Opinions of Watford General / West Herts Antenatal Care ?

[Jools1]

Hi - newly pregnant first time mum to be. Had my GP appt on Tuesday - he recommended I go for Watford General rather than Welwyn Garden City as that service may be moving to Stevenage around my due date.

Since then, I've been reading loads about how awful West Herts care allegedly is - bottom of the table I think ? I don't even get a scan till 20 weeks and no nuchal.

I'm only 5 weeks but this is scaring me already and I already feel very alone and scared of the quality of care I may receive.

I have no midwife contact details and booking in is apparently not till 12 weeks.

I know I can pay for a private nuchal scan - but is West Herts as bad as it sounds ?

Hi there - I had a 12 week scan and I'm with Watford (although the scan was with St Albans). When I was there they measured for nuchal, and while they've not gone live with it (so to speak) and weren't able to give me the odds - they did give me the nuchal measurement, which tbh was all I needed.

I had a 12 week dating scan at Watford in March 07. They were great. Midwife phoned them to try and book me in, and by that afternoon I was there having my scan.

Not sure I can add a whole lot to this but...

I am booked at Watford (but will hopefully have a homebirth) but have had scans at QEII (not a fab experience) and at St Albans City and am under Mr Hextall at St Albans due to a number of risk factors with my pregnancy.

The Consultant care has been okay but it has taken assertion. The midwife care has been beyond superb and I really mean that.

I've had several scans at Verulam and they are very good too. The only fault I could mention is that they wrongly sexed my baby at a sexing scan! They refunded me though and were lovely about it.

I've no idea about hospitals for delivery as imo they are all much of a muchness going by friend's accounts and my own experience of Hemel hospital when you could still deliver there. The aftercare is so very often dire.

Nuchal scans are being phased in but it's a PCT thing rather than specific hospital thing.

Hi Flossie - I hope you've managed to speak with your GP or community midwife as the information you've been given is completely wrong!

As Alana and the other posters since have said, you should definitely get a dating scan around 12 weeks, you get a Triple test which gives you an estimate of likelihood of DS and they will measure the nuchal fold but, as previous postings say, they can't tell you the odds. However, if it's abnormal, they will tell you and will refer you onto a Consultant.

I've been under the care of a Consultant due to having a fibroid and have received great care (based at St Albans) and my midwife has been extremely approachable. I've also been into Watford when I was concerned about lack of movement with the baby and they were extremely good, never making you feel like you were wasting their time at all. There is always the emphasis on calling if you're at all concerned as opposed to making you feel like a neurotic hormonal woman.

A couple of colleagues at work have also had grandchildren recently born at Watford and have not been able to praise it enough - both during labour and the after care.

There's been loads of bad press about West Herts but I'm wondering if perhaps they've been forced into making vast improvements because of this.

I'm also pretty convinced that experiences are very dependent on factors beyond your control i.e. who's off sick, on holiday, type of labour you have, number of people suddenly having their babies all on the same day etc.

Initially I was also concerned about the bad press but looking at other Trusts, they're really not any better with regards ratings and, from my experience so far, I have absolutely no complaints.

I'm pretty shocked the information people are being given about care is so patchy. That in itself is pretty outrageous.

I'm 27 weeks pregnant so had my 12 week scan in February so it's not all that new! Plenty of time for GPs etc to not be giving out of date advice.

The only thing I can recommend is the people who have been told they won't get a scan, see the midwife at 8 weeks - s/he at least should know what is actually what. You get a printed out sheet telling you what to expect at which week. Perhaps you could then suggest your GP surgery's manager takes a copy of it.

I agree that some of us to be getting very out of date /confusing info from the GPs etc. The leaflets about what screening etc is on offer that were given to me by my GP last week (in St Albans) were dated 2003!!!

I'm going to wait until I've had my appt with the MW before making any private scan appointments. Verulam Clinic is £140 for Nuchal Screening and dating scan at 11-13 weeks, which isn't too bad, but I'd rather get it free and spend the money on something else! My work hardly give me any maternity pay so I need to start saving just to take 6 months off.

Thanks for everyone's advice :-)

P.S I'm also going to contact my GP surgery (Maltings in St Albans) and ask them if they could update their leaflets and what they're telling people!

The other thing I was told by my GP (back in Sept) is that I wouldn't see a midwife till 12 weeks - in fact for first timers, the "new" policy is to get an appt at 8 weeks.

Parkbury House seem equally as out as date at the Maltings Surgery !

Hey Flossie! I'm Maltings too.

I haven't had any conflicting info. My hand held notes detail all the appointments according to NICE Guidelines and I was offered the triple test in the absence og the Nuchal plus told where I could get a Nuchal privately.

avoid Watford maternity hospital
Hi guys, I jaust have come back from Watford Hospital. Be aware THEY DON'T TELL YOU THE SEX OF YOUR BABY. my midwife did't tell me that. Her performance is the worse I ever seen. They don't inform mothers at all.
If you can find other hospital to go.

I am booked at Lister but I thought it was well known in this area that Watford don't tell you the sex. A private clinic is set up a few doors down from the hospital because they know they will get business. I believe Watford General don't tell you because there are a lot of ethnicities in the area that favour boys.

It is well known they will not tell you the sex of the baby, they never have done. The scanning business down the road must be raking it in! No one AFAIK knows the official reason for them not telling parents the sex but it is thought to be down to the a certain sector of the local community favouring boys. If that's true I think it's a bit out of date.

Can I ask why your MW's performance is "worst you have ever seen" mm14? I mean is it just because she didn't inform you the sonographers are not allowed to tell you the sex of your baby? If so that'll be the least of your problems! Wait til you get post-natal care Katherine Ward style!

Having said that, when I had my DD in 2007 I couldn't fault the delivery suite staff they were brilliant but very rushed off their feet. It was just the after care that sucked.

I had dd1 at WGH & they completely failed to help me establish breastfeeding. I had no idea that being premature would affect her, and neither did they it seemed! Not one person offered to help me. Just had her handed to me (1st feed after birth was 12 hours later as I was kept sedated for high BP, I had PE) and told 'she needs feeding' when asked how to get her to latch, I was given a leaflet about feeding.

I was totally exhausted & lead mw told me to ask night staff to take her so I could sleep. When I asked, they said it wasn't possible. I had to do it.

I can't say about scans etc, as my care originally was at Milton Keynes & I had a 12 week & 20 week scan there.

Dd was 4lb 4 when born & let me leave with her when she was below 4lb. I had instruction how often to feed to build her up. Eventually, her SCBU nurse put her on a high calorie formula, but that took 2 weeks for that to happen.

I had no instruction how often to feed to build her up

Hello ladies - I have had both my sons at Watford General and had 2 different experiences, but I am mainly happy with the service they provided - again it was the aftercare that lets them down :-(

For DS1 I had to go in for induction, it was July 06, VERY hot weather and the ward was packed, Women even in the corridor wailing away, very off putting for me as I hadn't even begun labour yet! I had the gel put in at about midnight, after going in at 8pm, and my hubby was asked to go home - I was sad but guess he would be called if anything 'happened'. By the morning nothing was happening and although I had a monitor on I was left for 2 hrs at a time because they were so busy with the poor other women really mid-labour. In the end I was taken up to the delivery suite (despite the fact I hadn't even felt a 'twinge' of labour pains, where I fainted (due I believe to the very hot weather- and panic!) and was then given an emergency c-section. All was fine and the staff very kind and efficient. of the 24 baby born on the same day as my sond I later found out that 17 had been C-Secs due to the hot weather. When I went down to Katharine ward it was a different matter. I was feeling very shocked at having c-sec and getting used to B-feeding so wanted the curtains closed, but one midwife kept opening them every time she went past, giving no privacy. I was near a window which was nice but had a 15 year old teen-mum with hideous parents with very loud voices opposite (her father was virtually toothless and actually came into the ward wearing a string vest! YUK!) and didn't want to have to make polite conversation with them, I just wanted a bit more privacy to get to know my new baby (but can't afford the £500 a night 'private' room down the corridor) My mum cried when she left after visiting me, not because she had just held her first grandchild but at the mankiness of the ward and the general shabbiness of it. That's the NHS for you, not just Watford General.

With DS2 I had a planned C-sec due to the size of the baby (and because I had C-sec 1st time) I packed my suitcase with 8 bottles of lucozade sport, mp3 player, Homeopathic remedies for C-section recovery and all the essential stuff for baby and dettol wipes! The op was fine, recovery OK (except being next to another teen with serious mental issues, whose baby was taken away by Social Services the day I left with mine and made me think how lucky I am) God, I know I sound snobby - being in hosp is an eye-opener! After care was OK but the dettol wipes came in handy cleaning up the bathroom before I used it- there were 'sliver fish' running along the edge of the floor -eurgh!

I am now expecting #3 and will have it at Watford General, I expect the after care to be a bit crap but hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised if it isn't! The nurses and midwives are all trying their best, they are just overstretched and overworked!

Sounds like WGH is the same as WGC/the Lister and all other maternity units - hit and miss and postnatal generally more crap than the rest of the service. I will never set foot in WGC maternity again mind. Never.

Do watford general have a dedicated home birth team?

Not sure, but they do have the ABC, which is fantastic and run along the lines of 'home from home'.

Have you used the ABC sausagedogs ? What does home from home actually mean? Did you get to use the pool there?