Picking Maternity care

[AnnaD28]

Hello

I'm 5 and a half weeks pregnant for the first time and struggling to wade through all the information to make the first decisions...

My Dr wants me to pick whether I want my maternity care at Barnet, the Whittington, the Royal Free or UCH and whether I'd want to be on a maternity or midwivery led ward.

Any advice/recommendations greatly receieved!

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

Wherever you decide, you can change your mind practically up to the last minute. I'd recommend telling your GP the nearest place to get things moving in terms of nuchal scan booked in.
You can phone and make appointment to view most of the hospitals maternity units and some have both midwife and consultant led parts. I had mine at Barnet midwife-led unit, you will only be allowed to use the midwife-led unit there (and Edgware birth centre) if your pregnancy is classed low risk. This you won't know until you start having midwife appointments anyway. I had a very good experience at Barnet.

Also you will get positive and negative reports about every place and people seem to relish telling horror stories about births/hospitals to pregnant people; try not to take these too much to heart/brain!

I am doing antenatal yoga and in the class I go to the peole are from all around Finchley & Hendon mainly and we have all chosen different hospitals from your list for our own personal reasons; distance, previous experience, level of medical intervention desired etc. There is no right or wrong choice.

Congratulations. I had my care at the Whittington and would do again. They have a great birthing centre. I think convenience for your work / home is a key thing in addition to medical considerations...

Hello thanks for the advice much appreciated!

It's true everyone will tell you good and bad things about each hospital.

I had my daughter at Barnet and had excellent care there - but my best friend was pregnant at the same time and had completely different care - certainly not as good as mine.

My personal advise would be to try and choose the hospital nearest to where you live. My contractions started at 1pm and it all happened very quickly. We got to Barnet at 6:10pm and Gaby was born at 6:45pm - if we had chosen a hospital further from our home Gaby would have been born in the car! Plus I dont think I could have coped with a longer car journey whilst having contractions.

Plus I had a difficult pregnancy and went to the hospital quite a lot - it was really helpful (especially at 3am!) that the hospital was a 10 min drive away.

Hope that helps