Recent experience of giving birth at St George's?

[SnappyCroc]

Does anyone have any recent experience of giving birth at St George's in Tooting? I'm trying to decide between St George's and Kingston. St George's is closer to us.

Hasn't Kingston got individual rooms on the post natal ward? That alone would make me choose Kingston! I live beyond Croydon and considered choosing Kingston, however I'm glad I didn't because I ended up having a high risk pregnancy and was at the hospital every day towards the end. I was glad our hospital was only 20 minutes away in the end because even that seemed a slog! Where abouts are you?

We're about 15 minutes from St George's and 25 minutes from Kingston so not a lot in it. George's is easier to get to on public transport for us. But I've heard that there are staffing issues there and they've closed their birth centre so everyone has to go to the delivery ward. I'm currently low risk and would ideally like a water birth, but there's not a lot of information being given to women about what's happening there at the moment.

I had a horrific time with Kingston. It turned out to be to do with them not having necessary staff, but they wrongly threatened to call the police and social services before finally admitting the root of the issue was staffing. (No shouting or anything, but boy was it stressful!) They also had clear information from the start, but chose to raise an issue two weeks before my due date, so when we disagreed on how to manage it, the final meeting on it was 3 days before my due date and resulted in me having to swap hospitals a couple of days before my dc was born. They missed the fact I was likely to have a very fast birth due to a health condition. Although, there was an inquiry done after and this was about 7 years ago, so fingers crossed big changes have happened since then. However, on a personal level, I just can’t recommend Kingston.

I didn’t give birth at St George’s, but my son was treated there for years for a health condition. I found the communication could be hit and miss, but the specialist knowledge was brilliant. I don’t about current staffing levels, but I would think it might be a wider issue encountered by a lot of hospitals at the moment. Would it be worth perhaps looking at a home water birth with hospital delivery as a back up? Maybe not, but just a thought 🙂Hope you find one you’re happy with and someone with better current knowledge than me comes along soon!

Thank you @MagpieSong . I'm sorry to hear that you had such a stressful experience...it seems not being respected/listened to is such a common theme for women giving birth 😬. I'd prefer not to have a home birth as have a toddler at home so I'd prefer to be somewhere less...chaotic 😁.

I had my baby at St Georges last year and happy to share my experience.

I was under the Maple Team and saw the same two community midwives for all my antenatal appointments at the Nelson Health Centre. They were lovely and worked in a team of 8. Over the course of my pregnancy, they also made sure i met the other 6 midwives in the team as well.

I was relatively high risk - we had fertility treatment to conceive and my weight / BP were on the higher side so i had an inital appt with a consultant as well but they were happy for me to be midwife led. I was high risk for preeclampsia so i had to take asprin and i had two extra growth scans arranged. Georges also give everyone a 36w scan as standard.

I had a very straightforward pregnancy except DD was dropping down the curves slightly at each growth scan. Nothing too significant until 36w when she dropped below 10th centile. At that point, induction vs section was discussed for 39w. I was happy to go for induction so cant comment on how pushy they are but i did feel like my questions were listened to. As it was, once i stopped taking the asprin at 37w, my BP went very high, waters broke very suddenly and DD was born in a hurry at 38w.

The birth centre is lovely and modern but i didnt get chance to use it as all the rooms were in use and DD needed continuous monitoring so i gave birth on the labour ward. Georges is busy. I often see that they have to temporarily shut the birth centre but then it seems to reopen a few weeks later. But the midwives were great at letting me move around, and i actually gave birth on a mattress on the floor, not on the bed, which is what i really wanted. So appreciated them supporting that. I wanted an epidural but my labour progressed too quickly and I just had gas and air. I had a fast labour and in hindsight glad i didnt have a water birth as the continuous monitoring picked up DDs heartbeat drops very quickly and we got a move on.

The labour and postnatal wards are quite run down. There are individual rooms you can pay for (some ensuite, some not ensuite) but they are first come first served. Husbands and partners are allowed to stay overnight on the ward / rooms. We were given an individual room for free as DD was unwell.

I had a 5day stay on postnatal and DD spent two weeks in NICU as she developed a GBS infection (sepsis). St Georges doesnt test for GBS (usually at 35w pregnant) so one thing to consider is booking a private test (£35) if you do give birth there. DDs presentation of sepsis was unusual and i do wonder whether it could have been picked up sooner, but the care she had in NICU and SCBU was amazing and i am forever grateful to those doctors.

All in all, we do intend to have our next child at Georges so i suppose we would recommend it that way but it depends what is important to you.

Wow - that was long. Sorry! 😅

Thank you @YorkshireTeaCup - good to hear that overall your experience was positive, even if stressful at the time.

I’d have to say my experience of St George’s was not great.

I never saw the same midwife antenatally, there was no continuity of care which meant important things were missed - like a delayed fetal heart scan. They were all lovely but it felt really disorganised and I didn’t feel anyone was really overseeing my care.

the birth was a complete shit show. I was induced at 41+6 with a peasary and had a hypersensitive reaction which they didn’t believe. Tried to make me go home but I refused. They refused to give me any pain relief and basically treated me they an over sensitive first time mum. Finally admitted me the ward but didn’t once check on me despite my husband constantly looking for someone. Only when my waters broke with meconium in did they actually examine me, I was fully dilated and baby was showing signs of distress so straight to theatre for me. Got him out with suction and episiotomy - which got infected the next day so likely from the hospital.

postnatal ward was so busy, no one really checked on us. I finally got home but I was honestly traumatised by the whole thing. I did go back for a birth reflection which was helpful but they confirmed midwife’s hadn’t acted appropriately in my case and were quite defensive. I just wanted people to
learn from it but unfortunately 3 months after that my neighbour had a similar experience so clearly not.

I do have to say I know do know a few people who had lovely straight forward water births and the birthing suit was lovely when we looked around. This is just my experience and I’m sure there are some much better ones out there!

the doctors and anathaetist were great and really reassuring. There is definitely a higher level
of care at St George’s which is an advantage.
I think the midwife staffing played a major issue in my care and this can be better on different, less busy days.

I suggest looking at the hospitals websites, maternity info and CQC reports to see if you get a feel for one or the other.

Good luck OP!

@Hello47 . That's what I'm worried about. I'm presently booked at St George's but my care so far hasn't been particularly consistent and I'm wondering whether the reality is that you get better (or at least more joined up) care at if you're high risk from the start but you're a bit overlooked if you're not. I know midwife staffing is a huge issue at the moment there and they've closed the midwife-led birth centre as a result (with no information on when it will reopen).

Thank you for your post, btw - really useful though I'm sorry you had such a tough time.

Hello, I had a water birth at St. George’s last year and absolutely rated the care and facilities. I laboured in the pool and pushed on a mattress/floor bed. We were only in hospital for about 8 hours in total so didn’t see much outside of the birth centre. However I’m now pregnant again and the staffing levels seem very poor, birth centre has been closed on and off for the past 6 months according to my midwife and it’s really make me consider my options as I would be very keen to try and have another pool birth/labour. Chelsea is the next closest but still 30 mins in the car which I can’t imagine doing in labour (we are less than 5 from St. George’s).

they also have been unable to offer me a 12 week scan as we are away the second eligible week and don’t have any appointments the first week?! So we are doing this privately which seems crazy and I feel lucky we are able to take this option.

I have registered with the home birth team to see what the options are there - that way I could have a pool at home, and if I needed to go in then at least we are close to the hospital (where I wouldn’t be allowed to go to the birth centre anyway if we were transferring in).

Long message sorry but also looking for similar stories of women who wanted the Carmen Suite more recently, as I think we just got lucky that it was open when I went in last year.

Hi @Dingalingo thanks for your message...yes, these are many of the concerns which I have. My impression is that St George's offers great care if you are clinically higher risk, but the other options seem a bit lacking atm and I'm a little worried about the staffing shortages they seem to be having.

And also the lack of information isn't very reassuring! Especially about whether the birth centre is going to be open or closed at a particular time. It's not helpful in planning ahead and making an informed decision that no one has any information on this.

I work there as a midwife. Birth Centre remains shut due to chronic short staffing which is the same across London, many other birth centre shut also. I can’t begin to imagine when it will reopen based on what I know and see. We have just recruited a load of newly qualified midwives as has everywhere else but we are about to lose a lot of core bank only staff due to a significant pay cut which the trust won’t act upon.

it is a fantastic maternity unit when It works well. A lot of experience and expertise. Personally I wouldn’t be anywhere else to have my babies. The birth centre and homebirth service is wonderful. Labour ward has no pool (we have been trying for years) but we have a room set up as a ‘birth centre’ room, and any room can be moved around to make it fit your wants and needs.

I heard St George’s aren’t doing 12 week scans due to staff shortages too… @Mummyme87 is that the case or just a rumour?

@Hrf1503 they are doing 11-14wk, 21-22wk and 36-37wk scan as standard. They have tragically lost a sonographer recently which affected when the scans could be fitted it, but everyone was still getting them. There was a small amount of women who missed the time frame for a nuchal scan and had it late plus the quad test but mainly those who booked late and therefore couldn’t be slotted in

@SnappyCroc regarding not knowing when BC will be open or closed is an issue in every trust unfortunately. They can be closed at last minute and unfortunately frequently are due to the state of maternity services 😞

Hi @Mummyme87 , thanks for your posts....that's really helpful information and more useful than anything I've been told so far. It's frustrating because of course you're meant to have choices in pregnancy and I've been asked to bring a copy of my birth plan to my next appointment, but this feels slightly pointless in the circumstances given the lack of predictability around what's going to happen (for instance, what's the point of specifying birth centre, water birth if actually that's not an option at all?). I recognise of course it's not a problem unique to St George's and the situation may not be better anywhere else.

I've had two at Kingston (second in Nay) abs both brilliant experiences. As a PP says postnatal rooms are all private which is invaluable. For my second we were the only couple on the birth centre the whole time and it was great having a choice of room! Couldn't recommend enough. Depending on where you live the antenatalncare might be at their health centre in Raynes Park which was much closer for me so very handy.
George's is our closest hospital but I've only heard awful things from everyone who's given birth there c

Postnatal at Kingston is definitely not all private rooms. There are words. I have given birth 3 times there and was allocated a private room only when my baby was in nicu, other times was wards.

I'm at St Helier and the midwives said the other day due to shortages at St George's mums are being sent over to St helier or Kingston or Epsom. It's really scary times. My friend was ignored at St George's last year which resulted in her son being born still born it all could of been avoided and for that reason I wouldn't ever go there.
It's not the same but my husband had cancer treatment there which was dreadful also.

Yes the unit at SGH has been closed twice in the last 2months, but so has Kingston. They closed two weeks ago. Also chel west did last week. Just really crap.

@SnappyCroc definitely still do your birth plan, birth centre may be open by the time you give birth. Hard to say. Birth plans should all be preferences anyhow but they are super helpful for us.

and yeah, definitely not all private rooms on PN at Kingston. I’ve worked there, there were wards on AN and PN. SGH has a 32 bedded PN ward and 8 are side rooms

Hi everyone,

I am TTC first time and trying to choose hospitals. I have recently moved and St.Heliers is closest to me. I used to go to St.George's as it was closest from where we lived before and I had some good experience with emergency care.

I have literally no ideas on hospitals and would love your opinions to choose between St.Heliers and St.George's for my first pregnancy. I have had a miscarriage before and I'm overweight - if this is needed for the reference.

i have also just joined mumsnet to comment on this so I don't know if I can comment on this thread now or not!!

thank you :))

@SnappyCroc @Dingalingo
hi both, can I ask how your birth experiences were at St. George’s in the end as presumed you’ve both had your bubbas now? I’m due to deliver there in the next couple of weeks and have heard the same thing about birth centre being on and off closed. Hope it all went well in the end xx

@Blueskies2023 birth centre at SGH remains closed off and on depending on staffing. They try to reopen it for people if they request it but obviously needs to be safe for everyone