Kings or St George’s…Which South London hospital for planned c-section?

[CannaeBelieveIt]

I’m happy and shocked to be pregnant through IVF after years of trying. I am leaning towards a planned c section for various reasons- this will be my first baby. Does anyone have recent experience of Kings College Hospital or St George’s, particularly for a planned c section?

I think I saw that partners can stay on ward at Kings but not St George’s… is that good?

Very grateful for any advice.

I need to pick a hospital trust to register with midwives etc and am finding it very hard to know what to do. Especially as I don’t want to tell lots of people in first trimester so can’t ask friends in real life!

I had amazing antenatal care, including planned CSs, twice at Kings. Genuinely lovely staff and the Foetal medicine building is a bit like a fancy hotel.

postnatal care was less good - staff didn’t have a lot of time and the wards are an awful place to recover. Partners being allowed to stay was a major negative - it gave a serious lack of privacy and really noisy nights.

Thank you @Elizabetathat’s really interesting. It is so hard to decide, with there apparently being lots of negatives and positives for both.
I suppose as my pregnancy high risk, excellent antenatal is important? (I feel so ignorant about it all).

I’ve been in hospital for a week before and can completely imagine partners being allowed on ward all night being a nightmare.

It’s hard to tell having not been there before, how necessary the help of a partner feels the night after a c section?

I found having my partner the night after a c section very essential, I found it really hard to move and he could just pass me the baby. Yes it meant the ward was louder in general but I really would have struggled without him.

Partners were able to stay at Georges in 2021 and 2024 so if they cant now, then that is a very recent change.

A very good friend of mine had a very poor experience at Kings. Ive had two very mixed experiences at Georges. First pregnancy, I had great antenatal care at Georges and DD needed NICU and she was very well looked after. But the postnatal care was poor. Second pregnancy, my antenatal care was less positive (i wasnt in a specific team as i was technically out of area so i just got a random rotation of midwives) until I developed preeclampsia and then I was very well looked after by the midwives on the day assessment unit. Postnatal ward was hell but we got home pretty quickly. (No c section for me either time).

Id honestly just go with whichever is closest to you - towards the end of pregnancy, I was having to go every other day for bloods, urine, BP and CTG monitoring and it was a slog as it was. If you end up having to do a lot of travelling, it was exhausting.

Invest in good antenatal classes (NCT or Bump & Baby etc) so you know how to advocate for yourself and baby, and make sure your partner knows your wishes for if you are unable. That will go a long way.

Congratulations btw!

Thank you @Hagner1234- I can imagine that being the case post c-section. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you also @Sunnyshoeshinethats very helpful to know. Maybe I was wrong about St George’s and partners then (have been reading so much and going loopy!). Annoyingly we are exactly equidistant between the two- although St George’s definitely easier for my work..

I had a very good experience at Kings. Like a previous poster I couldn’t wait to get out of the post natal ward and fortunately was able to be back home in less than 24 hours.