Whittington or barnet for maternity?

[Keepingbusy]

Hi,

I am 8 weeks pregnant and live in N20, I have the dilemma of choosing the hospital I would like to give birth in but I have no friends that have had babies near here to give me their opinions so I would like anyone's opinions please!

Thank you in advance! :)

I dont no about Whittington maternity but I avoid the rest of the hospital like the plague and have never heard anything good about them. Chase farm in Enfield is lovely my friend recently had her baby there.

What Hayley said. I don't know about Whittington maternity either but generally their reputation is crap.

Am off to the Whit for no 2 (am 38 weeks) after a good experience there with DS two years ago. Even though i ended up with a crash section after an induction at 42 weeks, I had great antenatal midwife care and excellent care during the birth. The post-natal care was adequate rather than fantastic - but I think that's true of all big, busy London hospitals (at least among my friends who've had babies at Royal Free, Whit, UCH, Homerton, St Thomas, St Marys). I got great breastfeeding support though.

This time I'm planning a vbac and am booked into the lovely birth centre. Have had excellent midwife and obstetricians again. Although the midwife appointments are good because they're at my local children's centre (2 mins walk away). If I were you I'd check that they have this option in N20 - it would be a right hassle to have to go into the hospital every time you were having a routine appointment.

Whittington has a crap reputation but I don't know why really? I went there for my ds3 (7 months now) and I don't have any bad word to say about it, I found it really good. Overall prefered it to uch I think - had no problems there either really but whittington waiting times are much less and its less busy, and seems more personal ie seeing the same midwife for appointments (not every single time, but did seem to be a lot of continuity). I went to uch the first 2 times just because of the reputation people say about whittington!
I don't know anything about barnet but if you are nearer to whittington would say don't be put off by the reputation it seems to have because its not true.
The new birth centre there looks lovely, unfortunately didn't get to use it as had to have consultant led care but the labour ward was also fine

Same as Flip I had DD at the Whit two years ago and I'm booked in there now with DC2 (due in Oct). I was happy with my experience, and the birth centre is really lovely (it was brand new when I had DD) if you're low-risk and can get in there. I ended up in the labour ward in the end, and that was fine too. Post-natal care was a bit patchy, especially overnight, but I think that's just a big-city-hospital thing.

I also have a friend who has had two DCs at Barnet, and has no complaints, so I think they're both fine. If you're in N20 Barnet is probably quite a bit closer to you than the Whittington. You could always start off with Barnet and change if you're not happy with it?

Barnet is great for people with complications :)