Pregnant and moving to Canterbury Kent

[Daisy385]

Hi,

I'll be moving from London to Canterbury early next year. I know there is no maternity unit in Canterbury.

Where do expectant mothers living in Canterbury go for their antenatal appointments?

Where do you go and give birth? Do you typically have a home birth?

Thanks in advance!

Either William Harvey in Ashford or QE in Margate. Both a bit of a journey, I'm afraid.

There is ante-natal care at Canterbury, but births are Margate or Ashford only.

It’s such a shame as Canterbury used to have a good maternity unit and they shut it down and now push people to hospitals much further away. We will be using Medway but that’s because that’s our closest hospital.

Thanks for your responses. I thought as much with having to travel further out to give birth. But it's good that I can have the antenatal care in Canterbury.

Regarding Medway hospital, could I choose it to be the hospital I want to give birth in even if it's not my closest? I've looked at the CQC ratings for William Harvey and QE, their maternity service is rated inadequate which worries me! I'm not sure if the rating is a true reflection of people's actual birthing experience

We were talking about that at our NCT classes. We had people from Ashford who were trying to work out where to go and considering options so I think you can choose to a degree. There is also a new birthing centre at Maidstone that someone mentioned as another option too. I guess if you needed emergency care and had an ambulance from home they just take you to the nearest.

I'm not sure about whether you are able to push for Medway so unable to answer that.

But if you need to decide between QEQM and WHH, I went with QEQM for my first, unfortunately he required NICU and had to be transferred to WHH so when I had my second I went there just in case (didn't need the NICU that time!).

Another thing to be aware of is the maternity unit in QEQM is in a separate part of the hospital and as I needed an emergency c section I had to be transferred to the main operating theatre as there is only one on the maternity unit and this was already in use.

Finally, between my sisters/sister in laws and I we have had eight children, seven were born in WHH and had great care with all of these, the most recent being 2021 so out of the two would choose this one.

I hope the above is helpful and isn't off putting as they were all things I hadn't considered when choosing where to give birth the first time.

Thanks everyone, this has been useful. It does feel like WHH is better in case of complications. And when it gets nearer the time, I think I'll find the shorter travel is more important than other things.

I'll speak to my midwife once I have my care transferred over to Canterbury. And I think some hospitals have tours of the maternity unit which might help me decide!

Know this is an old thread but wondered if anyone could tell me how many of your antenatal appointments were in Canterbury if you register with William Harvey Ashford? I'm considering transferring from London in later pregnancy (36 weekish) and wondering if many of my antenatals would be local (Canterbury) or I would be back and forth to the hospital?

Once you have your care transferred to Canterbury using the self service
https://www.ekhuft.nhs.uk/services/maternity/

They will contact you about the booking appointment. Mine was done in Canterbury hospital. This hospital has maternity day care but no birthing unit.

With my experience, apart from one scan at William Harvey the rest of my antenatal appointments were done locally at Canterbury hospital or the local family hub.