Should I move maternity care when I move house?

[Gokwan99]

Hi all,

20 weeks pregnant, may be buying a house over the next few months, moving from London to Kent. As is the nature of chains, no idea if/when it'll happen, and don't have a huge amount of control even if I did have a strong preference to complete before or after c section.

Looking for advice as to what you'd do in my situation.
Currently at UCLH, aiming for an elective c section due to a previous stillbirth. Sometimes their c sections are at the Whittington in north London. If we move to Folkestone, nearest maternity would be William Harvey, infamous in the news for poor maternity care BUT in 2025 CQC rated it as Good, which is the same as UCLH/Whittington.

Options/scenarios are if moving while pregnant:

• keep prenatal care and c section at UCLH/Whittington. About 1h 15 mins door to door. I assume (?) I could still access any emergency ad hoc care at William Harvey e.g. reduced movements, even if not birthing there.

Pros: I feel safe at UCLH, good hospital, no faff transferring care or re-registering c section request Cons: Severe stillbirth trauma there (not UCLH's fault), having a lot of flashbacks (though c section may well be at Whittington anyway). How on earth would postnatal care work? They'd hardly come visit us in Kent. Could stay in a hotel for a couple of nights in London. This would be my first live birth so not sure how many at-home midwife visits you get over what time period. Not sure how quickly WH could pick up the postnatal care. Not sure the mechanism of transferring care

• move all care to William Harvey

Pros: less travelling Cons: obviously previous CQC rating was worrying, plus not sure how easy it is to transfer hospitals, particularly concerned if I get my c section signed off at UCLH, then there's a risk it needs to be signed off again by WH and they might not. Not sure if they have a cut-off limit in terms of weeks pregnant to be able to transfer (I've asked)

I've seen mumsnet threads about whether to move while heavily pregnant or with a newborn and recovering from c section - tbh it all sounds bloody awful whichever way you cut it😂We'd be paying for packers, and it's a bit out of our hands as to when we'll complete.

Thank you if you've reached the end!

First of all sorry for your previous loss and congrats on this pregnancy.

Iv moved with all my pregnancies between two hospitals (don't want to say which as to outing) and Iv always moved at 36-38 weeks. The one I end up giving birth at doesnt have a cut off for moving. I only do this becuase I prefer the antenatal care in one and and the birth centre in the other. My point is yes you can definitly move your care, even at the end of pregnancy. Im not sure how it works with elective C-section though.
My advice would be once you've decided to move to WH (if you do decide this) make sure your fully booked into there with everything sorted with your c section there before cancelling the care with uclh (just in case they refuse to give you a c-section there etc as they won't have access to your medical notes).