Recent Experience at Homerton University Hospital

[Nk21]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here, just found out that I am pregnant. I am doing research on hospitals to have my antenatal care and giving birth. I live in east london (Stratford) and my closest hospitals are Newham, Homerton or Royal London. I have looked at the CQC rating and it seems Homerton is the best amongs the options.

Has anyone recently given birth there and could you share your experience?

Thanks :)

Haven’t given birth there (yet) but have had all my scans etc there and am very happy with my care and all the staff I’ve met have been really lovely.

Thanks Littletoaster2021! Glad to hear you're happy with the service there. Did you self refer yourself there or did you go through GP?

I self-referred, my GP surgery told me they don’t refer women any more! I’m in Walthamstow and my GP is very crap so other surgeries might… but I just filled out the form on the Homerton maternity page

It’s very common for GPs to no longer refer and for women to self refer - nothing to do with how crap the GP is.

I have a friend who gave birth at Homerton and said it was completely fine.

Thanks for the information. No wonder my GP is not responding on this. I have filled out their online self refer form, hopefully I will get a response soon.

I gave birth at Homerton a couple of years ago. The antenatal care and the labour teams were great. I was eventually rushed for an EMCS and the doctors were brilliant too.

Unfortunately, I was kept in the hospital for a week after the operation and I found the postnatal care to be shoddy. For instance, after the birth I was moved to the postnatal ward at 12am and the light in my cubicle wasn't working. They refused to switch on a light in the corridor, give me another lamp or move me to another cubicle. I was instead told to use the torch on my phone to see the baby and settle myself and all the stuff in the new space! Basically they ignored the mums as much as they could.

Hopefully you will not have to stay in the postnatal ward for long, and if you do just be very firm with your wishes. I learnt that half way through my stay, and thing went a lot more smoothly after that.

One more thing to think about is how easy it is to get to Homerton from where you are. I live in SE London but was really keen on St Thomas’ hospital. What put us off was that during rush hour, the journey to the hospital can take at least an hour. As it transpired, we ended up needing to go to hospital during rush hour when DS was born, so it turned out to be a wise decision!

Good luck, and congratulations!!

Thanks springtimedaffs, that is really useful to know. I'm just starting to research on this and really had no idea so really appreciated other mum sharing their experience.

MsHedgehog - thanks, I'm really excited and anxious at the same time since this is my first. Homerton is around 20mins drive from where i live so hope it will not be too bad.

Hi,

I've given birth at the Homerton 3 times and booked in for my fourth in August!
I have been extremely happy on all 3 occasions. The midwives were lovely. I was lucky to give birth in the birth centre each time and the experience was extremely positive. First two times I spent the night on the birth centre and went home in the morning- never got to postnatal ward. With my third they couldn't be bothered keeping me on the birth centre so packed me off to Templar ward overnight. Was a bit of a shock really- noisy, busy and no chance of sleep.
But then I was discharged in the morning so it wasn't for too long. Hoping for another birth centre birth this time round and keeping my fingers crossed I won't need the postnatal ward.
From what I hear, postntal wards are awful across the NHS so I don't think they are necessarily worse than any other hospitals.

Thanks Ava50x. And good luck with your fourth in August! :)

I had my baby in whipps cross in March and have to say it was brilliant! I’d heard bad things previously and was a little worried ! But the staff were great - never waited long at any appointments and the team who delivered my baby were amazing to be honest!

Why do you need a GP to fill out a form for you? That doesn’t mean they’re crap, it means the referral process is simplified

I had my baby at Homerton and had an amazingly positive experience. My tip would be to book the private room on the maternity ward if you can (it may be in use).

Is this in recent times? Thank you. Do you know anything about Royal London at all?

Weird that you responded to a thread 2 years old for to comment on that specific point, but I said that my GP surgery was crap AND that I self-referred, not that they were crap BECAUSE I had to self-refer.

Fair enough

How was St Thomas to give birth and for antenatal and post natal care? @MsHedgehog

@Pooterlie book a private room for postnatal care you mean? Do you have to pay for this?

Hey @Ava50x what's the experience like at the birth centre, is it easy to deliver in water? Is it also consultant led delivery as opposed to midwife led?

@shininglight16 yes, just let them know that you would like to book the private room, when I did it it was about £30 per night and absolutely worth it as the ward was hot and noisy.

Bear in mind though that you will have to vacate / let it go if someone who really needs it emerges.