HELP: Homerton or Whippscross

[worriedmomtobe1]

Hi Fellow Mums,

I have my first booked appointment with Homerton hospital in the coming weeks and i am very confused as to the decision of where to give birth as i should ideally be having my appointments with that hospital too. This is going to be my first baby and i have no previous experience. I have read a few horrid reviews on homerton but whipps cross had a bit more negative ones so for my first appointment i have chosen Homerton. (These are the 2 nearest ones from where i live)

Any one has had any good experiences with either of them in the recent times? Can i choose a hospital like UCH despite not living near it?

There was a thread recently on this, if you can find it. Homerton is good, has had a lot of investment and gets a lot of praise over the past few years and the facilities are good.

Whipps Cross I’m less familiar with, in that a few years back it was pretty bad but I don’t know if it’s been improved since then.

You can self refer to UCH if you want to (you can self refer to most hospitals, including Homerton), but I would caution thinking that somewhere like UCH is perfect. Every hospital has its challenges, and UCH maternity services are heavily over subscribed particularly for antenatal care (due to many women asking to have appointments there due to working locally, but wanting to give birth elsewhere closer to their home).

I have experience of both for antenatal, gave birth twice at UCH (haven’t given birth at Homerton, yet!). I was happy with my care and experience at UCH, although postnatal ward there is as rubbish as it is in most places! I’m very happy with my care at Homerton currently and have only hears good things from mums locally about birth experiences.

Every hospital will have at least a few people who weren’t happy with their care or experience, but my personal experience has been that a lot of people have been happy both with UCH and Homerton, I’ve not heard as many positive things about Whipps Cross. However comparing my antenatal care, I’ve found Homerton to be easier to manage - I’ve found appointments easier to arrange, waiting times have been shorter (despite being a busy hospital) and the facilities (eg antenatal clinic, sonography etc) are bigger, more modern and more comfy. But, the care and professionalism between both has been comparable.

I live in a different area now to when I had my first two, which is why I’m at Homerton now instead of UCH. Either way I had to travel a bit for hospital for the first two so I went with UCH as I knew people who had been there and rated it. This time I live much closer to Homerton and hear lots of good things, so didn’t see the point in travelling to UCH.

FWIW I was at UCH last a few years ago, but judging by online pics and talking to a friend who works there I don’t believe it has changed much since then (I’m talking physically, amenities etc).

Thanks @beforeihit30 this was really helpful :)
I dont think i will go for whippscross. I live near homerton so it makes sense that way and hearing great things about UCH makes me want to go there - though i have heard they mainly focus and have great care for complicated pregnancies.
When are you due ?

UCH does have a number of consultant led pregnancies, but I was under midwife care there for both (non complicated pregnancies) and it was all good (I wasn’t ignored or anything for being ‘easy’). But, Homerton has been really good so far and other mums have really rated their birth experiences here so I’m confident, and as mentioned like all hospitals UCH also has its own challenges.

The MWs and consultants I’ve seen so far at Homerton have been great, and as mentioned before I personally think the facilities at Homerton are better as they seem to have been renovated not too long ago, as well as finding contacting them and managing appointments to more straightforward (I seemingly could never get through to anyone by phone at UCH in both pregnancies).

I’m due at the end of summer so still have a little while to go, I’m just into my 2nd trimester now.

Not experienced homerton but heard good reviews. My experience of whipps cross is that it's very over stretched (for example sonographers having to work weekends ), I had repeated issues with test results not being reported and the physical facilities need updating (for example side rooms not used due to lack of heating ). Having said that, the staff did there best and I would go there again.

I've had 2 babies at Whipps (the second one was when a damning report about the maternity unit had literally just been released) and have to say i had really positive experiences both time. lao, their private rooms, post birth were cheap as chips (5 years ago, £150 per night)
Saying that, i have a friend who had 2 sections at Homerton, and also had good experiences.
I did have to see a consultant at Whipps, and he was a truly horrible arsehole, but that's my only negative.

I had three at homerton. The ante natal care was great.
They saved my babies lives. First was a crash section and all three were premature delivered by caesarean.
Was under a lovely consultant with my 2nd and 3rd who I saw about 2 weeks from 20 weeks and then more often later on.
Post natal was about as good as any NHS post natal ward in London probably. Not terribly pleasant but majority of the midwives were very nice and helpful.

Wouldn’t advice Homerton personally I had an awful experience.

Thank you all,
@user1471514872 @beforeihit30 are your antenatal appointments happening within Homerton Hospital?
@Ginunicorn sorry to hear that, what was aweful about it?

Hi. I had most of my appointments at Homerton because my pregnancies were quite high risk but I did see the community midwife locally a few times.

@worriedmomtobe1 all of my antenatal with Homerton is at the hospital, you have the option of going with the community midwife and they mentioned this at my booking appointment (which was at the hospital), but in my case the hospital is actually closer than the clinic where the community midwife is based. I see the midwives at the hospital, who have been great so far. I’m not high risk, I just find the hospital more convenient! I saw Hackney community midwives postnatally in my first two births (I moved to this area not long before DC1 was born, I stuck with UCH for DC2 as it wasn’t particularly long after I had DC1 and it was convenient due to my work at the time), the community midwives I saw postnatally both times were very good.

With UCH all of my antenatal was with the hospital as I didn’t live in the area and at the time at least you couldn’t have UCH as your hospital but do antenatal in your local community if you lived out of the area. So I’m used to doing all of my antenatal appointments in the hospital as it is.

Had my baby at Whipps. Went from being a straightforward induction to a medical emergency and I had excellent care from the midwifes, consultant and anaesthetist. They recently stopped allowing partners to stay over if that makes any difference to you. Although they did let my DP stay due to the complications in the event so it may not be enforced in reality.

Antenatal was wonderful but they refused to believe I was in labour and sent me home. Ended up having her in the kitchen with no pain meds! Could have gone horribly wrong!

@magpie24 i think i would def want my husband to stay over as its my first and i would be too anxious to be alone.
@Ginunicorn this is horrible - i am glad you and your daughter are all fine. I have read quite a few stories where hospitals did not agree that labour had started and they were sent back.
@beforeihit30 thank you for the detailed explanation, very helpful :)

@worriedmom me too, they changed the policy on it very recently and we only found out when we saw the signs in the ward when I went in for my induction!! Might be worth clarifying with them if you do go with Whipps but sounds like if that's really important to you Homerton may be better (if they allow partners - I'm not sure if they do).

FWIW whether or not partners can stay is often a mixed bag, there doesn’t seem to be a consistent rule in a lot of hospitals. Eg on the postnatal ward at UCH they asked all partners to leave, but one was allowed to stay. Don’t know why (obviously I didn’t ask, it’s personal) but I think she might have been the only first time mum in my section so I don’t know if that was a factor.

For my first I was able to stay in a private room (for free!) and they have chairs that convert into beds for partners, so DH stayed with me there. As far as I know you can get a private room in Homerton, I think it’s ariund £125-150 for the night, but I can’t find the link on the Homerton page about that. It all depends on whether you stay the night - with DC2 he was born by lunchtime and I was fine, so we would have been home the same day, however due to some signs of distress in labour they wanted to keep him in longer for observation so we were on the ward for one night. So it’s not necessarily a given that you’ll stay the night (although of course if you have to then good to be prepared as many do).