ANTENATAL CARE CHOICES LONDON! Any advice appreciated

[pip7777]

Hello, we are having our first baby & are in the early days, based in Islington. We need to register for a birth centre/labour ward and are trying to decide between HOMERTON, ROYAL FREE & ST THOMAS.
Does anyone have any recent experience with these? Would really appreciate any advice. Not expecting any complications but of course we won't know that until we have had our first appointment!
Thank you :)

Hello! Congratulations, I was in the same boat trying to decide. I recommend checking the CQC ratings of the hospitals online and checking their websites. I self referred to the Homerton and was sent a letter for first 'booking' apt and scan for when I will be 13 weeks. Sorry I can't help with any exprience of appointments though!

I’m 21 weeks and registered at the homerton. It’s actually not my closest hospital but for some reason my closest completely ignored me when I tried to register (ignored my online form, email and multiple calls - very odd).
I’m super happy with the F2F care I have had. 12 week scan and 20 week scan were brilliant and partners can now come to both (although we were too early for the 12 weeks scan rule change).
I have a huge blood test phobia (even had hypnotherapy for it before) and the nurse that took my first set of bloods was so amazing I genuinely think I’m over it. Had to have another set and was fine.
They’ve been really proactive with jabs (flu and whooping cough) where I hear other hospitals have been bad at offering them.
I also had a bleed at 10 weeks and was referred straight to the EPU to be checked. All was fine but I hear of other women really struggling to be listened to that early.
The only thing that hasn’t been so great have been the phone appointments (booking and 16 weeks). Just very disinterested sounding midwives who weren’t that keen to offer much help and I’ve had a bit of conflicting advice. But I guess that’s probably because they can’t see you and are bored working from home.
Also parking and access is a little bit of a nightmare as it’s so busy. We’ve taken the bus to this point but not sure what our plan is for labour!
So overall, really pleased so far! Would definitely recommend

One thing you may also want to think about is getting there. I’m in Greenwich and was keen on St Thomas, but after we made a couple of other rush hour trips there for another reason last year, which sometimes meant it took over an hour to get there, we ruled it out. I imagine Islington to St Thomas won’t be such a straightforward journey either. There is also almost no parking at and around St Thomas. Those two points were what won it between St Thomas and Kings for us.

My tips would be to think about how much you want a water birth. I gave birth in London, not far from you and my
Main criteria was how much chance I had of accessing a water pool room (one hospital had double the amount so I had a much higher chance of the midwife led water pool rooms that allowed partners to stay overnight in the room with a big double bed)
Also you need to seriously think about which one is the easiest to get to. I was sent home three times as I was not 4 cm dilated so I was very pleased to be a five minute drive away.

UCH is meant to be really good too, so maybe that's an option to consider as well?