Hospitals in SW London

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I'm in the very early stages of first pregnancy and fingers crossed all will be well. Due to surgery earlier in the year I'm having a 6 week scan on thursday which could be interesting. Anyway- GP has asked me to decide on which hospital to have the baby at...it seems a big decision so soon but she said I should do some research and not sure where to begin so wondered if anyone has advise on St George's, Chelsea and Westminster or Thomas' which are the main ones I would consider...
any thoughts gratefully received as it seems very early to have to decide, although I do understand why!

Thanks so much.

Hi - a friend of mine's mother works with midwives and she (friend not mother) is 12w currently. Her mum told her that St George's has the least good maternity record of the three and that the other two are much of a muchness. She's chosen to go to C&W as it's closest to us (4km rather than 8km) and she thinks it's really nice. I had DS at St Thomas' and I found it really good, although some friends have not enjoyed particularly good post-natal care.

thanks very much, that's a great start. I'm not sure how people are meant to find out about things like this!

I had ds1 in St George's and had a horrible experience. Would not recommend it. I was told by my GP that it is a big teaching hospital which it is and their are no frills. But, if anything goes wrong, that is where you want to be. So I opted for St George's thinking I don't need frills just good doctors. Well, if 'frills' means that you are allowed to struggle to put your paper knickers on without the cleaner trying to clean around you whilst ignoring you as if you didn't exist, then I'm all for frills. I was admitted in the night with bleeding, had a horrible examination and then was totally ignored by the night staff. I was actually properly bleeding and it took serious tears for the woman to stop reading her magazine and take any notice of me (I'm not joking)then I had a massive hissy fit at the total lack of caring and checked myself out. When I went back the next day I was told they have such a high turnover of nurses and employee so many foreign nationals there is hardly any care/interest.

Seriously go elsewhere. I had ds2 in a large Northern womens hospital and it was incomparable. Fantastic staff, kind attitude, totally different experience.

My friend was a midwife at the Chelsea and Westminster before she emigrated it and she spoke very highly. HTH x

right, think George's may have just lost me. Poor you, what a horrible experience and here's hoping things are better elsewhere. As you say when frills equal the basic level of care I say bring on the frills!

I had DS at Georges and DD at Thomas'
I would not go to Georges again if I could avoid it. I have heard from others that the prem baby care is v good but otherwise the place was poorly managed, understaffed, groggy facilities.
This was in 2005 and the delivery suites did not have ensuite bathrooms so you had to wander down the hall

Thomas' the place was in better condition and I had a better experience overall

Not heard anything good about C&W

However as Hatrick says there are awful stories about all 3.

It is worth considering distance from you/parking issues/congestion charges too

Also pain relief options vary - Thomas' will not give pethidine

I had a mixed time at St Georges but bosscat is absolutely right, I had complications and they were amazing.
The parking is outrageous though - DH threatened to make me get bus home if I didn't hurry up as dd's inheritance had already gone into paying for parking!!

Actually parking is a big thing to consider. I was induced with DS and ended up being in labour for 50 hours. With that and the after birth stuff DP paid about £300 in parking.
Why don't you go and visit them all?

Most hospitals give parking permits for the immediate family of those having surgery/long stays. We got one for DS when he had an op at St George's in February, also at Kingston when I had DD in NICU for 2 weeks. You do have to pay for occasional parking for ante-natal appointments and it tends to be v expensive, but so is public transport nowadays, sadly.

I haven't had my baby yet (due in sept) so I can't make a judgement, but just to warn you - don't leave making the decision for too long as my doc said I could choose (between the same 3 as you) but when I did the one I opted for was fully booked, so I ended up with the only one left....

Glad St georges has changed - because in my day (during the war ) you only got as permit for day of birth.

I don't know about giving birth at St George's, we went there for DS's surgery. NKetc can ring and find out, it would be hideously expensive otherwise (and the car park on site only takes cash).

St Georges have a brand new birthing unit due to open in September. I am under them and the MWs are lovely. Spent the day in the yesterday having my 41 + 3 monitoring, and had great care. (This is my 4th baby, 3rd homebirth under them).

Parking at C&W is tricky - I spent 40 mins just queueing to get in and DP missed our scan!

I would suggest that the best thing is to do a ward tour if you can and have a look.

Kingston is meant to be very good, and has individual rooms I believe, but you have to book in there sharpish!

Hope it helps and good luck with your pregnancy

If you do go to C & W, get out as soon as possible after the birth. The post-natal ward can be very very understaffed.

Kingston was great for me. I had an elective CS and had a private room. I know there are at least a couple of 3 or 4-bed wards but most rooms are private, I think. There's also a totally private wing but you'd be there with other general surgery people, not necessarily maternity. If you're not there to socialise and make friends, though, should be OK. The car park is expensive, about £1.80 an hour and they don't do half-hours or 10-15 minutes.

Have a friend under Kingston who has had a lot of problems conceiving and she thinks they are wonderful. She hasn't delivered there yet though so hasn't seen that side of things.

I had DD1 at St George's. I had Dd2 and 3 at home. The two facts are not unconnected. It was vile, filthy, unfriendly and chaotic. The bathroom facilitiBes were primitive. Having said that it has a brilliant SCUBU by all accounts, and my experience was 10 years ago so it may have improved. But I would never give birth there again.

fwiw
Post-natal at Tommies I've found crap but that's a London thing as well I think.
A minor point but Tommies has congestion charge and eye watering parking costs (?£50/day) Georges will give subsidised permit to in-patients.
Both Tommies and Georges have good SCBUs
Georges is getting a new unit so will be even swisher than Tommies soon (there were no plugs the last times I was there!!)
Can be at the mercy of crap staff whereever you go. From what I've been told if Kingston is a possibility you would need to book v.soon !!
Both units have good outcomes.
You will find as many people complaining about Tommies as Georges!

Sorry crap post natal not just confined to London obv. some of it is a function of being postnatal rather than London iyswim
Agree distance is important, speed bumps and contractions don't mix
which one normally covers your area will affect midwives where you are seen community care etc all important too.

thank you all so much, I really appreciate hearing and begin to realise I have opened a can of worms as every hospital has its good and bad side!
However, another question....my gp tells me that at our surgery the MW's are from George's. Does that make any difference to your care, does it matter? I'm not sure how, as a first timer I@m meant to know and being so early in pregnancy I can't ask any friends as they don't know I@m pregnant!
Also next question - how early can you go and see the hospital do you think and do you take husband or do most people go alone?
thanks all very much, without friends to ask I really appreciate words of wisdom!

I have the 'green team' midwives from St Georges.

I love them!!!

They've been with me for my last 3 so I've gotten to know them and my care has been great! They have been so supportive and positive with the choices I have made. All the midwives I know from the other teams have been lovely too.

I think you can have whoever you want with you. I'd recommend two people. I had two friends at my hospital birth (DP couldn't handle it!) and they were fine. Its good to have support for your DH, even if its just someone around to get the teas in and make the phone calls. It means you are not on your own, and you don't necessarily have to have them with you all the time, or even in the same room.

Hope this helps.

HI there, congrats on your pregancy! I'm a first timer too and I'm having the baby at St Georges in September. There is a new midwife led birthing centre opening at the beginning of Sept which is apparently fab, there will be many more private rooms and baths. My mw was raving about it at our last ante natal appointment, there's a press release about it here

I opted for St Georges as my sister has had both her girls there and had no problems. There's also the reassurance that the neonatal unit there is a centre of excellence for the south of England I think (Sophie Wessex's daughter was taken there when she was born prem) so if, God forbid there's a problem, you're there right next to the unit that can help. If there was a problem with your baby at St Thomas' or C&W they'd have to take your baby in an ambulance to St Georges, and if you're not well enough to go too, you'd be separated. I was also put off by the fact my gp said both St Thomas' and C&W are very over subscribed and that people have been turned away when they've been in labour which scared me, as I'm having a September baby (the annual nine-months-after-christmas baby boom!)

The midwives I've seen have been from St Georges (seen two so far for six appointments) and they've been really lovely. If you go to St Georges and you have your baby in the birthing unit, one of your team of midwives (ie one you've met before) will come and find you, and try to attend as much of your labour as possible.

Good luck with your choices, I'm sure you can change if you have concerns during your care. I'll post on here in ten weeks time and let you know!!

I think your doctor can arrange for you to go and see a hospital prior to your booking and my DP came to pretty much every appointment with me. I must admit, I know a lot of people who've given birth at St Thomas's and have never heard of anyone being turned away. It does get very busy in the Maternity Emergency Unit though.

Oh and in terms of linked midwives, I was based in Tower Hamlets when I chose to go to St Thomas's and all the midwives at my local surgery were linked to the Royal London. Because of this I wasn't able to see any of my local midwives and had to travel to Vauxhall for all of my ante-natal appointments (to a surgery there). It was quite a pain in the bum, but infinitely preferrable to giving birth at the Royal London.

I'm having my twins at C&W in 4 weeks time. I have nothing but praise for the midwives - I've had a couple of complications and they've been brill. Am puzzled by the previous comment about someone's friend contracting MRSA there after giving birth - I was told v recently by the Parent Educator woman, with some pride, that they've NEVER had a case of MRSA on the labour / post-natal wards there. Parking has been easy each time we've driven (there's a huge underground carpark) and the parking fees aren't TOO bad but do be aware that it's just inside the congestion charge zone and this adds £8 each time.

My one moan is that one of the receptionists at the antenatal clinic is ALWAYS grumpy and rude. I think she has some sort of social skills disorder and she does talk to teh doctors in exactly the same way, starts to be quite funny after a bit.