St Helier midwives - experiences of home birth team and hospital PLEASE!

[Hadeda]

I am 14 weeks pregnant with DC2. DD was born at St George's in Tooting in Jan and we were really happy with them. This time round we are no longer zoned for St G(!) and I am booked into Kingston hospital. I'm thinking about having a home birth but, because of where we live, this means transferring to the St Helier midwives.

I have heard some horror stories about St Helier itself. I know you hear horror stories about every big London hospital - I've read some awful things about St G but we were very happy with them. But I haven't heard anything positive about St Helier, mostly because everyone I know has avoided going there.

If everything works out ok I should have baby at home and not need the hospital at all. But I am very nervous about transferring to the St H midwives as I know nothing about the midwife team (i.e. outside the hospital) or the hospital and, if anything did go wrong, I'd have to transfer into the hospital. I feel I need to know about having a home birth through them and having a hospital birth as either could happen.

Does anyone have any experience of the midwife team at home? Or if you used the hospital itself, what was that like? Were you supported in having a natural birth, even though it's a consultant led unit? Do they have a birthing pool? (Sorry, none of this info is available on the St Helier website.)

I'd love any views on St Helier as I'm really struggling to find out anything about it. Thank you!

Hadeda, where do you live? I had DS at St George's and now Kingston is our closest but I was still "allowed" to book St Georges - I was even offered the option of Chelsea & Westmsnter which is miles away!

One of my friends was recently booked for a home birth with the St Helier team. Her first child had been born by c-section because she had placenta abrupta and a very difficult pregnancy but she was supported in her choice to have a home birth this time. She had her second baby in hospital in the end but was very happy with the ante natal care she received from the home birth team and the midwives at St Helier during her baby's birth. HTH.

Hadeda, where do you live? I had DS at St George's and now Kingston is our closest but I was still "allowed" to book St Georges - I was even offered the option of Chelsea & Westmsnter which is miles away!

One of my friends was recently booked for a home birth with the St Helier team. Her first child had been born by c-section because she had placenta abrupta and a very difficult pregnancy but she was supported in her choice to have a home birth this time. She had her second baby in hospital in the end but was very happy with the ante natal care she received from the home birth team and the midwives at St Helier during her baby's birth. HTH.

Someone from my AN thread on here had a home birth that ended in a hospital birth that as I understand it wasn't the best experience.

On the other hand, my little brother (now 9) ended up transferred to the NICU at St.Helier at 12 hours old and I could not fault them - wonderful, committed and a high level of care. I think St.Helier is like many big hospitals, great when it REALLY matters but not so good on day to day stuff, cleanliness, being warm and fluffy etc.

I was told (when I was pregnant, had my DD at Epsom 9 months ago) that Epsom and St.Helier, Kingston and St.Georges are all in the same trust so you can book in with any of them. My DD ended up being transferred to St.Georges due to being a bit poorly when she was born and they said it was so easy because they are all linked.

Is Epsom near for you? Know of quite a few positive stories from them and in my opinion (although no homebirth experience) they are wonderful.

Oh and they have managed to cut MRSA rates which can only be a good thing as they were pretty awful!

I had ds at st heliers 8 yrs ago and dd last year. First birth was 'normal' second was emergency caesarean, so have at least had experience of hospital for two different births. Dont want to say anything too negative because the surgeon who delivered my dd was amazing, she got her out in seconds and probably saved her life. Think its probably like most hospitals some midwifes are great others couldnt give a damn! My sister gave birth to ds2 at Epsom and she thought it was a brilliant hospital, compared to when she had ds1 at st heliers. They do have a birthing pool, saw it when I went in to have ds and when I had dd had to stay in for 3! days and there was a permanent leak in my ward which apparently was coming through the ceiling from the pool on the floor above! Probably not selling it much to you!

Thank you for your experiences. It does sound just like most London hospitals, good at medical stuff where there is an emergency but a lottery otherwise.

We had our scan today at 14 weeks and all was well, which was a huge relief. Think I need to make my mind up about how much I want a home birth, given that it involves moving to the St Helier midwives and potentially having to go into St Helier hospital. I need to do some thinking, and probably lurk on a few home birth threads. Will give me something to do if DD decides to keep me up from midnight to 4am again, like she did last night !

Hadeda. you must live near me as I would have had to have transferred to St Helier if I'd gone for a home birth. I too had DD at SGH. DS was born this year at Kingston (good experience). I have heard good things about St Heliers midwives and the mat unit. I had the St Heliers midwives for my post natal care. They were fine.

I am the one from Ewe's thread..
I was booked to have a homebirth with St Helier and all I can say is that the HOMEBIRTH TEAM are lovely, fantastic, supportive angels. What I think of the hospital lot is another story.
I didn't go to St Helier for my AN appts, they sent me to a little clinic in Cheam which you could park at, was never very busy, and I got to meet most of the team beforehand. When I went into labour they came round to check me out, came back whenever I asked them to, were generally lovely.
My problems started when the midwife who was on call when things got hairy was the only one I had ever had a problem with. It may seem a silly thing, but I freaked out because she had long fingernails and she examined me and tried to do a sweep at 40+1 and it hurt a little. I'm sure it would have done anyway, but in my mind it was the nails! Anyway, when DH was talking to them to say I think (possibly tainted) view of mat unit. HTH you should come as my wife is swinging from the banister mooing they said it would be her and DH said no way. Unfortunately, they sent hospital agency midwife who had never done a homebirth, freaked a bit, and decided that DS's heartbeat was too erratic(it so wan't...). We transfered in to st helier "just to be monitored" (HA) and there my saga began. If you are interested in what happened next I will tell you, but please remember that the home birth people are lovely.
Also, it was a first birth that lasted 36 hours and there were many other factors involved in my

Don't know what happened there. My computer managed to get "(possibly tainted) view of mat unit. HTH " in the middle instead of the end. Hope you understand what that means...

BTW...for what it's worth, the experience I had was what drove me to become a doula.
If you would like a doula for your birth, you must be quite geographically close....
I'm a trainee and would love to see a homebirth go to plan.

Turtle - thanks so much for posting, it's so helpful to hear from someone who's been there (although I'm sorry it wasn't straight forward for you).
Without scaring the pants off me, do you think your experience in the hospital wasn't great because it was following a transfer from home - i.e. if you'd started there it might have been better?

I think where I've come out is that I need to be sure I am happy with St Helier as a hospital in case I do land up there. I would very much like a home birth, and all my instincts tell me it's the best option for me, but I don't think I'll feel fully confident with it unless I'm happy with the hospital. So I'm going to go on a tour of the maternity unit and see if I can talk to one of the midwives (might be lucky on that front!). And then I'll make my decision from there.
Wish me luck !!

I have had 2 of my children at St.H and I have to say the care I have had from them is fantastic, the most recent experience being just 7 weeks ago when my son was born, and also in January 2007. My recent pregnancy was very complicated and high risk with many stays in hospital from 24 weeks onwards for weeks at a time so I certainly got to see my fair share of midwives and other medical staff as well as the friendly cleaning staff, maternity assistants etc. After my most recent birth I was there for 9 days and I could not fault the care at all, I had a VERY traumatic birth (ended up in intensive care) and they really did care for me.

I certainly found the maternity department to be a lot cleaner than Chelsea and Westminster where I had my 1st child.

Sorry no experience of the homebirth team but just wanted to give you a view of the hospital care.

Hadeda- Yes. I am sure it would have been different if I'd started there, but wouldn't have done it differently. Home birth is fab. My advice to you is that no matter what hospital you give birth in, it is just a room, really. Go into it as well-informed as you can. Do not be afraid to turn the lights down(Obviously let them see if there's trouble!!), ask them to stop nattering if it drives you nuts, pretend that you are at home. Ideally they shouldn't interrupt whatever you feel you need to do. Make your birth plan wishes known, but do not hold onto them too firmly...sometimes things need to change. Make sure you move whenever you need to and rearrange the furniture if it isn't right!!
I wish you all the best with your birth.