Ealing hospital or Queen Charlotte?

[Blueberry2014]

Hello! I am 13 weeks pregnant and was automatically sent to Ealing Hospital but my doctor strongly hinted I might want to try Queen Charlotte - which has also accepted me but I don't know which to choose as have heard nothing about either other than Queen Charlotte is good for twins and high risk, which I am not. Any advice or stories about either? Thanks!

Go for Queen Charlottes!

Ealing hospital is the pits, really. It's filthy and horrible.

Queen Charlottes is much better.

I am in Ealing but for different reasons am at St Mary's in Paddington, I wish I was at Queen Charlottes, I've had some care there in early pregnancy and they were fab.

Ealing hospital has now a lovely brand new birth centre, you might want to visit it before you make up your mind. they have tour every Saturday morning.
I gave birth at Ealing hospital and loved it. Very natural, no pain relief (my choice). Good antenatal care too and not too much wait. Easy access and easy parking. I had health related issues during the pregnancy and they were always careful and I had all the exams needed.
You could also go to West Middlesex.
I didnt' want to go to Queen Charlotte as it's very busy, not easy access (couldn't dare to go there by tube heavily pregnant!) and very unlikely to go to the birth centre as I've been told that any kind of complication will send you to the general unit. Which is not the case in Ealing, if you choose the birth centre, you will have a chance to go there until the last minute (even if you are considered at risk during your pregnancy for example)

Good luck for the pregnancy anyway!
Do you know any other local pregnant woman? Could be good to attend some local classes....

Hello Loopylouu and CarineBabyCalm!
Thank you both for your feedback...it is so useful to listen to others' experiences. Yes - I will visit the Ealing services this Saturday - it is a great recommendation!
I am so torn - maybe that will reassure me. Ealing is much more convenient and I have had no bad experiences so far but feel lucky to have a place at Queens and my doctor worried me slightly when she assumed I would be there and hinted it was considered better...but I will keep listening to people's views and make up my own mind ! thank you!
No - I dont know any local mums yet - I guess I should look for some NCT classes to try to meet some...I will try that next!
Thank you again! :)

To be fair, I have only seen the bad bits of ealing hospital. And my dr warned me off going there, but I am wanting a c section, so I'd feel safer at a bigger hospital.

Ealing is my nearest too, I'm in Northfields. I have a history of going into labour early with ds, so I am dreading the drive to st Mary's if I do!

Where about are you op? I'm fairly new to the are and as my ds is much older, I am out of the loop with all the baby things too!

I gave birth to my son at the birthing centre in Queen Charlottes. I would recommend it to everyone, the midwives are very friendly and and helped make labour a lovely experience for me. I will defiantly having any future children there. Good luck!

I am 28 weeks and at Queen Charlotte. I personally would avoid Ealng Hospital...it is so grim. That said, the Community Midwife that comes to my local GP is from Ealing hospital and she is lovely.

People say QC is very busy and you sometimes have to wait for appointments, but I haven't found that to be the case, max wait time for me has been 15mins. They offer fantastic antenatal classes and very good facilities. As it is specialised for high risk pregnancies I know that if anything goes wrong I will be in good hands. I'm low risk so far.

I had DD at Queen Charlottes. The antenatal waiting times were a complete nightmare - I never waited less than 2 hours for each appointment and the midwives very rushed and busy. I was hoping to use the birth centre, but it was full when I went into labour so ended up on the delivery suite. However, I still had a brilliant natural birth and was able to use the one pool they have on there throughout the time I was in there. I narrowly avoided being induced right at the beginning though and had to make a real fuss about not - the midwife looking after me at the time commented that "that's the problem with Queen Charlottes delivery suite - they over medicalise everything and you can end up having interventions when you didn't want them". I have to say I was glad I was there in the end though as had a bit of an emergency after the birth and received brilliant and very rapid emergency care and surgery.

The biggest downside of Queen Charlottes for me was the postnatal ward. I had a really bad stay there - really uncaring staff, and I felt really bullied by a couple of them, no one listening to what the problem is you have, nobody able to take the time to help me with feeding and forcing formula on me.

I'm at West Mid this time as couldn't hack the waiting times with a toddler in tow and really didn't want to go back to Queen Charlotte's ward. All good so far - short waiting times and midwives seem to have more time to spend with you. My friend had a c section there last year and had a good experience and said the ward was good.

I've heard rubbish things about Ealing Hospital too, but have also heard they now have a brilliant birth centre, so it would be worth trying them. The community midwives that came out to me after DD's birth were from Ealing and they were brilliant.

Just to clarify, Ealing hospital and Ealing Maternity are 2 different services and while I would avoid Ealing hospital in case of emergency (for the kids or myself), I would be confident with the maternity unit.

Check the BabyCalm classes if you're interested (google BabyCalm Ealing or on Facebook)

When I lived in Ealing I was initially sent to QC's but didn't like it and opted for the Chelsea & Westminster. it is a bit of a tube/train journey faff but i worked close by to the hospital so it made better sense than it would first appear.

Loved the hospital, the staff were like staff everywhere- a mix of good, adequate and wouldn't leave my dead cat with them. Plenty of good food outlets nearby to counteract hospital food too.

My tuppence - I had my son last year at QC and they were brilliant!

I did have a high risk pregnancy and was scanned/seen by the consultant every couple of weeks.

The queues at the antenatal clinic were outrageous, especially to see a doctor (I am taking up to 3 hrs at times). However, when I did manage to see them, they were amazing - very detailed and reassuring. Answered all my silly questions, didn't patronise me and didn't treat me like an idiot.

When it came to giving birth - the triage midwife was a bit off (probably knackered at 4am) and there were no beds in delivery. After waiting for a while in a crappy room there, I was finally transferred to a very nice and clean room. I had an epidural (again, had to wait for a couple of hours).

Post-birth bit was a bit disorganised as midwives changed and it took them ages to clean me up and transfer to postnatal. Postnatal, again, was very busy but everyone was very nice and attending. They even gave us a class on postnatal care and breastfeeding.

All in all, it was a great healing VBAC experience, after my first nightmare birth at one infamous Brent hospital...

HTH