Birth experiences at Kingston Hospital, Surrey?

[MammyShirl]

I am due to give birth in 6 weeks at Kingston Hospital in Surrey amd would like to have an active birth. I am very interested to hear from anyone who has given birth there.

Had both mine at Kingston and was more than happy. However I did have 2 sections (2nd semi-elective). The midwives first time round (emergency section) read my birth plan, which subsequently went out of the window! They did listen to what I wanted though, although one midwife did have rather long fingernails (not conducive to internals.....ouch!) and I didn't feel pushed into anything I didn't want - section included - if they'd have given me the knife I'd have done it myself at that point!

I did however have to wait over 6 hours for an epidural (middle of the night so only one anaesthetist on call) so had pethidine instead.

Most of the rooms are private and the SCBU is very good too. Food pretty poor - this is the NHS after all! But I was told it was fine to order takeaway!

all in all a good experience. Have you been on a visit yet Mammyshirl?

I had dd there 15 months ago and things were ok. As they were busy I ended up recovering on the caeserian ward and as I had a natural birth we got no attention at all so I rushed home as soon as I could. The food was awful, they came to collect my breakfast dishes and I had to remind them that my breakfast had not yet arrived, let alone been eaten! My advise is to ask your partner to provide sandwiches, takeaways etc... Also remember to ask for help if you need it, I didn't and still regret it to this day.

I had my DS at Kingston 14mths ago. When I first went in, they kind of forgot about me (they were very busy and not much was happening) so that wasn't so good. Then they broke my waters, and thought there was a bit of meconium, so I had to be hooked up to a monitor which made moving around impossible. Eventually had a drip and epidural, and baby was born by ventouse. I found the midwives fine, the consultant very brisk but very admirable (she did 3 emergency caesarians while I was there!) and was a real bundle of energy. The midwives were definitely less keen on the interventions but in the end bowed to the consultant. No water birth either, if you want that you need to go to St Georges. On the plus side, I got my own room and bathroom for the night, and they had a "snack bar" with cereal and hot drinks available 24hrs. Not a huge amount of post-natal care, I could have done with more help. Every time I asked for help with BF got shown a different technique, and one midwife commented, after squeezing my nipple, that there was not much there and that baby would be on it all night (unfortunately true!). The hot food was awful - get the packed lunch or get DH to bring something in. Also bring something comfy like a towel or blanket to sit on or even a birthing ball - the armchair is vinyl and very uncomfortable to sit on naked, and the bed was really hard!

Good luck with the birth!!

My best friend had her baby there 13 months ago and couldn't fault it ... great midwives ... excellent consultant (private, obviously) and a nice room (which she said everyone got a private room there ... it wasn't part of the private package, at least that was the impression I got when I went to see her)
She also said that the Maternity Unit there was supposed to be the best in London (apart from the private clinics)
Don't know from personal experience ... I had mine at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill and am relieved that I won't be giving birth there again!!!!
Good luck Mammyshirl ... :0

ooops ... meant

Had ds at Kingston Hospital by elective cs 3.5 years ago. Staff were nice and helpful, clean private room, don't remember the food. Very positive experience. Think the private room was because I had the cs, other friends who have had non-intervention births there were on the ward.

Good luck Mammyshirl!

I had my twins there nearly two years ago. I managed to have a natural birth even though twin 2 was breech. We had a bit of an emergancy with twin 2 (the cord snapped meaning no oxygen to her) so they tried to break her collarbone to get her out quickly. They paged everyone and I had two consultants, 4 midwives and 3 peds arrive within a minute. So from that point of view it was excellent. And everyone was really lovely....however, that was in the actual labour ward and things did change DRAMATICALLY once back in the normal ward. No help, stroppy nurses, unhelpful, wouldn't show me how to breastfeed and ignored me despite me completely overwhelmed by the trauma of twin 2, being a new mother to two babies and sobbing continually. So if you are a new mum get help regarding bf first don't rely on their help and get home asap to comfy bed and food. To sum up excellent care for baby, but c**p aftercare.

Had my 2nd child at Kingston hospital having thought that 2nd time round and 11years after giving birth there the 1st time things would be better. My 1st child is disabled and I was assured I would be given a lot of support reassurance and understanding because of my fears with my 2nd pregnancy and birth. My antenatal care was fine, no problems there butthe birth and after care was another story. I was induced early evening and almost immediately started getting contractions, I was put on a machine to trace the babies heart beat. They kept losing the trace and saying it was because baby was moving and when it slowed they said it was as they were picking up my heart rate rather than babies. I spent the night in great discomfort and wandered the corridors trying to find a midwife to give me some pain killers. No body checked on me at all. By the time a midwife came the next morning the contractions had died down as I was due to get another dose of prostin earlier and there had been no one available to give it to me. I was once again put on a monitor and again the babies heart rate kept getting lost and then they said when they heard a slow heart beat that it was mine. I was given a 2nd dose of prostin and once again I almost immediately started getting fairly strong contractions. I was examined and had barely dilated and was told my uterus was over contracting. Once again I was put on a monitor. This time it was left on a long time and the midwife finally realised that what they thought had been my heart beat was in fact the babies dropping very low and she was in foetal distress. I was rushed over to labour ward where my waters were broken and then I was rushed in for an emergency c section. When my beatiful baby was given to me I was told everything was fine. About half an hour later when we had been moved to the high dependancy unit I was informed that my babys blood gases were low at birth and they wanted to repeat them in a little while. I was very nervous that the lack of oxygen might have caused my baby harm. As I fed my baby she started to make loud grunting noises but as the midwives said nothing my husband and I thought it was nothing to be worried about. When my baby was taken to have her blood gas levels checked again she was still making the noise and no body mentioned it so now we really felt we could relax-the results came back fine this time. About 2 hours later I was resting and my husband was holding our baby next to me. When I turned to look at her I said to my husband do you think she's changed colour? He unwrapped her and we immediately called a midwife, she was blue and floppy. The midwife grabbed her and in front of us opened her airways, no response. She rushed her to resuc. where they took 2 mins to bring her back, she was then taken straight to neo natal and my husband went too. I was left in the ward sobbing not knowing if my baby would be ok.I was still completely unable to walk because of the epidural and was in a room full of mothers and their babies with the curtains wide open distraught. Not a single midwife tended to me or talked to me until 30 mins later my mum arrived. My baby and I were in the hospital for 8 days, I was eventually moved to my own room, and my baby joined me after 3 days in neo natal. In those 8 days my room was cleaned once-the day before I left, my blood stained sheets were never changed despite my husband repeatedly asking for them to be. I was forced to give my baby formula as they were too busy to help me with breast feeding. My large camera case was found on the day I was leaving still on the floor in the theatre where the c section had been performed, had they not thoroughly cleaned the theatre for over a week??!! I have now written a letter to the hospital with my complaints as we let it go with my sons birth 11 years previously. What we had been through with him was too distressing to go over and I was too busy coming to terms with his disability. In their reply they have totally denied that my daughter even stopped breathing when it is clearly written in her birth notes in about 5 different places. We are totally stunned that so many errors have been made and gobsmacked that the person who dealt with our letter of complaint didnt even look at the facts correctly and wrote back with total inaccuracies. I think they have shot themselves in the foot this time as we have written evidence of it all. We hope no one else has to experence what we have there-I would certainly warn my friends to have their babies else where given the care we have received with both births. My daughter is still seeing a consultant now(at a different hospital!!!), she seems to be developing normally but we have been told they will be more certain when she reaches 8/9 months.