Portland vs C&W Kensington Wing

[lilly13]

I am having a difficult time deciding between Portland vs Kensington Wing at Chelsea & Westminster. This is my first preganancy and I am very worried. I read on mumsnet that someone had friends who had a bad experience / were subject to medical errors at the C&W private birth unit... Could you please share this with me via this talk or by responding directly to me? I'd like to know which specialist I should not use if I end up at C&W... Unfortunately, I have no friends who used either C&W or Portland. Thank you very much in advance!

I had DS last year at Portland and had a great experience (normal delivery), both with birth and after-care. Am booked back at the Portland to give birth to DC2 due in Jan. Would absolutely recommend. Have some friends with bad experiences who were at Kensington wing, please CAT me if you want details.

Thank you so much for this! Sorry what does CAT mean (I am new to this network). It would be great to get some details of at least which specialists not to use. I was told by C&W that Portland has no facilities in case any complications arise and am worried if I'd be making the right decision by going there... Thank you so much!

You can contact me directly ("CAT") by clicking on "Contact poster" on the line next to my nickname. It's worthwhile visiting both of the hospitals before making a decision. Portland has an NICU and SCBU for baby and emergency facilities for the mother, so it's just a myth that they can't deal with emergencies. If you book a tour with them, the midwife will explain it all to you. I looked into it as well before choosing the Portland. Portland is probably also the only maternity hospital in London with a record of no MRSA or other nasty bugs, which was also important for me.

I had both DS1 at the Portland in 2007 and DS2 there in 2008. I was really happy on both occasions - it's incredibly clean and well run, and the nurses and midwives are great.

I was concerned too about the Portland's lack of emergency facilities, but my obstetrician told me that in case of any emergency that they weren't equipped to deal with the baby and I would be whisked away to UCH, which is five minutes' away by ambulance. In any case DS1 was in their SCBU for almost a week because he was premature, and the care he had there was excellent.

Really it depends on your choice of obstetrician - mine only delivers at the Portland, and he was the reason I went there, because I felt so safe with him.

We chose the a kensington wing

I know the Portland has a SCBU and neonatal intensive care. Hopefully you wil need neither and in most cases they will be adequate. However, there are 3 levels of care for neonatal cases. If it comes to the worst they will stabilise your baby and transfer to a '3 star' unit I think they call it in the uk. It used to be St mary for portland maybe now UCH which is closer.

What swung it for us is this plus lack of facilities for emergency for the mother. A month after we got pregnant my husband was asked to authorise post labour emergency care for a wife of one of his employees. It's super rare, thankfully, but the poor lady was trasnferred to a specialist neurology unit in coma and died three days later. Between this and 3 doctors in my family all shouting about the rare cases where 30-45 minutes makes the difference between life and death ( and it is that by the time they get an ambulance, transfer, drive, transfer even if the other hospital is 5-10 minutes away) I had very liitle choice.

At Chelsea and Westminster, Kensington Wing a level 3 neonatal intensive care is 2 doors through from where you give birth. The hospital has all the acute units for the mother too. The other option is the Lindo Wing at St Marys - my friend who gave birth can't praise it enough ESP for high risk pregnancies.

perhaps we are just incredibly risk averse (panicky
I was tempted by portland - the rooms look much nicer and I heard the food was better. But its also further away from where we live - I could walk to C&W at a push.

Whereever you go I hope you have a great experience. My care at Kensington has been v good so far but will see about the birth.

BTW May I message one of the ladies who heard bad things about Ken Wing. Am curious to hear if there is anything I should watch out for.

BTW

Ps

I will ask my consultant to see if he has anything to say about the errors/ bad experiences.

He's getting used to a bombardment of questions now.

Errors probably happen everywhere. The portland had the most high profile case a few years ago with the poor lady bleeding to death so I am sure they have made significant changes.

lilly13, I think the most important think is to go where you feel happiest. Unfortunately things can go wrong and poor care can happen wherever you go, albeit that they are few and far between.

Your gut reaction and feeling for a unit is more important. If you think there are any specific issues that concern you then make sure that you ask those questions even if it means ringing up after you have looked round.

I think with any pregnancy all we ask for is a good outcome for mother and baby. It is also worth bearing in mind that if there have been mistakes/errors made in the past practices will have greatly improved as reviews are always done of serious incidents to prevent the same thing happening again.

Good luck with your decision and the rest of your pregnancy.

Thank you so much, everyone! I really appreciate your responses. I wish you all very good pregnancies!

I had my son at the Portland and am considering there again for the twins, although my first choice would have been the Lindo Wing at St Marys but it's being refurbished.

I had my son at The Portland in 2008 and my DD there in 2009.

I actually had chosen the Lansdell suite at St Thomas's (Liked the fact there were emer. backups there if needed) but when DS arrived, they were full, so I transfered to the Portland.

I couldn't fault a single thing and didn't hesitate to go back there with DD. The staff were particularily wonderful, with several midwives who had helped with DS popping in to say hi,