Best meternity hospital in london

[ghamzeh]

HI. im 7 weeks pregnant and this will be my first child. could some one please recommend a good hospital as my GP has said I can refer myself. but I have no idea what hospital is good or bad. advice will be much appreciated

I'm pretty sure they'll all have their pros and cons! Whereabouts in London are you? I presume you'll at least want to be quite near home?

UCHL

Depends what you're idea of good is, I guess. Do you want low intervention, midwife only care, water birth etc? Or are you concerned about facilities, expertise, special baby care etc?

UCHL, as mentioned above, is a very good hospital. I don't know about the midwife-led unit, but I had a high risk pregnancy and c-section there with my second child (dream birth, then! ), and the facilities and care were excellent. The SCBU is one of the best (if not the best) in the country. Excellent consultants.

I had my first appointment with the Whittington and then switched to UCLH and no regrets at all. UCLH is friendly, state of the art and super-efficient. They made my booking and scan appointments within 24 hours of receiving my referral form. UCLH also offer same day results on nuchal screening, then Harmony testing for all high-risk patients (normally you have to go private for that) which I think is very impressive.

Just so you are aware, the hospital may not accept you, unless there is a clinical need, if you live outside of their catchment area. The big teaching hospitals would be overrun otherwise, and unable to provide a service to their local residents.

I was under Kings (who I would recommend) for DD because of my medical history, even though they are not my local hospital. They have accepted me again for DC2, but my GP did warn me that if I hadn't been under them previously, and not been a high risk pregnancy, they might not have this time, due to increased demand even in the 3 years since I had DD.

I hope you are able to go to the hospital that you feel is best for you and congratulations!

goldenhen could I ask why you switched from the Whittington? Was all ready to ask my Dr next week to refer me there as it sounds fairly impressive. DD1 was born at the Homerton which I wouldnt go back to, but now we have moved to Haringay and the two seem to be the Whittington or North Midds.

Just because they didn't get back to me for ages about a booking appointment, and they were impossible to get through to on the phone. They eventually offered me an appointment 2 weeks after referral, but it was text from an unknown number at 10pm on a friday night asking me to come in at 9am the next morning which I couldn't do. Then nothing since, so I referred to UCLH and they got back immediately.

The staff at the Whittington are all very sweet and the birth centre is apparently v nice - and I know people who've been very happy having babies there - but they just seem overstretched.

However the Whittington sent me a scan date, which is what I went to, and the ultrasound girl was really lovely.

It's got more of a community feel than UCLH so it depends what you're after. I'd go to all the ones you're considering and look round!

I wouldn't recommend the Whittington. Although I hear good things about the birth centre (that's why I picked it) in the end I didn't qualify.
They are over stretched, every appointment was hours late. The postnatal ward was very over stretched and after an emcs I couldn't move to get DS myself or clean myself up etc and they just don't have the staff numbers to help.
Partners can also stay over, which might be a plus or minus for you. I didn't like the men wandering around and the noise / arguing on an already crowded ward.

Goldenhen and abbeyroadcrossing thanks so much for your help. I'm now erring towards the north midds which has a brand new maternity centre. I don't think appointments overrunning is practical with a small toddler, and the post natal ward sounds as busy and chaotic as the homerton which is why i wouldn't go back there. I had a v long and difficult birth and very little help from staff afterwards. My friend just had her baby at the North midds and said it was fine just seemed a bit empty, however that did mean she got moved to a private room. Thanks!!