Has anyone given birth at Homerton Hospital, Hackney?

[EmJay28]

Dear all

Just moved back to the country after 2 years teaching in Vietnam and am registered in Bristol where my parents live. Me and my husband have moved back to London and are looking at places to register for the birth of our baby in Jan. REALLY dont want to give birth in Royal London Hospital which is just down the road as I have had some friends who strongly advised me not to after their experiences. We were thinking of Homerton Hospital in Hackney and wondered if anyone had given birth there and if so what experiences did you have? Any comments would be greatly appreciated as we are confused and the big day is only 3 months away! Or if anyone has any other recommendations for east London?!?

Thanks

I would say from prsonal experience not Whipps Cross!

I've heard good things about Homerton- my friend gave birth prematurely, and has nothing but priase for the staff there.

I had 3 babies there and found the antenatal care great (even if the clinics are a leetle bit busy), ditto the delivery suite staff. The postnatal ward wasn't great, but not terrible. I would recommend the Homerton deffo.

I had both my dcs at the Royal London and they were very good. I had a very complicated first delivery with emergency c-s and ds in SCBU for a week, and I couldn't fault the clinical care, I thought they were great. Friends had babies at the Homerton, and also had good experiences though.

EmJay,
I had my DD at the Homerton approx 2 years ago. Mixed reviews from here:

Specialist Foetal Medicine Unit - fantastic. We had an early scare with DD and were treated with such professionalism and compassion, and things were swifty and expertly sorted out. Can't rate them highly enough (and DD was and is absolutely fine!)

Antenatal care was great - midwives were all lovely and very well organised even though very busy.

However, I was induced there, and have since realsied I was given an unlicensed drug (and was not informed that it was part of a trial (or even if it was) or any further information) which I have since found out may have been responsible for some of the difficulties I had with my birth ? some of them have some fairly drastic potential consequences which I feel lucky to have escaped. Of course it may not, but I'm still angry about it and am investigating further.

That said, apart from the f*ckwit consultant who made that call I couldn't really fault the other consultants or midwives. They saw me through a long and difficult birth, supported my desire to avoid a C-section if possible when many others I feel would have whipped me off to surgery. I felt supported and well cared for throughout.

Postnatal care was pretty dreadful, very little support or care, despite the fact that I was in pretty bad shape. No breasfeeding support even mentioned, let alone made available. However, you hear this a lot about busy London units, so not so remarkable TBH.

I think if you have a good support network of your own for afterwards, you could do a lot worse, frankly. Specialists very highly regarding should anything go wrong (God forbid).

HTH

db
xx

Hi EmJay,

We had a mixed experience too - fantastic antenatal care, met some amazing midwives, but unlucky with midwives who were on duty on the day (very old school). But most of my friends who've had their babies there have had a far better experience. I found the postnatal ward pretty foul but don't have anything to compare it to and so it might just be typical of busy London hospitals.

The other thing to say is that there are loads of old discussions of the Homerton, if you search mumsnet. It tends to provoke a range of responses, which you'd expect really when you ask people about the hospital where they did the most intense and life-changing thing of their life (probably), but mostly it seems to inspire loyalty.

Very good luck! I'm switching to the Whittington for my 2nd (because we're moving house), and that seems often to be cited as another good North London hospital, if you're also looking for a Plan B.

x

I am due next week, so far I've received care from the Homerton Hospital Team, I had reservations about the hospital from day 1. I initially asked my doctor if I could have my care transferred elsewhere, he recommended that I didn't, I heeded his advice and have had the worst care possible. Homerton hospital's culture is Disorganised, Unprofessional and Lacks Communication. At 34 weeks I thought about transferring my care to the Whittington, but decided it was too short notice, now with one week to my due date I'm reconsidering. This is my first pregnancy and I think the care I've received so far with the exception of a few individuals has been inadequate, is the care I should expect, should it be questioned? How did some of the midwives actually qualify as midwives?! The receptionists are by far the worst you will come across in the country. I would never recommend to the Homerton. So far reeviews of the Whittington have been better and more consistent than those of Homerton. I know with Homerton you can only stay, once you've had your baby for a maximum of 6 hours(providing its a normal birth) Can anyone tell me how long you stay for in the Whittington and what visitation hours are like??

Ciab....you stay a MINIMUM 6 Hours not max!
I am amazed your experiences have been so bad..my sister has loved their antenatal care and raved about theMLU. What have they one to upset you so much?

I had a homebirth via the Homerton team and as a doula (based about 5 mins from the Homerton) I feel like I'm in the maternity unit all the time!

I had a very positive experience myself and overall have found the team there to be very responsive in the range of situations I've seen them in while working with the couples I've supported.

The facilities are good - very new and spangly. They also have a positive commitment to labouring in water, a wodnerful birth cenre and have a range of mobile pools for the labour ward.

Postnatal care - well, I've heard it's pretty pot luck in most places. Haven't had any experience of awful care with any of the couples I've worked with though and in fact at a birth 10 days ago I had a mother in awe of how lovely the postnatal care had been.

Best of luck with your decision making. Feel free to DM me if you want to talk further.

Didn't give birth at the Homerton, but have had experience of other services there, including paediatrics (fabulous)and postnatal and gynae (fantastic staff, but very, very overstretched even by London hospital standards, and absolutely filthy, which was a real worry).

Gave birth at the Homerton in June, great delivery team, gave birth in the birthing suite which was lovely. Postnatal team/ward was busy and hot but I had fine care here too.

Designerbaby very interested to read your experience. I was 11 days overdue when I went for a sweep only to be told by the consultant he was going to try and break my waters to get things going. He then told me as he thought he had, my only option was to now take Misoprostal (I think this is the drug you are referring to) rather than being induced by pessary. He wanted to send me up to labour ward then and there! He didn't at any time make me aware these were my options when he said he was going to try and break waters. I felt uncomfortable about this and requested some time to return home and consider it as it turned out (luckily) he hadn't broken my waters. That night I went into labour spontaneously, had a remarkably quick 2nd stage (3-10cm in 2 hours) and can only imagine that things would have been very difficult if I'd taken the Misoprostal. I'm still cross about my treatment from him.

My advice to anyone planning to give birth at Homerton is to be aware that they are trialling Misoprostal as an induction drug. Read about it if you are likely to be induced and know that you can request to be induced in another way if you prefer.

OP-good luck!

Ha- whoops,just realised this very old thread. Presumably OP all sorted

They finished the trial of Misoprostal at the Homerton q few years ago now.

Rosebud05 - They haven't actually. It was mentioned to me this past September during an induction booking. I had to strongly and specifically request that under no circumstances was I to be offered it.

Really? That's interesting. They weren't using it in June '09 when I was induced with my ds. Maybe a different consultant trialling it?

So the general assessment of Homerton is that the Birthing Centre is fab, C sections are fab (I read that in another post), inductions not so fab if you're subject to a clinical trial and postnatal ward can be fraught if you're there at a busy time. Some people have mentioned it's possible to get a private room in the postnatal ward... at a cost. Has anyone had experience of that?

 Generally, my midwife experience has been pretty good. I see the community midwives at the GP. My one concern was the rather brutal woman giving the antenatal class on breastfeeding and the hospital tour at Homerton. Not exactly the most empathetic of creatures and I would be horrified if she was in attendence at my birth. Are you able to request another midwife if you're not impressed with the one you're given? Has anyone tried this?

Also, squigglywiggler, the brutal midwife told us we could only have one birth partner. As a doula in Hackney could you confirm if this is the case or if it's possibly to have another person?
Thanks muchly.