Kingston v St Thomas' - please advise

[2ManySweets]

Posting for advice really, here's my situation:

Had baby via CS in February this year
Now pregnant again and due in February 2017

Had most of my midwife care in UCLH before moving the Kingston Nov 2015 and all consequent midwife care was conducted at Kingston's Sure Start centre. Wasn't overly impressed.

Kingston hospital antenatal ward: ok
Kingston hospital postnatal ward: freaking amazing, awesome amazing care post EMCS.

This pregnancy has occurred faster than imagined (you'd think I'd know, I've got a science degree ffs!) and coming so soon after a CS I'm a bit scared.

My primary concern is that quite frankly I don't have that much faith in community based midwife care and felt much happier getting hospital based midwife care last time.

Problem is that I don't know what the care is like at my next "choice" hospital - St Thomas'. Do they do in-hospital midwife care? What's it like? Have any of you given birth there (via CS)? What was your experience?

In short reading the above, what would you do if you were me?

All help gratefully received xxxx

Do you intend to have another CS?
How far is the travel to St T for you?

Downsides of St T - very hard to park, expensive to park, hospital clinics v busy, post natal care not great

I've got no option really; a VBAC for a pregnancy this soon after a CS isn't gonna happen. Plus they basically said last time my next delivery would have to be CS. That's fine.

St T's is 20mins away on the train, no idea how long it's take by car.

Did you have a CS?

Is Georges not your next choice if you're in Kingston?

Thomas' have a catchment as they're so popular. I had my first there, only saw community midwives. Only went to the hospital for my scans. The midwife I had during labour was brilliant, the post natal care I received was awful though.

Without being a bellend, for reasons I can't disclose St Georges isn't an option.

Crmpetty may I ask, was your community midwife care in sure start community centre type places? X

If you're in the Kingston "catchment" though, you'll still get their after care, regardless of where you give birth won't you?
That's what happened to me, I gave birth (emcs) at West Mid (great antenatal care and labour ward, hated the post natal ward but I think that's pretty par for the course in most places, jealous you liked yours!) but I had Kingston midwives for the follow up because I was in their area.

I found them fine to be honest but I didn't have any complications post birth with me or the baby.

Bowies (great name BTW!) it's the antenatal care I'm really concerned with here (as pg may be classed as high risk) x

No they were in a clinic, I never went to a sure start centre. My post natal care was done by the George's midwives as I was in their catchment. They were great and have an excellent bf clinic.

crumpetty, I really want to ask you more but don't want to out you! I just found Kingston's midwife care proper hit and miss.

Anyone else got antenatal tales of St Ts? X

Not personally but my sister in law had rubbish post natal care at St T's (3 years ago). Although I've heard good stories too. I think they do community antenatal generally.

Have a look on the nappyvalleynet forum too.

Two things you should check: are private rooms available, and are DHs/DPs allowed to stay overnight. These things make a big difference IMO to the post natal experience.

If you get labelled high risk you are more likely to have your antenatal appts at the hospital clinic
iirc for my 2 pgs there I had a mix of community appts and hospital clinic appts

If you want to know what your pattern of care is likely to be it may be worth calling the supervisor of midwives at St Ts

Ave that's a SUPER idea and one I wouldn't have thought of myself. This is why I love mumsnet mostly

Ah I seeee. With west mid I had my antenatal appointments at a children's centre in whitton but I never had to wait and never felt rushed. But as pp said, high risk would be in hospital I think. West mid is one to consider if you're near Kingston. Chelsea and Westminster was great for my sis too.

PM me if you want 2Many

I'm at St Thoms and really love it. We had a few problems early on in the pregnancy and found the care we received there second to none. I've also been up with pains a few times and each time I thought I was being silly, and was very apologetic, and each time I have been listen to, cared for and treated brilliantly. I've also seen the same midwife for all of my appointments so far.

I've heard they have a catchment area but I had no problems self-referring there, and we live in Zone 4 SE London. If I were you, I would go to St Thoms.

Ante-natal care for high risk preg at St T was exceptional for me, really amazing. Post-natal care (bar one lovely sweet midwife) was pretty tough after EMCS... Couldn't wait to leave. But I'm preg and having DC2 there, ELCS, and I'm not fazed about it - just prepared to ask for what I need and stand up for myself! Can't fault them from a medical POV.

fiddlesticks what was it about the post natal care that was a bit rubbish?

Maybe all post natal care is like this - but having had major surgery after 36 hr failed induction, and DD taken into SCBU for her first night I was feeling a bit fragile! The lady trying to get BF going wasn't helpful at all and kept ticking me off for trying the different techniques wrongly, whilst a whole queue of doctors etc were coming in and out to give DD antibiotics through a hand cannula and other drugs for me. Apparently i should have brought socks so the cannula could be covered and it kept getting snagged. We didn't establish BF and I felt guilty asking for formula because DD didn't latch. I was discharged by one midwife while DD was still being cup fed formula - the another midwife said I shouldn't have been signed off with a cup-fed baby.

Just all a bit chaotic and unhelpful. I broke down in the end and said I'd been made me feel like a failure and that I wanted to go home. They let me but we never established BF and I ended up expressing for 6 months.

The hca who taught me to bf was really rude and unhelpful. I was kept in overnight as I haemorrhaged after birth, and was ignored.

I had my first at St T's and am lined up for my second there. In my experience;

Antenatal care is community based, but pretty sure they have a few different teams in different locations who work different ways. I had one consultant antenatal appt which was very thorough. Scans and additional care (additional check ups for potential issues) have all been great.

My first delivery was a good experience - I started off in midwife led birth centre and transferred to consultant unit and pretty much experienced all of the variants on natural birth while I was there (birth pool, g and a, epidural, induction, ventouse). Although my birth plan went off piste I felt very well treated by all the medical staff bar one midwife who I took a dislike to (and seeing as I went through 9 midwives during my 30+ hrs that's not bad odds).

Postnatal care was slightly over stretched but I wouldn't describe as awful - I had good BF advice/support and was discharged on day 2.

My follow-up postnatal home care was automatically transferred to the Kings team as that's my closest hospital so you could find that happens to you.