Which hospital? Kings College vs St Thomas Hospital (London)

[Macaroons]

I'm 11 weeks pregnant, and I'm having second thoughts about my hospital choice.

I live in SE London, Kings College Hospital is 1.2 miles away while Guys and St Thomas is 3.5 miles away. At my first GP appointment I chose Guys and St Thomas despite that being slightly further away, because:

1. I've heard good things about Tommies but I don't know any friend who gave birth in Kings;
2. It's actually easier to get to Tommies using public transport from home / from work, and I THOUGHT midwife appointments would take place at the hospital.
3. I knew I wouldn't want to give birth at home anyway so not being able to do the home-from-home birth wouldn't matter to me.

Because I'm not going to my local (Kings) hospital, I can't go to my GP to meet community midwife, instead I have to go somewhere which is quite a pain to get to from home or from work... so I'm having second thoughts about my hospital choice.

And say if I were to give birth at Tommies, how would post natal care work?

I know everyone's different. Some people prefer to be left alone while some would like more attention and receive more care (I'm the latter) I'm looking for people's experiences at having babies at either Kings or St Thomas' Hospital and the care you received, both positive and negative, and just generally your overall opinion.

Any feedback will be much appreciated, thanks so much! X

Sounds like you kind of want to change to Kings if you ask me...

Both have excellent reputations and I'm sure, with both, you'll find very positive and some negative stories.

I'm with Tommies, at 23 weeks and had a very upsetting 13 week scan there, which I don't think was dealt with very well. I ended up having a rescan and CVS privately (Tommies could only offer me an amnio 3 weeks later). The rescan showed a .5mm difference (lower) in the nuchal fold measurement. And I went from being a 1:116 risk (deemed 'high risk' - but it wasn't the numbers that scared me; the sonographer talked to me as if my baby had already been diagnosed with genetic illnesses aplenty and was, actually, really already dead) to somewhere in the 1:3500 risk. I know I went private for the rescan, but I really don't think there should have been that big a difference between the two so I was anti Tommies for a bit and considered switching. Then I decided that this mistake/misreading/whatever it is could probably have happened anywhere and was due to a variety of factors: baby lying in different position, sonographer tired.... etc. I should have asked for a rescan, too, but this being my first it didn't occur to me that she might have made an error on it.

So I decided to stick there. I had a completely different experience for my 20 weeks scan there, the sonographer was amazing, and I've heard good (mostly) and bad (occasional) reports for both Kings and Tommies re the birth experience. I know it shouldnt matter but I'd rather see the river than Denmark Hill any day, too (no offense meant Denmark Hillians). Not that I'll be staring out at the view much. I'd be interested to hear about post natal too though.

I had my baby in kings and thought it was great
They also looked after my dd in neo natel for 2 weeks as she was early

Kings!
I had DS there and the care was fantastic. He was in SCBU for a week too.
I have heard good things for Tommies too but I think you should go for the local one (even though you want a HB)

I had my second baby at King's and it was amazing. Great midwifes during the pregnancy, labour and post labour; great doctors; first class sonography.

I'm deeply grateful to all the amazing staff at King's, it was a great experience.

Cosmo nice river view was one of the reasons I picked Tommies in the first place too sorry that your first scan experience wasn't great, I guess sometimes its down to luck as to who you get. Glad that your baby is fine and not high risk!

frankie, MrsHoolie and metalelephant - Good to hear that your experience at Kings was good. Was your birth VB / CS in the end? and when you needed pain relief / medical attention did you have to wait for long? (too many maternity horror stories on the news in the last few months - Redbridge hospital if I remember correctly?)

I live in Dulwich, I currently don't drive, so to get to that place for MW appointments (it's south of Elephant and Castle), I need to walk to a bus station that's about 10-15 mins away to take a bus - it's manageable now but I imagine it would get trickier when I get bigger. (I have a driving license, I'm now planning to take refresher driving lesson and will hopefully get a car soon!) Asked the MW there if I could have my MW appointment at somewhere more accessible by train / tube / at Tommies she said all patients coming from other boroughs all go to that health centre.

I'm still not sure if I want to change hospital, partly because I've already had scan arranged, and appointment arranged with a consultant, don't know if I'd mess things up by switching hospital mid-way

argh... what should I do?

I had a very high risk pregnancy at St Thomas's which ended with an elective caesarean (Dec 2010). Ante-natal care (which I had at a high risk clinic in the hospital) and care during delivery were both utterly superb but the post-natal ward was horrible - I just felt completely on my own, especially overnight. I would think that King's would be similar though - and many women complain that post-natal wards in London are all pretty bad.

I lived out on St Thomas's district (deep into South West London) but the local trust community midwives did my post-natal care after discharge and they were great [however there was a delay as St. Thomas's cocked up and send my details to the wrong trust initially. It would be worth checking who the trust are if St. Thomas's wouldn't come out to you post-natally so that you can be on the case quickly if that happened.

Another vote for Kings here. Have no post- natal experience with them as yet but my care throughout has been absolutely fantastic and I have every confidence in them. I feel very looked after and they have always been meticulously thorough. The community midwives are also great and very easy to contact. I'm sure that when you have your gorgeous new baby you will be so busy starting at them (or sleeping!) that you won't be worrying about the view!

Tommies gets my vote - was with them for my last pregnancy when things went dreadfully wrong and I have never encountered such kind, warm, thoughtful and respectful people as the professional staff there. They made the experience a million times easier for me.

PG again and didn't hesitate for a second to go with Tommies once more. I have nothing but the highest praise for the staff at that hospital and the maternity care my DH and I had went above and beyond any care I've experienced elsewhere.

Been going to King's and for now (DS still hasn't come out, 40+2 today!) all I can say is that they are top notch, especially the scan team. Due to a not so pleasant experience with my old GP during my first appointment and consequent emergency call, I considered going private up until I had my first appointment at the midwife house. They were lovely and very understanding :)

I booked in for an elcs at 40 weeks as I just couldn't make a decision either way!kings were supportive of vbac or elcs,totally left it up to me.

I actually went into labour and decided to give vbac a go although ended up with a C section.

DS went to Scbu on day 2 and the breastfeeding counsellers at the hospital came to see me and arranged sterilisers etc without me even asking for help,fab!

If for any reason your baby ends up in SCBU or you have to stay in then it is helpful for your partner to be near by.

Tbh you are choosing between two great hospitals so not much in it really.

St Thomas, no question

All my experience is pretty out of date but on the whole St Thomas' was bloody great for ante-natal stuff (DS1 and 2 were fairly stressful pregnancies - lots of bleeding and scans and the MW were fantastic) Immediate Post natal care though was absolutely dire - after my experiences with DS1 I made sure I was discharged asap. Later post-natal stuff was back to lovely though (series of blood tests for thyroid function for DD) It's all a bit odd really. The view is good though and the home-from-home centre which they wouldn't let me use looked fab.

I've heard fairly mixed things about Kings but I've only experience with the Dental Hospital part myself so can't really comment.

Dear all, thanks for sharing your experience with me! It sounds like both are good hospitals and glad to hear that you all were generally happy with your experience.

Given my scan is next week and my next MW appointment is not till end of March, I shall think about it after my scan and see if I want to stick with Tommies, or try to get myself transferred to Kings.

Thanks all :)

In answer I had a very traumatic vg birth but had to use forceps as she was discovered to be the wrong way round at the last minute
But I always felt in safe hands

Macaroons Good Luck! At the end of the day, what really happens is that you're happy with the place you're in. Don't feel pressured to stay at one or go to another just because other people around you told you so.

I had both DCs at kings and thought the care was excellent. It's busy and overcrowded but that's the same as any hospital. DC1 was a failed home birth and emergency transfer and EMCS and DC2 was a prem with a stay on SCBU. Both fine, I felt very well looked after and that no complication could phase them. Post natal care was patchy on the ward but I was with the same community midwife at my GP pre and post discharge and I really rate the community mw team at kings.

The real advantage to kings is the scanning. My friend booked at tommies and paid privately to have the scan they give you routinely at kings. It's the best in the country. I'd never go anywhere else because of that (although that view from tommies over the houses of parliament is amazing!)

Congratulations and good luck!

What scan was that, MrsDobalina?

My mate got the 12 week one done privately. Sorry my post didn't make sense. I meant all 3 routine scans were excellent, I'm feeling a bit sleep deprived and not very coherent at the mo

OK now I'm confused (but it's past my bedtime, so it could well be me, not you).

Your friends was with Tommies but they didn't offer her a 12-week-scan? Which are the 3 routine scans? I thought there were only 2 routine scans, one at 12 weeks and one at 20 weeks?

Or am I talking rubbish? (wouldn't surprise me)

Oh no I'm so sorry

They do a 12 week scan at tommies but because there is a very eminent professor of foetal medicine at kings they do lots of fancy research so you end up getting a really detailed scan that looks at not just nuchal fold thickness but also heart valves etc to look for other indicators of downs and other chromosomal anomalies. Together with the bloods, it gives you a more sensitive estimate of risk to make a more informed decision about if you need an amnio etc.

The 20 week scan in insanely detailed. The sonographer even showed me how they check for cataracts.

They now also do a 30 week scan (I think it's around then, it's a very recent thing) as routine. Its not standard practise in the UK but I believe they hope to work out how to reduce the risk of stillbirth.

They re-scan everything even remotely abnormal so when they said 'we don't need to see you until the next routine scan' I was very reassured my baby was boringly normal looking!

OK now this makes PERFECT sense :)

Thank you for taking the time to explain, much appreciated

Did your friend pay to have the 12-week scan done privately at Kings? Can this even be done (paying to be scanned by Kings sonographers)? Or did she have to go to a private clinic or similar?

Sorry, too many questions, I know!

She had it done at a private clinic, the scanning dept at tommies recommended it to her as an option when her 12 week scan showed a high risk of downs. The scan cost about £100 I think but bought her risk down and she decided not to have the amnio. I can't spell the profs name, I'll have a look on google!

At king's they are so thorough that they even scan women internally in the first two scans
I definitely wasn't expecting that! In my first scan they were so detailed that even though they could see that all was well with the LO, they wouldn't stop until they had all the measurements written down.
I was asked if I wanted to be part of a study and accepted, it meant more blood works and extra BP and other measurements but, I felt that it was for a good cause. They were trying to determine if by having accurate measurements of the mother they could determine the baby's outcome, control them and from that information stop stillbirths.

miaumau Sounds like kings does offer very thorough scans!

very very thorough. There were three sonographers in my first scan, and two in the other ones.