Where to give birth?

[AnneF]

Hello,
I am French and have been living in the UK for 10 years without having to deal with the NHS (simply never sick) and now that I am 16weeks pregnant... let's say that I am very surprised by the standard of care care here, especially when compared with the French ones - my cousin just had a baby in Paris and I have first gand comparison. On the top of that, in January, we will be moving to London, Belsize Park/Swiss Cottage area. I heard that care in London is worst than in Berkshire, where I currently live; is it correct?
I am now searching for a London hospital where to deliver and it seems that the best one in North London would be UCL/EGA. Am I correct? Has anyone delivered there? Any other suggestions? Any feedback would be welcome!
The only friend I have, who delivered in Lodon, did it at the Westmisnter & Chelsea and was happy but for the post-natal care. Any feedback, views? Is it possible to deliver in a hospital outside your catchment area? My current midwife says no, but I read an article saying it is possible?
Many thanks for your help.

You need the Dr Foster birth guide - you can put in your postcodes and find out what the services are like round you. Just google it.

BTW in my experience the only comments you hear on maternity services are negative, people rarely say 'oh yes it was fine' but they do tend to go on a bit more when it's bloody awful (at least I did)

Congratulations btw!

Hello whomovedmychocolate, thank you very much for the Dr Foster tip, very usefull. Have kind of selected 2 hospitals where I would prefer to deliver based upon the information on the website. Thanks so much

Hi. There's a thread in the pregnancy section that might be useful?:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/675113-Royal-Free-or-UCH

Royal Free is near Belsize Park, but as far as I know people seem to speak more highly of UCH, I'm booked in there and have been very happy with it so far. I think under the new Choose and Book system you can go wherever you like, UCH is certainly not one of our nearest but we chose it based on feedback from people we knew.

UCU over Royal Free in my experience. The Whittington isn't bad, either.

I don't know about London hospitals, but I have had good experiences with two different midwife-led units at two different hospitals - very dedicated midwives who were very keen to give me the kind of birth I wanted and very respectful of my birth plan. The only downside is that they don't do epidurals (but you can transfer to the consultant unit if you do need one). It might be worth seeing if any of the hospitals have a MLU if that sounds like your kind of birth.

AnneF- i wouldn't stress too much about your standard of care. One of my friends is French and had her baby here (at Chelsea and Westminster). She felt she had a much better experience than most of her friends in France where she felt pregnancy was treated more like a medical condition and the treatment was very formulaic- eg -nearly everyone had an episiostomy whether it was needed or not. London hospitals have their faults but also some amazing positives. Good Luck! (and I'd try and choose somewhere sooner rather than later as they do get booked up).

Have a homebirth AnneF ;o)

You'll have the choice of UCL or Royal Free if living in Belsize Park. Both have birth centres as well as labour wards. UCL is very good (all of my friends who have been there have been impressed at the level of care) - make sure you get your referral sooner rather than later (particularly if you want to use the brand spanking new birth centre which is meant to be excellent).

I live in this area and booked into St May's birth centre. (Didn't deliver there in the end but that's a different story). It's amazing; private rooms with double beds and wonderful care. Take a look.