West mid or Kingston?

[Maxinebg]

Hi can anyone out there recommend which hospital is the better west mid or kingston?

For what? Maternity? I have been to west mid for A&E which was very efficient. Had my twins at Kingston though, mainly because I wanted somewhere easy to get to on public transport for my hundreds of antenatal appointments! Could not fault the maternity wing and SCBU (except for some dud advice on bf which to be honest happens everywhere I think). Parking a nightmare though.

I have also heard good reports from friends who were at west mid though.

I had two at west mid and last at home under west mid based midwives: Originally (over 8 yrs ago now and things may have changed a lot) I opted for west mid over kingston as got a rather negative vibe from the latter (dictatorial midwife who refused to let me ask any questions about birth/hopsital choices, hospital refused to allow me to visit the maternity unit beforehand, experiences of those who had given birth there suggested that the whole birth process was very managed and timetabled with little opportunity to progress naturally if this was considered too slow).

I was looking for a more hands off/low level of intervention if possible and the midwives at west mid were much friendlier and welcoming at the time: My first labour there was extremely long but they did not put me under any pressure to speed things up (which was exactly as I wished) - after the event and talking to other new mums I feel that had I gone to Kingston I would have had a very different experience (and not one that necessarily supported my birth plan).

Obviously, things may be very different now at both hospitals (west mid have built an extra natural birth unit since I was there with more water birth options I believe) but if I had a 4th (!) I wouldn't hesitate to go back to west mid again or opt for a home birth with west mid midwives (who were all fantastic and very calm and experienced). Good luck - hope it all goes well!

Sorry I'm a new comer to all this, yes I meant for maternity. I'm only 7 weeks and need to make the dession in the next fe days and have heard good and bad for both it's like a mine field.

I've had two quite different experiences in Kingston in the last 6 years: long drawn out epidural on the delivery suite followed by quick no drugs in the Malden unit. Both times great, felt supported, and both midwife led (even with the more interventionist one the only doc involved was the anaesthetist). Agree bf support not great but otherwise postnatal is ok as rooms are all single or double - no wards. My community midwives were great too but maybe not same area as you ( I'm just down the road from the hospital) hth

Thanks guys I'm starting to ge a better picture, I'm kind of in the middle although traffic wise it's easier to get to west mid.

I had my DS at west Midd 16 months ago. I thought they were great. I had a complication with the epidural (not their fault) and the care in relation to that was excellent. I had to stay in a couple of nights because of that and got my own room and help with breast feeding.

Have been to Kingston for something else and parking is a hassle.

Kingston is one of the hospitals in the area that they are trying to shut down all maternity services will be moved to west mid

Interesting doctor didn't mention they were trying to close down Kingston, but then I suppose their not allowed to say their preferences.

This is all so new to me and scary as we have just conceived first time through ivf after 5long years of test and being told were never be able to have children. I'm so scared something is going to go wrong and am stressing about everything. Your comments have really helped. Xx

Coxy1, congratulstions, I was in exactly the same position as you. From what I know about both hospitals, whereever you choose you will be well looked after. And mumsnet is a great support for pregnancy and afterwards!

I want to withdraw my comment above re West Mid A&E being efficient. Have been here for over an hour waiting to be seen with my 6 mo twins with temp of nearly 40 degrees (having been referred by ooh doctor).. Every other person that was here before and after us has been seen including a girl with indigestion, aman with a sore finger from a dance floor related injury, and a young tear away in handcuffs who has been bitten by a police dog. Absolute debacle.

I had my DS in West Mid in Sept 2010 and couldn't fault them. The labour was fairly straight forward, although I had to stay in for 5 days afterwards as he/we couldn't get to grips with breastfeeding at first and then he got jaundice quite badly. I found both the ante- and post-natal care excellent, I felt very supported all the time I was in hospital following the birth and had countless one-to-one sessions with their resident breastfeeding counsellor. I too was given my own room after a couple of days.

I was also lucky enough to be offered a case-load midwife on what was a trial scheme back then so I had all my antenatal appointments at home and my "personal" midwife was there for my labour. (Actually, it was her day off - I was early - so her case-load "buddy" stepped in for her, but she came in for around 4 hours that evening anyway to support me). I think they still offer that service but now it's not a trial any more it's quite oversubscribed.

All in all I had an extremely positive experience with them. On subsequent visits to A&E have also been treated well.

If you want a homebirth (and I fully expect you don't!) you'll need to get the one with the community team that covers your area. Apparently choice does not exist for this

If you are Twickenham, St Margarets, Brentford, Hounslow your community team will be W Mid, but Richmond, Kew, East Sheen, Ham are Kingston even though you can have a hospital birth at either.

Fwiw I had DS at home under Kingston 3 years ago. The antenatal care was sub standard due to my v bad midwife. The birth and aftercare was good. This time round I am with Kingston again because I want another hb, but also because W Mid were terrible when I tried to register this time - did not return calls, did not answer the phone and I had to make a complaint about something and 12 weeks later neither midwifery matron or Director of Maternity Services has been in contact despite leaving messages on the answerphone for them. I also found switchboard could not connect me and kept cutting me off or directing me to a very stressed sounding labour ward.

Conversely all my appointments this time under Kingston which have been at Queen Mary's in Roehampton have been good (except for one epic wait due to someone else's emergency). I opted not to have the MW based at my GP surgery because she is the one who went AWAL and left me very ill and almost missed my anti-D injection.

So really it's much of a muchness but my recent experience suggests W Mid are very stretched and I have no wish to be in the middle of an department in crisis when I'm having my baby.

The stuff about Kingston closing is rubbish btw. I would not be surprised if St Helier closed but neither Kingston nor W Mid are able to take every mother who wants to birth with them so there is no way they will merge.

I am in the know until they change their mind again...

No exp of. West Mid at all but had DS2 in Kingston Jan this year -which was an induction in the end. Care whilst undergoing induction was fine although it was a bit of a long boring wait which was not their fault, but cannot fault care once transferred to delivery suite - very competent, friendly, unflappable midwives who stayed with me for the 12 hour duration and listened to all my questions / worries / facilitated my moving around (difficult with drip!) with consultants popping in to see how it was progressing - was prepared for theatre at one point due to baby's heart rate dropping but they worked out it was my position putting pressure on cord, so kept me on my side whilst pushing and c-section averted. They kept very calm & matter of fact whilst the 'panic' was going on so I felt totally OK that I, and more importantly baby, was in safe hands and the result was that whilst my delivery was in a 'medical' setting ended up with no intervention which was brilliant. Actually I had a great experience -best of all 3 births, and I absolutely love them for it! No idea of bf support as was fine as 3rd timer, they did come and check me / ask if I was ok with the bf though so presumably the help is there if you want it - it all seemed quite organised - and got own room so that was good! Pre-natal midwifery care was midwives aligned with my GP Surgery and they were also fine (although sent me to consultant for quite a few of the check ups!) but not sure how that would work in your area. Huge congratulations btw

Hi, I had my baby at West Mid three months ago and they were fantastic. I was caseloaded so had the same midwife throughout who visited me at home for all my antenatal appointments. The natural birth centre there is brand new and fantastic.
I had a complicated birth in the end but the same midwife stayed with me throughout.
My sister in law and close friend both gave birth at Kingston and neither had good experiences.
My friend was in terrible pain after her birth and went to her GP to be told she had torn during birth but not been stitched up as 'Kingston don't do that now'!! Her GP wasn't impressed with the care she got there and it's put me off ever wanting to go there for anything!

I would not recommend west mid to anyone. I had an infection that could have been treated with antibiotics but all I got from west mid mws and docs was misdiagnoses. Our baby died, and we have now been trying for more than a year to get a straight answer from them on why my care was so bad. I realise others have had good experiences. Hope ours was an extreme case, but I certainly won't ever choose to be in their care again.

Consort, I am so sorry for your loss

Consort, that is awful I am so sorry for your loss.

Thanks ceevee and here, sorry so serious :( OP I do wish you well, and I know it is a hard decision with some having good and bad experiences at each hospital. Are you working with a doula, perhaps? In hindsight, we were too trusting, and were too bewildered to know we should really raise a stink when things started to go bad. Would have made a difference to have knowledgeable support, though I appreciate it is an expense, and some also want as few as possible at the birth. Please also understand that while my experience was as bad as bad can be, i did have a treatable but rare infection, and that it is very unlikely that anyone else would have the same happen. I have had 2 wonderful births of very healthy children, and I very much wish you the same, and hope I haven't caused you undue concern, although I do still feel that I could never recommend WM.

consort very sad to read your post, so very sorry for your loss.

here really sorry your friends had a bad experiences but I was stitched properly so I don't think it's the case that they don't do it. Which is probably of no comfort to your friend of course but my midwife stayed over the end of her shift to finish the job as it were. Maybe I was just lucky that they were not over busy when I was in or perhaps just got very lucky with the midwives I had?