Anyone having their baby at St George's in Tooting, London?

[Boobz]

What's your experience been like so far? Am waiting for my referral and chose St George's over St Thomas' because it's closer, but don't really know much about it.

Any comments would be useful.

A

GirlWithTheMouseyHair, St george's most certainly does offer homebirth, what are you on about?

FruitynNutty, don't worry, they do offer HB and the community midwife teams are FANTASTIC

ahh PHEW! DP wants me to have another c-section. Thinks I'm being silly wanting HB but what I say goes !

badkitty - the main entrance is shut for building works. You want the Lanesborough Wing, which is the side of the hospital nearest Tooting Broadway next to Coverton Lane/Effort St. Go in and when you get to the shop/vending machines there's lifts - I think it's the fourth floor.

Don't go in the 'main' entrance near A&E as it's a good 10 minutes walk to where you need to be. Apparently they have porters with wheelchairs there for women who come in in labour after the Lanesborough entrance shuts at night!

I'm with the Ivory Team.

Thanks for all the responses. Sounds like it's a go-er. I live just 10 mins from St George's too Fruity -- made sense to pick the closest I thought.

Going for first scan on Aug 18th. Can't wait!

Thanks for the directions. The St George's midwives I have met have been v supportive re homebirth and not said anything negative re it being my first. Haven't really discussed it with anyone else to be honest, am sure some people would try to put me off but don't see it as anybody else's business. Who have you had negative reactions from?

(I've been sprung! )

Sorry for slight hijack but we're also now strongly considering a home birth but have had some negative reactions, from family/friends/colleagues etc. My cousin said it wasn't worth the risk ... Haven't told my parents yet but am pretty sure they'll be dead against it. On the other hand, people on our hypnobirthing course are (unsurprisingly) in favour!

sorry girls - it was my doctor who said St G's didn't offer homebirth, hence one of the reasons I transferred...don't shoot me down - it the professionals who told me!!

i've only had supportive things from the professionals (mws, doctors etc) but met with odd and worried looks from friends and family - to be honest mainly ones who haven't had any experience of giving birth

I've found www.homebirth.org.uk (i think) really useful - it's turned my DH from someone not even prepared to contemplate it to seriously wanting us to not go to hospital at all

I'm going for a homebirth and if I need to transfer will be at SGH. Have been there for scans and Backs and Babies class, staff are pleasant and helpful, community midwives all lovely, and everyone has said PN care is bad but it's a great place to be if anything is wrong with yr bubba. I feel pretty happy with my choice. All staff have been supportive of homebirth plan.

GirlWithTheMouseyHair / kookiegoddess, when are you guys due? I am 1 Dec.

GWTMH, that is why I haven't told many people - they will just have a kneejerk reaction that it is incredibly risky etc when of course you will have looked at the research, weighed up the risks etc and decided that it is the right thing for you.

Having said that, DH managed to blurt out my homebirth plans to the in-laws recently much to my annoyance - they looked quite shocked but I don't think they dared say anything to me!

I am now slightly embarrassed that, when a friend of mine told me she was having a home birth with her first about five years ago, I thought she was completely insane

Badkitty, I'm due on 6th Oct.

I know it's tough dealing with people's reactions to HB, but I tend to fix them with a look and hope that helps them to remember their manners, and I always add that nothing is confirmed anyway because you won't know if you can have one till later on. I have read as much as possible and I'm always ready to explain myself if I have to! It's maddening that people can be so ignorant tho...

Badkitty, I'm due on 6th Oct.

I know it's tough dealing with people's reactions to HB, but I tend to fix them with a look and hope that helps them to remember their manners, and I always add that nothing is confirmed anyway because you won't know if you can have one till later on. I have read as much as possible and I'm always ready to explain myself if I have to! It's maddening that people can be so ignorant tho...

oops sorry about double post

I'm due on 21st october

I find the best thing to do is reel off all the facts and statistics I've learnt - that soon shuts them up and makes them realise that 1) yes of course you've bothered to do all the research and 2) there's alot of stuff out there that makes HB a very viable choice

to be honest before I started looking into it (after a frazzled saturday at Tommies) I just assumed I might think about for my 2nd but no way for my 1st, both DH and I have turned full circle on that one

Cool - I will be able to hear how you two got on before I go through with it then!

On the subject of telling other people, DH said this morning that he had told a friend we were planning a homebirth, and said friend's girlfriend, who is a paediatrician, had informed him that "this makes the risk for mother and baby equivalent to what it was 200 years ago"!

WTF!!! This doesn't bear any relation to ANYTHING I have read - unless maybe she thought I was planning some sort of outlaw birth with no medical assistance whatsoever! Made me quite cross.

Anyway sorry for hijacking thread, but back on the subject of St George's I can say that I went for scan this morning and the sonographer was lovely, so far all the staff I have come across there have been really nice

And I am having a baby boy

Aww great Badkitty! Any boys names yet?

I had never considered a home birth for my first, and have only known for a week or so that I am pregnant, so haven't really done much research, but am thinking of really looking into it. What tipped it for you, in the end, over a hospital birth?

I had ds in SG's last sept. I had planned cs for breech and everything was very smooth and calm. A few niggles, I don't think anywhere's perfect but here are mine...

waiting room was rather odd, kind of like a storage room with lots of odd machinery and a sofa. Not that that's relevant for you, only if you're having a planned cs

Food is shocking, really rubbish. If you're staying in I'd get someone to bring you a takeaway each day.

There's perishingly little bf support, I wasn't shown how to latch ds on at all. The bfc for the whole of the trust was really hacked off that I'd been left like that, esp after a cs, no skin to skin, no support. Not good on that front.

Rather brusque HVs, gave me a bed wash that was rather less than gentle, and one of them tugged my flipping catheter out without warning me [shock}!

Oh and they put me on the wrong kind of bed in theatre so I had to "hop across" to a different bed (the midwive's words!) so I could raise or lower electronically about an hour after my cs.

Other than that, l had a pretty good experience. I know it doesn't sound it, one mw in particular was wonderful, helping me and being generally very reassuring when I had a big wobble the first night and spent much of it in tears.

Can't fault the antenatal care. Saw three mw the whole time of my antenatal care so got to know them quite well. Antenatal classes were very good.

Congrats badkitty! Did you have Emily doing the scan? She did both of ours and is just lovely

Boobz I was all set for a hospital birth but started reading about natural birth (ie minimum medical intervention) and hypnobirthing, plus I really want to be able to labour in water, and the easiest way to achieve all those seems to be a home birth, so that's what I'm hoping for. In the space of about a month, I've gone from never having considered it to really keen and the more I read about it, the more it seems the right choice

Thank you! We both like Harry, not sure if we should go for something so popular but still it is a nice name. Jeannette did the scan and was v. nice.

Not sure what made me decide really, I think I had heard so many bad stories about hospital births in general, and then read a bit about homebirth and just thought I would be so much more comfortable in my own environment where can walk around, eat, drink, do what I want really. Just going to a hospital makes me all tense and stressed and I hate the smell! And I really want to avoid having an epidural and other interventions if possible and much more likely to do that at home. I might have gone for the midwife-led unit but they obviously can't guarantee there will be a place for you at the time, and I would be too disappointed if I had to go to hospital just because there wasn't room for me. DH was surprisingly fine with the idea, just wants me to be where I am happiest.

oooh, Anglepoist, she scanned both ds and dd, she's great.

SG's had the Rainbow suite, which is where I had ds, has birthing pool, sofas, nice bed etc

I quite liked the food at SG!

Think I am too much of a wimp, tbh, and we're got white carpets.

Seriously though, I am going to look into it. Not sure what my husband would say - I imagine he wouldn't be for it.

Harry is a lovely name, don't worry about it being too popular..

It was really easy to sell it to my DH - I just told him he could have a beer and watch the telly during the boring bits

You've got to do what you're happy with in the end though - am sure some/most people would be much happier in hospital and SGs is probably a pretty good choice, by London standards anyway.

yay for a boy badkitty!

I'm exactly the same as angelpoise (think it's the cake she fed me, am turning into her clone but a month behind)....I didn't even consider it until I started reading up on HB and DH has made a complete turn around

I really don't want an epidural or c-section (unless safety of the baby of course) and think I'll be more relaxed in my own environment which should make the pain easier to deal with - I can't imagine anything more scary than being in the early stages of labour and hearing all the other women around my screaming with pain on a ward! also that you're guaranteed a midwife to yourself at home (and a much less stressed midwife as a consequence)

I'm still looking at the home from home birth centre at Tommies which is just lush but has been known to be closed in the past due to staff shortages, and of course there may not be room at the inn...