Epsom, St Georges or Kingston

[ChessG]

I'm currently 30 weeks pregnant with my first child and I'm registered with St Georges hospital, Tooting. I'm moving to Epsom in 2 weeks and I'm considering changing my registered hospital to be closer to my new home.

Can anyone with recent experience of the maternity unit at Epsom Hospital, St Georges hospital or Kingston hospital give me their experiences both good and bad.
So far the care has been ok at St Georges, but I always see a different midwife/member of staff and the facilities are quite dated. I'm wondering if it will be best to transfer to a closer hospital for the birth and post natal care.

I would go to the closest hospital tbh.

@Bikessmikes Thanks for your thoughts on this.

I gave birth in Kingston twice, most recently in 2019. Both times I had a good experience - once in the midwife-led birth centre and once in the delivery suite (having first tried for a home birth with DC1). I thought that the facilities were ok - with options for a birthing pool if available. They do offer tours of the centres (or at least they did, pre Covid) so might be worth seeing what you think? I was transferred to the postnatal ward both times - albeit didn’t stay overnight the second time, which was again all ok. Not all rooms in the postnatal ward are private rooms though. After I was discharged from the hospital then rest of the post-birth care was done either at home, or at my GP surgery rather than the hospital if that makes a difference - I only went to the hospital for the two standard scans and the birth itself.

A long time ago now but I had DS at St George's and DD at Kingston. Much preferred Kingston.

@GailTheFish Thanks for your insight on Kingston. That's great to hear. I will investigate and try and book a tour to have a look around.

@newhousenewhouse Thanks for your thoughts on your different experiences. There have been some recent reports on the maternity units and some come out better than others.

I've given birth twice at St Georges - once 2021 and once in April this year. I have a thread about my most recent experience - I'll link it below - my update is on the last page. But basically i had high blood pressure then preeclampsia and I was having to go up every 2 days for monitoring from 36w. There is no way I would have been able to cope with all the travel without being exhausted. I've never been to Epsom or Kingston (I did consider Kingston for DD2 but glad I didn't as DH would have missed the birth otherwise 😅) but i would say that being near to the hospital is a very good thing when you are in late pregnancy, big bump, poor sleep, and having lots of appointments.

St Georges is the only one with level 3 NICU, so if baby needed very serious help, then they would be transferred there. But if that was case, they could help you get a place at the Ronald Mcdonald house, or they have a mini ward in the neonatal unit where mums can stay to be close to baby.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/childbirth/4879344-st-georges-hospital-sw-london-cqc-inadequate-maternity?page=1

I'm at Kingston and a FTM. The support I've received has been incredible. I've been in and out of triage a few times, and they've always been very reassuring and wonderful. My regular midwife is fantastic and really experienced.

Kingston is also rated the highest out of all 3 Trusts you mentioned. It is rated Good, while St George's is rated 'Inadequate' and Epsom is rated 'Requires Improvement'.

I'd say that you should always choose the hospital with the easiest and most reliable journey (which may or may not be the absolute closest)

There isn't really that much difference between those hospitals, and I think you can tie yourself up in knots trying to find the "best" one. You're experience is likely to be more affected by who is on shift and how busy they are when you're in.

Kingston is brilliant.

Thanks for everyone's comments and feedback. It's really helpful to hear from others what your experiences have been like and also consider location/proximity as an important factor.

What have you decided to do? I'm due in April and currently at St Georges but have recently moved out of London and temporarily staying with in laws near Dorking. It's likely that we'll be moving to Ashtead in the coming months although we may need to get a rental either in Surrey or closer to London while we prepare for a permanent move to that area. With everything up in the air I really want to feel comfortable with the hospital that I choose. I've heard good things about Guildford and Kingston but also concerned about accessibility. Have you had any experience with hospitals close to Ashtead?

I had my daughter at Kingston in 2021. Staff were amazing, mostly private rooms in the postnatal ward unless you have any complications, birth centre rooms have recently been refurbished. Antenatal care including triage were also great. I didn’t look at the others but can definitely recommend Kingston.