in the short term and to have their own HB team up and running by January. And yes, I think YumMum's experience has a lot to do with why this is so.

Newham had behaved very very unethically with dealing with her and even bragged to her that whenever they tell mums to be that HBs are suspended they usually don't push the issue. So in the past it looks like a lot of women have been denied their right.

have a look at YumMums posts in mid august for more info. And foxytocin's/kiskidee's.

I told aubergenie, YumMum but by private email, not on MN as I didn't know yet that she had made arrangements with the Barkantine.

no probs norks will be happy to help your cousin..

foxytocin i did think it was me when aubergenie mentioned yahoo group..

Yes, it was all private and off MN and in the context of some struggles of my own with Newham. Foxytocin was able to give me some contacts to help me out. It all led to a useful meeting to discuss my case, but I still decided to change hospitals!

hello neighbours. i had ds in newham gen in 2005 and it was dreadful. doesn't sound as though it is any better. i was there for a week in total and also got the full experience. most of the midwives were unbelieably horrible. community midwives all so nice, it was such a shock.

yummum is your mp lyn brown? if not, then get on to her as well, she was very helpful re the lack of bf support i encountered. norks, also try PALS. a chap called ashley there helped me to complain after the birth, but you may as well get in now, they shouldn't be behaving like this.

Thanks for following up again with this Aubergine and others. I've actually decided to move out of the area totally so will be at a lovely hospital in the North and I am sooo relieved. I was told at my booking in appointment that because of understaffing I wouldn't have another midwife appointment until 26 weeks. As it is, I opted for shared care and when I tried to book my 26 week appointment I was told they were fully booked for weeks, which would have made me about 28 weeks before I saw anyone. I've ended up with a drs appointment instead but i'm not expecting much from it. I feel fine and it isn't as if I need constant handholding, but its my 1st pg and I do feel pretty unsupported. If I hadn't pushed to at least get a gp appointment, by the time I had moved and got re-registered in a new health system it could be almost 20 weeks since I would have seen anyone.

On the plus side I was asked if I would like to consider a home birth so may be they are improving on that side.

Anyway, rant over. Good luck for anyone else considering this.,

thats alright aubergenie..foxy has been quite helpfull to me too...

fishie my mp is lyn brown and has been very helpful and supportive as she contacted the chief exec on my behave. i tried PALS too although they looked into it for me they cant really get me a homebirth if the trust isnt suportive.