First pregnancy in the UK (Ruislip- London) — confused about hospital choice + early steps

[BlueWhale2102]

Hi everyone,

I just found out I'm pregnant (home test positive twice) and I'm based in Ruislip in London. Feeling excited but also quite overwhelmed as this is all new to us. We don't know how it works with NHS and everything that we should do to make next 1 year as smooth as possible.

We've already done NHS self-referral to two different hospitals Wexham and Queen Charlotte.

Those were the only ones around my area with Good rating as per CQC. There is hillingdon, watford, northwick park as well, but they got bad reviews online. We're not sure how to choose between them.

Northwick park does ward tours, so we are planning to attend the next one. Any suggestions please? What should we be looking at when comparing hospitals? what would you prioritise most when picking a hospital?

I think I'm around 8 weeks pregnant(as per NHS date calculator) trying to get organised now as I think I found out about it quite late.

Also, my husband bought pregnacare original, is it a good choice considering nausea and stomach problems it may cause? I'm usually not good with my stomach.

Maybe I can take some Ginger capsules and Vit B6(Pyridoxine) along with it?

Have I missed anything important at this stage?

Still waiting for my midwife booking appointment, just want to make sure I'm on track. They said it could take 10 days to get one.

Any advice or experiences would be really appreciated

You don’t need to take Pregnacare; just take the little folic acid pills.
No rush to chose a hospital, just have your booking appointment and go from there. We just went to the nearest hospital, never heard of them doing tours. You don’t need to do anything else right now, you have ages to go.

I think you should withdraw your self referral to one of those places, unless they're in the same trust? Or you'll get two appointments for everything as they won't realize you've referred to the other one also.

It's very early to be doing all this, I think you maybe overthinking a little! I'd just choose the closest and go from there. You can always change the hospital you're booked with later in your pregnancy if you really want to.

You choose one hospital and self refer to that hospital. They will then send you a booking appointment and/or a scan. I thought all hospitals would do a ward tour as my local does. It did move to a digital/virtual tour online during covid which is still accessible but the inperson group tours still occur. Used to be once a month on a Sunday morning