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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

St Thomas's London

30 replies

Mirry71 · 13/12/2008 13:44

Am due to give birth here in February...can anyone give me their experience positive and negative. Have heard problems with staffing here and my main fear is being left alone and not able to manage. Is my first birth. I wondered whether I should go for a home birth (as you would then get midwives all the way through) but then fear my pain threshold is too low to manage on gas and air alone.....Any thoughts?

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singingtree · 13/12/2008 13:52

I had a good experience at St Thomas's and know lots of others. I've never heard of anyone being left alone in labour there. Have you been to look round yet?

Lotster · 13/12/2008 14:14

The Home from Home (no drugs) side is lovely. You get your own room for 24hrs after the birth (with Thames views FWIW! partner can stay on sofabed) and I think three water birth rooms too. Found the midwives very nice, they forced tea and toast on me too to keep up my energy

However, if at any point you decided to have more that gas and air, (I had to have a spinal and forceps as he was stuck) - you'd be transferred to the Birth Centre (other half of same floor), and afterwards on to a 6 bedded ward.

IME the treatment was there was pretty dismissive, and aftercare there is pretty shite. Noisy, not much help, broken shower. Had to stay in three days and couldn't wait to leave.

Still, forwarned is forearmed, if I'd known this I might have been more prepared to be tougher and demand what I needed... So hopefully this can help you. I recommend the tour.

ladylush · 13/12/2008 14:20

I had ds there 4 years ago. Was looking foward to the home from home birth centre experience but unfortunately had to go straight to the medical side because my waters had meconium. Anyway, labour long and horrible. 4 m/w came and went. Obstetrician excellent though and managed to turn ds with ventouse and deliver - else it would have been a c-section after a 14 hour labour (4 hrs pushing). Anyway, the post-natal ward was the worst part of it. Very dismissive staff and totally unhelpful. Could not wait to leave.

singingtree · 13/12/2008 14:45

of lots of others

My obstetrician was amazing too. Agree after care pretty mixed, but am not sure that any London hospitals are much better

snickersnack · 13/12/2008 15:05

I wanted to deliver in the Home from Home - but the heart trace when I arrived was a bit dodgy and stayed so so I delivered in the Birth Centre. Had a midwife with me the whole time - a midwife and student when I arrived for an hour then the same one all the way through until we were moved to the ward. She was great, the room was great (with its own bathroom - unlike C&W) and she brought us tea and toast afterwards so may well be my friend for life.

Ward was fine - noisy, but was only there from 6am to 1pm when I managed to get myself discharged. Clean, friendly staff. Way better than my experience at Chelsea and Westminster, by a mile.

Mirry71 · 13/12/2008 22:19

thanks, glad to hear your experiences singingtree and snickersnack but worried by lotser and ladylush's. Is this typical of a London hospital do you think?

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jasmeeen · 13/12/2008 22:36

Aftercare at all the London hospitals leaves a lot to be desired, i'm afraid.

SwampsterQuakesAtTheSight · 13/12/2008 22:40

Lotster summed Tommy's up. From what I've heard it is pretty typical of a London hospital. I think they put all their resources into getting the babies out (and caring for poorly babies afterwards).

I found both the Home from Home and the Hospital Birth Centre pretty good.

My post natal ward experiences after two emergency sections were grim. Couldn't wait to get out both times. Second time round I was up and on my feet before I could feel them I was so desperate to go home.

I found it best not to ask for help with ANYTHING as it was frustrating when it wasn't forthcoming.

Worst thing was first time round when I got totally ignored several times over several hours when I was asking for pain relief because they 'didn't realise' I had had a CS. As I recall I only JUST caught the anaesthetist making his final round of the night and then had to have a morphine injection as my epidural thingy had come out. DS1 had been born at midnight the night before.

If you give birth in the Home from Home Centre and you feel up to it they will discharge you within six hours. That was my aim. Just didn't manage it .

SwampsterQuakesAtTheSight · 13/12/2008 22:41

And see you there, Mirry, I will be back there in February!

lal07 · 13/12/2008 22:55

Have just had my DD at St T - whole experience was fantastic. Was on medical side (had to be induced) but one midwife through whole thing and she was brilliant. Also lovely big room with en suite/low lights/birthing ball etc. Post natal ward was fine - they are busy but were v good at giving me attention I needed and everywhere very clean. So so much better than last time (at EGA) which was unbelievably bad in every aspect.

Mirry71 · 13/12/2008 22:56

hi swampster when are you due?

tbh am reconciled to aftercare being less than desirable - seems to be a recurring story in London hospitals...more worried about care during the birth. I am nervous about the whole thing and concerned about not getting support from staff there.....I'm the sort of person who tends to get more nervous in that kind of situation

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SwampsterQuakesAtTheSight · 13/12/2008 23:06

I'll be in for a section in the first week of February.

reluctantincubator · 13/12/2008 23:07

I was registered to go to Tommy's but swapped to Kings so that I could get on the list for a specific midwifery practice associated only with them who do one to one care and specialise in HBs. I wanted a home birth but if I had decided half way through labour that I wanted to transfer to hospital (i.e. for more assistance to handle the pain), my midwives would have come with me and stayed with me even at the hospital. If you can find out if there is a similar option at Tommy's then you are in a win win situation, whether you end up at home or at hospital.

SwampsterQuakesAtTheSight · 13/12/2008 23:08

Care during birth was, on the whole, pretty excellent.

When are you due?

Mirry71 · 13/12/2008 23:18

not til the end of the month Swampster....looks like we'll miss each other

reluctantincubator when did you swap? am guessing it is too late for me to do so - or to request a HB as am just coming up to 30 weeks

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serenity · 13/12/2008 23:31

My experiences are a bit old (Dcs are almost 11, 8 and 5) but I had all mine at St Thomas' even though it meant an hours journey. The care during all three births was great, after care bit more iffy - you kind of get left to it which is OK, but a pain if you're trying to sort things out (like to go home!) After my less than fab experiences with DS1 I made sure I didn't stay the night with either of the other two and left within a few hours of the birth. Tbh I hate hospitals anyway, so I would probably have felt the same everywhere!

lal07 · 14/12/2008 09:44

Mirry71 I had the option of same midwifery care that reluctantincubator describes. Don't know where you are but the Deptford midwives work with Tommy's, will come to your house when you go into labour and then you can decide whether you want to go to hospital or not (they're very pro homebirth). They'll then go with you to hospital and stay with you through out if that's what you decide. Was my plan to have home birth but waters broke early and labour didn't start. Think there are also midwife team in Battersea that do similar. Don't think 30 weeks is too late to change - important that you get the kind of birth you want.

reluctantincubator · 14/12/2008 12:40

Its never too late to say you want a homebirth at all - the only question mark is whether you will get to register with the midwifery team you want. If you find out who the options are you can register an interest with as many as you like in the hope that you will make it to the top of their list before you give birth. (I phoned and asked to go on the list of my ones at about 14 weeks I think, and was 9th on their waiting list for november births, but then made it onto the list by about 20 weeks, as so many people change their minds through choice, medical need or moving house etc).

lal - I think the deptford midwives do mixed caseload and teamwork now, and which you get depends on your postcode, so although they support HB,if you gert allocated to the teamwork side, they cant guarantee you seeing the same MW every time, or at the birth (at leasr thasts what they told me which was why I transfered away from them, although they are lovely). I was with the Albany and couldn't recommend them highly enough. They are very big on encouragement and`empowerment in coping with labour at home, but are exclusive to kings

The midwifery services at` Tommy's should be able to tell you who their midwifery collectives are and which do caseload vs teamwork. If you are interrested in albany you would have to trasfer to kings if you are in tghe catchment.

I got the impression that sometimes the teamwork MWs are a bit put out because, of course, they have many more ladies on their books to deal with as1:1 care is more intensive/expensive to provide, but then i also think that 1:1 care should be a right on the NHS and therefore the more people that demandit the better.
hope this` info is useful. good luck!

ladylush · 14/12/2008 22:10

Mirry, I would say don't let my post put you off cos the care during the birth was great. I never felt that either myself or ds were at risk. I would suffer the after care knowing that my baby and I are well. I would go there again if I had a choice.

lal07 · 15/12/2008 11:52

you're right reluctantincubator - it does vary in Deptford too. And 1:1 care should be standard. Sigh. Miry my only warning about Tommy's would be food is completely grim so get someone to bring stuff in for you if you need to stay for any length of time. other than that hope you get what you want and best of luck.

edam · 15/12/2008 12:02

ds is five so things may have changed but Tommy's was dangerously understaffed when I was there. The home from home unit looks very nice but there was only ONE midwife for seven women in labour. And she couldn't transfer me to the hospital birth unit as they had the same problem there.

So much for a 'midwife' led unit. If I hadn't had dh and my sisters, God alone knows what would have happened. As it was I had a third degree tear as the midwife wasn't around to guide me through transition and pushing.

edam · 15/12/2008 12:03

Fantastic views of the Thames, though. And dh was able to stay with me in the room until I was discharged.

mrsbabookaloo · 15/12/2008 12:03

I had lovely lovely midwives in St Thomas's: one through the night, another one and a student midwife through the whole of their 12 hour shift through the day...they did not take a break or leave my side all day...and then the same one from the previous night back in the evening (it was a long labour, can you tell?).

I was never left alone and felt very supported. None of them had the satisfaction of "catching" my baby as I ended up with an emcs.

Post-natal ward was a bit depressing and midwife care there more patchy.

I think it's the luck of the draw wherever you are whether you get nice midwives.

But you can't beat the view at St Thomas'!

Mirry71 · 15/12/2008 22:33

thanks - i guess i am just trying to work out whether St Thomas's as a staffing problem or whether this is just the NHS - and if so how I deal with it...

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reluctantincubator · 15/12/2008 23:21

If it is anything like Kings (and I suspect it is probably for most large london teaching hospitals ), it may well be luck of the draw and how busy they happen to be when you go into labour. However on the up side both friends of mine who gave birth at Tommy's had very good experiences with good midwives and births that went according to their birthplans. They were both in the home from home centre though, which is limited intervention/pain relief. (you may well find that you cope with labour really well . Pain threshold in normal life doesn't necessarily equate directly to hw y0u manage in labour. some women who are really tough don't manage without lots of help and some wh think they are wusses turn out to be hardcore "not even gas and air" types )