Anyone had their baby at UCLH?

[whereshouldibuybee]

Early days yet (I am only 10 weeks) but I have just had my booking appointment at UCLH. I've chosen to have my baby in the midwife led unit as I am low risk.

I had a good experience today, everyone seemed really nice. Would be interested to hear if others' experiences have been good, particularly if you had baby in midwife led unit. I live in Islington so actually Homerton is my closest hospital but I've had a couple of friends have their babies there and neither were very happy.

Hi bee, I also live in Islington and had my first baby at UCLH 2 years ago and am due to have my second there in, well about 7 weeks there or there abouts! I had a good experience there the first time, hence choosing to have dc2 there. Found the antenatal care v good and scans extremely thorough. You also get a 3rd scan around 37 weeks to check for breech. I am low risk too and have all my midwife appointments with the community midwifes at my local children's centre which works well for me and saves me having to trek to UCLH. As for postnatal care, I was only in for less than 24 hours last time, and yes they were rather busy and I was glad to get home but it was in no way a bad experience. Any more specific questions pls feel free to ask!

thank you for your response! that is interesting re: community midwives, they didn't tell me about that at the booking appointment today. It's not much of an issue for me to go to UCLH though, it's quite close to where I work.

Did you have your baby in the birth centre or on the labour ward, if you don't mind me asking?

I haven't had my baby yet, due in about 9 weeks, but am also Islington based and have had all care so far through UCLH. They've been great so far, the scans are a lot more thorough than I was expecting, we were in there for at least 40 mins for both the 12 week and the 20 week one. Booked in for a 36 week scan next month. They're also very supportive if you're concerned or worried about anything, I just dropped in one Saturday afternoon for the midwife to listen to the heartbeat as I'd had some pain. She was really nice about it, didn't feel like I was being a nuisance at all.

Have had all the midwife appointments at the childrens centre near me (not sure where abouts in Islington you are, but for me it's Moreland Children's Centre on Central Street), a bit closer than UCLH.

I haven't made firm plans for the birth yet, but I'm planning on at least starting off in the midwife led unit. Probably need to find out a bit more about this and make some proper plans as the due date gets closer!

I ended up on the labour ward as I wanted an epidural (although didn't get one for a while!). Depending on how things go this time I'd like to try the birthing centre - seems like a much more relaxed experience (in some ways, I was also lucky and had a good epidural experience too)

I had a homebirth through UCLh and can second that the scans are great - very thorough and efficient. All apts with community mw locally (2 min walk for me!) and community team are great. Really came into their own as I went increasingly overdue and the mw who attended my hb was brilliant.

Only slightly negative experience was at my 'post-dates' apt at 41 weeks with an extremely 'severe' mw who was very dismissive of my feelings.