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.

C&W has good ante natal care and nice art

unfortuately it ends there, the post natal care is shocking

It is good if you are kept in for a while before as I was cos you can go shopping and to the cinema

Kingston seems to get good reports and Queen Charlotte's have you considered them?

in C&W they let us off the parking when I was giving birth (given that they nearly bloody killed me I should think so too!)

oh and when we finally left with dd the security bloke behind the front desk let us off and he and dh hugged each other and cried (he had spent a lot of time down there with him smoking and agonising)

This is totally unscientific! I live in SW London and have lots of friends with babies/small children, so "where you had your children" was always a hot topic.

1. Kingston I would say comes out consistently top of people's good experiences. Would have been my choice. Also (sweeping generalisation!) probably easier to get to as not having to fight way through Chelsea traffic.

2. C&W - have heard truly grim things re after-care. Visited someone there and it was not a great experience - friend was very underwhelmed by the whole thing.

3. St George's - have also heard it was grim but with the added advantage that no one ever thought it would be anything else. FWIW my PIL was a consultant in a related field and thinks they have - or had - some very good people at St George's.

4. Everyone's preference seemed to be Charlotte's, which I have heard very good things about but I understand is very difficult to get into. (My PIL was based there and he speaks very highly of it).

Hello Nkf (what a name)
it kind of makes a difference to have familiar midwives if you have ones at your GP surgery the general aim is they will see you and do all your appointments, some will come out to you in early labour (don't know how common in London!) and they often aim to deliver your baby. They will be linked to local hospital (Georges in your case) you would be expected to deliver there (and imho should be happy to do so if you are going with them) and they would not see you if you opt for eg Tommies/C&W you would be expected to go to the base hospital or a clinic near the base where they see people (as one person said eg Vauxhall). Going to see them is fine when it means once every 12 weeks and you are only eg 20 weeks pregnant it becomes more of an issue when you have eg a 5,4 and 3 yr old to take with you or you are overdue and they want you in for daily monitoring etc etc. To look round most people take husband/partner/friend with them when I went most looked about to drop(!!) there were a couple of people who didn't look pregnant (clearly mumsnetters since they were saying things like 'so am I guaranteed the same midwife all to myself throughout labour' and 'how do I book the pool?'!! ) I'm sure you will be welcome if in early pregnancy
I think the other thing is you will always find someone to say there postnatal in-patient care was crap, partly a function of being in I think partly cos a lot of it is!! but I don't think it's confined to one hospital IYSWIM
MrsMar Tommies certainly has level 3 neonatal so unlikely to get transferred to Georges unless it was a cot issue (ie non available at Tommies) but generally I think they try and transfer when baby is still inside!
Don't know about turnng away in labour they wont if you are about to drop but most places will send you home if you are in early labour so would guess they might send a non-booked person home if in early labour too and tell them to go where they are booked but not too sure about that. More likely she was referring to fact that both places are too small for number of births so have to turn down out of area/late bookers sometimes. Kingston is similar I think (I gather you ned to book really early there)
FWIW I suspect there is little to choose between any of the places mentioned on here for those with normal pregnancy and normal delivery in terms of care.
HTH and congrats

Thank you so much for this, really helpful and makes a lot of sense. We've just had a sucessful 6 week scan, and although I know it's still early days I feel a bit easier about thinking about 9 months down the line knowing there is a heart beat etc! We're going to George's this week, they do tours on a monday night apparently, and assuming it is horrific I think I'll go for that. I have been warned that I am unlikely to be able to have an exclusively midwife led birth and I guess I have to take that into consideration. Anyway- again thanks to all - having this site has been really helpful, and I have no doubt I'll be back!

oh yes and on the name thing - it was computer generated as I had lost all ability to think of a name...and now I don't know how to change it!!

All I can say is I had a baby at home under St Georges MWs last night and they were blardy marvellous!! Even if I had to go in (which was looking likely for this weekend) they went out of their way to look after me and find me a solution to my rather overdue state, and losing my homebirth.

man many congratulations, fantastic news and lovely to hear such positive things about george's. Happy recovery and thanks again.

bellabelly - i agree, the receptionists at C+W antenatal unit are something else! i've never known such rudeness-it's as if they're actually trying to be as awful as possible. they act like they're doing you a huge favour just acknowledging you (which only happens after they've ignored you completely for at least five minutes while you stand at the desk.)
I've found the antenatal care good though -all appointments have been on time or within ten minutes of schedule.I've heard people sometimes have to wait hours at Charlottes.

congratuations foxybrown!!!!!!!!!!!

congrats foxy.
N you can name change by going to my registration and logging in what was your computer thinking!
Enjoy the tour don't worry about asking loads you can always go round again and remember all hosps generally look foul Georges hasn't seen a coat of paint in years but they will be opening a new bit you can ask about that

thanks so much, I think I've changed it, although we'll see now if I've managed!
Great advise and won't panic about asking all the right things. RIght now all I can concern myself with is how to deal with morning sickness that keeps you awake all night - I thought that was what happened in 9 months, not already!!