Pembury, Maidstone or Farnborough - your stories please!

[SamanthaB123]

I have to choose between these three hospitals for the birth of my baby in October. I've heard bad things about all three so would like some help in choosing! Please share your positive and negative stories about all three, thank you, SB

Pembury for all 3 dc. Went downhill with each pregnancy. In 1994 when ds1 was born they had a special ward where the babies who were not scbu but not quite ready for the normal ward went. It was called Bright ward. I was there for ds1, the babies were kept in a room at the end although you could wheel them out to be by your bed if they were up to it. We were there for a month and it was great.

ds2 and bright ward had closed although he wouldn't have qualified. Only problem I had that time was that although he was an 8 pounder he went to scbu within 12 hours and I had to stay on the ward surrounded by all the other mums with their babies. Felt rotton

ds3 and I had the same bed as I had had for ds2 elcs and discharged myself after 2 days because the staff were crap, always in the staff room having coffee. Final nail in the coffin was when I rang the buzzer to have a new mat thing they put under you, had lost a lot of blood and they took over 2 hours to come and give me a new one. Yuk

I'd go to Farnborough given the choice

Will let you know about maidstone in a couple of weeks if you want!

Thanks eatyourveg this is nothing more than I was expecting. Doodleydoo please do let me know, I've been to the ante-natal part of Maidstone and I did really like it in spite of what I had heard. Good luck with your birth!

I had DS2 one year ago in Maidstone. Won't bore you with the full details, but despite suspected preterm labour I was not given steroids and DS2 (who was born by EMCS as I had a mystery illness) had IRDS and was very sick indeed.

SCBU was in the process of being closed, and certainly DS2 was transferred to Ashford when he needed to be ventilated. I'm not sure if it is actually closed now but any serious problems and the baby needs to be taken elsewhere - as far as Southend .

Saying that, I can't fault some of the staff, who were kind, caring and helpful. It's just not a modern hospital and has had a number of problems in recent years.

My experience was mixed, but then my situation was not straightforward... especially as I'd only come to England to see my parents for a week!

I had a great experience at Pembury, midwives were friendly, wards and labour suite clean, used the transition ward as well and that was fine. Again an early unexpected far from home birth, but would go there again.

I have spent a great deal of time at Maidstone with prenatal thangs - growth scans etc and seeing the consultant. I have been impressed by seeing the same midwife each time I have been, the same sonographer and the same consultant - not something that happened in my last birth at a london hospital.

But will let you know - interesting about scbu though, will bear that in mind as will hopefully I won't need to transfer - although I know Ashford is great.

If it makes any difference my Dr had hers at Maidstone and has said you get 1 2 1 midwife care but am not sure how true that is.....

I have read this with interest as I'm having to choose between Farnborough and Pembury. I have currently chosen Pembury as I'm hoping the new hospital might be open by then (next feb???) but I'm much closer to farnborough. When I've been to farnborough it's been very unfrieldly and impersonal and rude in its approach to patients, but I've never had any direct dealings with the maternity ward, so for all I know it could be fabulous....

Will see with interest if anyone else has any comments to add.

Loved Pembury (2004) - fab MWs, lovely other mothers.

Hi angels,

I've been ante natally to both Maidstone and Pembury. I've really found it hard to have any faith in the staff at Pembury as they seem to be disorganised and indecisive. I was treated in a delivery room there and it was really very basic and quite unpleasant. I felt that I was rather in the way even though I was there quite legitimately. On the other hand Maidstone was fantastic. The staff were knowledgable and 'on it' and I was treated well and quickly. But I didn't see the delivery suite so there was no sense of what that part was like. The hospital appeared much cleaner than Pembury too. As an aside, when Pembury is full you are sent to Maidstone and vice versa. I was quite unnerved when I found that out. The new building at Pembury is due to be ready for maternity in January. Sorry if I'm a bit disjointed, I'm posting on my phone!

thanks samantha, something for me to think on, but hopefully I'll have the new hospital by the time I give birth, so even if the staff are useless with any luck I'll get lovely facilities (that is if I don't get passed over to maidstone...but I don't think feb is an especially popular time of year to have babies). Maidston isn't really an option for me as it's too far away

I haven't actually given birth at maidstone (had homebirth) but when I went for a positional scan at 36 weeks they seemed okay but I was less than impressed with the MW on the phone at delivery liaison.
Is this your first DC? If not, how quick was previous labour(s)? I would be tempted to go for nearest as a lot seems to depend on the MW on duty when you are in.

Thanks for all your comments. WoTmania - this is my third baby, I had the others in Devon and moved here recently. There has been a long gap between babies 2 and 3 and I don't know if this impacts the length of labour or not. I rather feel like I am doing it all for the first time. Neither labour was naturally quick - with DD2 it was fast after my waters had been broken artificially (about 20 minutes from 4cm to delivery). All three hospitals are pretty much the same distance from home so I have a free choice.
Angels - Maidstone and Pembury are both the same hospital but on different sites. I have been given the impression that if you call when in labour and the delivery suite at either is full, you are automatically referred to the other because they are the same hospital. I don't know if this is true in all cases but it might be worth finding out.

I don't know either when I was expecting my 3rd I found people v. divided many said it was their easiest, quickest labour many said it was their hardest, slowest labour.
Maybe you could ask to go round them all? Have a look around, chat to staff etc.
Also might be worth checking what rush hour traffic is like and find out about visiting hours and what the traffic is like around then?

2 at Pembury.
1st was induced labour so in for a while and found it to be clean, pleasant and staff nice.
Post natal ward was as they often are reported to be generally- noisy and with staff in the staff room. However they were friendly when I mamaged to track them down.
2nd was technically a birth just outside the maternity unit but Mags the midwife who looked after me afterwards was lovely and the after care was as described before.

I had my second child at Pembury, just 4 months ago. I thought the care I received there was excellent. I had high blood pressure during the pregnancy, had to have a c-sec and so spent a good few days there overall.
The staff were incredibly busy all the time, but always found the time to be kind and helpful and to answer any questions.
They had a little kitchen on the wards and this was a place for you to make tea and toast etc, all ingredients provided! This was really useful as it meant the staff could focus on the jobs they needed to do, and I could grab a cup of tea etc whenever I wanted.
Wards were clean, shabby, but to be expected with the age of the building.
I would thoroughly recommend it there, as I said, staff were brilliant, it was often just a case of ringing the buzzer if you needed help, not expecting them to mind-read that you needed help!!