anyone given birth at King's recently

[lainey1981]

my baby is due in just over 3 weeks and haven't managed to get to a labour ward tour just yet (hopefully in the next week). just wondered what facilities/equipment they have in their delivery rooms - for example do they have birthing balls. or is it just a bed?

TIA x

I haven't given birth yet, but have done the tour at Kings. We saw two rooms, one was pretty standard, it had a bed plus ensuite bathroom and also had an inflatable pool (which I think they can move from room to room depending on demand). There were birthing balls too, they said no need to bring your own. There are I think two rooms with built-in pools, we saw room 12 which I think is the better one - it had special lighting etc as well. The one thing they suggested bringing was your own pillow as apparently they never have enough. Worth doing the tour if you have time, it's only about ten mins but I found it helpful to be able to have some kind of idea of where I'll be going.

thanks 39617 I will try and get down next week to the tour

I gave birth at Kings to my first baby 9 weeks ago and want to let you know what a fab hospital it is. I too never made it to the tour as in the early hours of that morning of it my waters unexpectedly went at 36w+2d so I too was none the wiser as to what to expect! However they had everything I personally needed and although I didn't need the ball I know they had them available if I did. I think I was in room 2 and it had an ensuite. Also the midwives and care I recieved during my 5 day stay were second to none I loved every bit of it, but be prepared the post natal ward is very noisy at night and other patients had no where near the amount of courtesy I showed to them and I saw lots of people come and go!
Good luck Iainey1981 and happy labouring! :)

Thank you scgd congrats on the birth of your LO.

thanks for the tip off about the post natal ward - hopefully I won't have to stay - I only live round the corner so all being well I want to get home ASAP

That was my intentions too but having a labour classed as prem my intentions went out of the window! Obviously you're past that stage now and King's policy is to get you back home asap so all being well depending on the time of birth you could in theory be in and back home by tea time! Nice! :)

I gave birth their a 20 months ago, and will be back again sometime in the next week!?! I have to say, I thought they were fabulous. I got amazing support for breastfeeding. We got the super deulux water birth room the first time, but don't want a water birth this time so we'll be in a different 'suite'.

ah it's so good to hear these positive stories - people are often all too quick to post their negative experiences about labour wards. so it's nice to hear both sides.

really pleased they offer good breastfeeding support as this is something I am really keen to do while also being the thing I'm most worried about

good luck allyfe wishing you a quick and painless labour

Lainey my dd and I had real difficulty getting going with the breast feeding to begin with, but each time I asked for help even in the middle of the night they would sit and help me. I did have to wait for.them to come but when they did they were great. And they even kept me in a day longer so we could get the breast feeding sorted. It was still hard after but I swear the reason we managed for over a year was a lot to do with the start they gave us. Incidentally the only reason I realised it wasn't going well was.by listening to the woman in the bed next to me talk to the midwife, because it was clear my dd wasn't doing.so well so don't be afraid to ask lots of help and advice. Hope all goes smoothly and with no pain ;)