First pregnancy, first time mumsnet user, seeks other users for sounds advice on antenatal care

[SquealyB]

Hi all,

Great to virtually meet you!

I am very excited to be pregnant. DH and I just got married on 28 April 2012 and we have a honeymoon bun in the oven, currently going by the name of Rio Baby due to place of estimated conception (this will not be a permanent moniker). Rio Baby is now 5 weeks old!

I am also slightly overwhelmed by the wealth of information out there. My doc. has asked that I let him know choice of hospital for ante-natal treatment by Monday and has suggested three options:

1. Queen Charlotte's Hammersmith
2. Chelsea & Westminster
3. Kingston

At the moment not sure about private v NHS as can probably stretch to private if it is worth it. But would be very grateful to anyone who can provide recent feedback on any of the three options list above.

congrats on your pregnancy! how exciting for you!

you might want to rename/repost this thread as "choosing a hospital in London" or something, your thread title is a bit vague and you might not get many people in here.

i'm not in London, or in the UK even, so i don't have any information for you i'm afraid :)

Congrats SquealyB! I'm grateful to have the NHS (even if it's under strain) and even more grateful to have a choice... but choice can be a right pain in the proverbial sometimes with something as important as this.

I recently had to ask advice about London Hosps. I promise, you will get many varied answers... there will be praise galore as well as horror stories for every single hospital out there. I've come to the conclusion that it all depends entirely on your own personal circumstances and your own personality... like if you have a trouble-free pregnancy and also how "demanding" you are as a person.

I just know that it's a decision you have to make quickly, as some hospitals are in high demand.

For what it's worth, I ended up going with Queen Charlotte's at Hammersmith. I'm at 22 weeks with first baby, so can only describe appointments to date. The unit is very busy but the midwives seem to be very competent. They also have an advice line which has come in handy a couple of times now. Some delay for midwife appointments, but I've never been delayed for my 2 scans. It's a modern hospital and my appointments to date have given me confidence QCCH (i.e. not regretting my bypass of Northwick Park and Ealing).

Hope you can come to a decision you're happy with.

I bet you live in sheen with those choices!

I would go for either queen charlottes or Kingston. Chelsea has famously bad postnatal care.

They are all v busy. Charlottes is a tertiary referral centre so the neonatal paeds will be great- but you prob won't need it! He registrars / consultants etc mostly excellent

Kingston is a busy district general. It's less specialist but be midwives generally have been working there for yonks- rather than transient agency staff. it's friendly and generally gets good reviews

Thanks for the advice (particularly re post title etc. as new to this).

Trying to make a decision over the weekend so this is all v helpful stuff. I guess as one poster said individual experiences vary and there will always be some good/some bad.

And excellent guess on the locality we live in Richmond :)

Are you at sheen lane hc? I wonder which practice...