Which hospital - St Thomas, Kings or Lewisham

[Fabt]

Hi, I had my 1st son at St Thomas at the end of 2013 and my experience wasn't the best. I knew I wanted to have epidurial and made it very clear since I got to St Thomas but they were so busy and didn't have a room for me at the Birth Center so I had to go to Home from Home. After 7 hours they managed to tranfer me to the Birth Center and after that I still had to wait 3 hours to have the epidurial as there were noone available to do it. St Thomas is a very reputable hospital and it is quite unlikely that something really bad will happen there, this is what everyone says but by my experience everything takes forever to happen.
As I am moving a bit further from St Thomas I am considering to change to Kings Hospital or Lewisham. Could someone help me telling how was your experience at those hospitals? Maybe I was just a bit unluck at St Thomas but normally they are indeed very good? Really appreciate all your comments. Cheers

I had a complicated birth at St Thomas'. I thought they were quite good, but the maternity ward afterwards was bad bad bad as my husband couldn't stay with me overnight.

Kings labour ward has an great reputation and partners can stay overnight - we'll be going there next time.

Good luck x

Hi Hellen,

Thanks for sharing your experience and sorry to hear that you didn't have a good experience at St Thomas.

I found the maternity ward afterwards bad too at St Thomas. As a 1st mum I would love to have had a bit more help. I had a very long labour, had catheter for long time and had to look after the baby on my own.

Great news that at Kings the partner can stay overnight. Thanks for letting me know (-;

Had a baby at Kings - all the experience was just great! Lovely and experienced staff, quite clean place... the only thing I could complaint about were... partners staying over night...

It was four of us (girls in post - labour room) I was so happy that my HB can stay with me, but by 22.00 there were four partners sleeping at the armchairs and snoring as hell.. (including my one) By midnight I sent my HB home as I couldn't stand it - but I couldn't send off other three guys :)
We were all quite lucky with nice and quiet sleeping babies... but not that quiet husbands...

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. We had our little girl at St Thomas's and on the whole it was brilliant (a long labour too so we were there a while!) - I have heard mixed stories though. My boyfriend couldn't stay with me either and I was on a ward with three other new mums and babies - noisy - I was very glad to get home! Good luck Fabt, whatever you decide to do - look forward to hearing all about the new arrival!

it's way too late for the lady that posted this thread. however, thought i'd share my experience for those who need to make this choice in the future.

i had my daughter at st thomas's and cannot disagree that the post natal ward is fairly unpleasant. however, i did find the labour ward and care during delivery to be superb. i had at least one midwife with me the whole time plus a lot of attention from the consultant midwife. my thoughts are that the nhs can't do everything so they have to direct what money they do have to the most critical area i.e. delivery. based on my own experience, i would definitely recommend st thomas's.

by contrast i've had a couple of friends give birth at kings and neither of them has a great story to tell. one had to spend a large part of her labour in the corridor as there were no available beds and the other said they were left largely on their own throughout the labour - with a first baby which was extremely concerning. the fact that their husbands could stay over did not outweigh the quality of delivery care for either.

so, it just depends where your priorities lie. for me, i'd rather have great care where it matters, during the delivery and put up with a less than fabulous post natal ward for a few days. i was there for four.

however, this opinion is based on just three experiences and i'm sure others have had a great time at kings.