Experience of Homerton Hospital - East London - good or bad

[SabsBigPants]

I am 16 weeks pregnant with my first baby and am thinking of having my baby at homerton, mainly because it is my nearest hospital, and I was also treated at the EPAU there for my mmc last year.

I wanted to know of people experience of having a baby there, about homebirths and about the birthing pool. So far I have heard that the delivery suite is very good but the after-care in the post-natal ward is very bad and that the midwives dont help with anything at all. I am thinking of hiring a private room there, but wanted to know what are the chances of it being available.

Also does anyone have experience of what assistance you get with breastfeeding there?

Apologies for the millions of questions, but would like to be well-informed!

Report back from maternity ward:

Went to visit my friend last night, who had twins by caesarian on Sunday night. The ward seemed quite busy, tho very clean, tho friend has her own room. She says that the midwives have been excellent. Busy, but once you find the head honcho, things get done. She was going frantic with lack of sleep, so they've started taking the twins for four hours at night, for example, so she can rest.

The food looked quite nice, for hospital food, and the loo was spotless!

I had DD there in 2007 and my experience was similar to others - excellent antenatal care with pretty poor postnatal by very overstretched staff. Had some help with bf but could have done with more. I didn't like to keep asking though as they were so busy.

Had DS there in January this year and postnatal was better even though I was on the temporary ward. TBH though I needed a lot less help this time as bf was fine from the beginning and a lot less stressful than the first time. The woman in the bed next to me was struggling and the midwives seemed to be spending quite a bit of time helping.

If we have another baby I wouldn't hesitate going to Homerton. Friends of mine have had pretty bad experiences at UCH too - think it really depends on who's on duty and how busy they are.

Have friends who have been there, labour and ante-natal care was fine.
Post-natal care is generally pretty poor everywhere in London.
I would just go with your nearest hospital.

dinosaur hello! me and my siblings also went to millfields, i hear its still a good school and the waiting lists is very long. My sister has been trying to get my niece into the nursery there got ages

herbaceous thnx for the report! I think my sister also complained of the toilets being dirty when she had my niece in 2005, but good to hear that might have changed. my sister also had twins (in 2007) and was provided with her own room

lindso congrats and good luck with everything. I was treated at the EPAU and they were great there. Thanx for the breakfast tip!

interesting point about UCH as i have heard only good things about them but just thought it would be a bit too far and parking etc would be a problem

thanks gnatbite, guitargirl, thursdaynext

hello - I am thinking of having my baby at Homerton in december, anyone else?

Hi im nearly 16 weeks with my first and thinking of giving birth at hommerton. my pre care there has been great so far but i am really worried about actually giving birth there. I really dont want have to stay on my own without my partner as iv heard they often get kicked out? does this happen with a private room? Dont think i can really have a home birth as live in a rented flat, also not sure if id want to? anymore advice or info on the hospital would be great!!
p.s at my first mid wife app ( which i had at my local doc surgery ) i really didnt like the midwife she didnt even introduce herself and kept breaking off mid sentence to make calls . didnt really no what was going on? Feel worried i could have her during the birth!
sorry for the long message

bump

HI there - I had my DD at the Homerton in Novermber 07. I can only reiterate what others have said...

Antenatal care fab. Just great midwives, great comms, flexible (even saw me when I accidentally turned up the day before my appointment due to baby brain).

Delivery suite and midwives during labour absolutely fantastic. I had a 51 hour labour and so got through a few shifts, but they were all lovely, and very supportive and positive with my determination to avoid a C-section if at all possible. They also didn't send my husband home at any point while I was there, which I was so grateful for as many of friends at other hospitals were left alone for long stretches while their husbands were sent home.

Also the foetal medicine unit consultants were AMAZING - lets hope you never have to go there, but they really honestly saved my sanity and quite possibly my beautiful DD's life.

However, with hindsight the postnatal care was bloody awful. I'd had a fairly traumatic birth, and was in a hell of a mess afterwards, exhausted, and fairly shocked by the whole thing... I couldn't walk to the loo because I hadn't gotten feeling in my legs after being on an epidural for almost 24 hours. I asked for help and was just told 'it's over there'. They took my cathetar out at 3am (why? when I still couldn't walk and hey had been 'hydrating' me for the last 24 hours (1 ltr of water every 30 minutes)). I was scared of going to the loo and they just chucked a jug at me!??. Never saw a breastfeeding counselor, they just woke me up at 4am and told me to 'feed my baby' - which is fine, except I had no idea what to do and was a bit out of it having been in labour for basically 3 days, without sleep.

I wasn't ever really spoken to by a midwife apart from one who popped down from the labour ward in her tea break to see how the 'tiny girl with the huge baby' was getting on. Which says it all really.

I just got out of there are quickly as possible, but with hindsight I should maybe have stayed in a bit longer to recover as I was in a bit of a state. If a midwife had actually spoken to me at any point they might have known that, but they didn't.

So, a game of two halves, so it depends where your priorities lie. I'll be in a different part of London for this one, so Homerton not really an option, but I probably would go there again, all things considered. The support and midwives during labour were amazing, even though i had a pretty dreadful labour in some ways it was better than many of my friends who had more 'textbook' births because I felt supported and looked after all the way through.

Best advice though is to do your research so you're making an informed choice - which you're clearly doing.

One other thing, give the North Middlesex a big body swerve though - if that's even an option. I'm not going to go into it here, but just suffice to say, don't touch the place with a barge pole.

HTH

db
xx

Hello - more of the same from me, really. I had dd (my first baby) in Homerton in 2007 and would definitely go there again, in fact we're booked in there for no. 2, due in Jan, although we're hoping to move house before the birth so will probably have to switch.

We had a bit of bad luck with our midwives, who were pretty old-fashioned, of the 'shout very loudly at the woman until a baby comes out of her' school of midwifery. However, this really was bad luck - every other midwife we ever met on the delivery wards was wonderful, and many friends have had really great experiences. We did get a room in the mothers' suite for the delivery, and also got to use the pool, and I think this is pretty common.

Postnatal care was fairly appalling, but tbh I think that's also pretty typical of overworked inner-city NHS hospitals. There wasn't a breastfeeding counsellor on shift while I was there (she didn't work weekends, and dd was born on a Saturday), but I hear really good things about them if you do manage to see one. Get your partner to smuggle you in a bacon sarnie from the cafe, would be my best bit of advice!

Actually no, my best bit of advice would be to rely on the La Leche League for breastfeeding counselling in any case - you can phone for help any time, so you don't need to rely on Homerton to sort you out before you go home. It is a good hospital with a a solid reputation, and (for my money) it's certainly the place you'd want to be if anything went wrong, because their SCBU facilities are excellent.

Sorry that was a bit rambling. Go and have a good look round and see how you feel about the place, but even though my experiences were really mixed, I'd still recommend it and use it again myself. Good luck!

Rachael x

urraquel and designerbaby thanks a lot for your feedback...My due date is in 11 weeks time, so its getting closer now...

I am due to see my midwife in 10 days time so will ask her as well about the breastfeeding counsellor as I really want to BF, but know its not an easy process..

Yeah, it's not always easy - but there are other resources other than the one in the maternity ward - when your milk probably won't have come in anyway, and things change while/when it does. Laleche league has already been mentioned, also the NCT - get hold of some resources to have on call. You even get some who will come round to your house for a (usually) very modest fee - i friend of mine did this.

Despite having no help at all in hospital I didn't have any problems, and breastfed exclusively for 6 months, pretty much. It's not the end of thw world if you don't necessarily get much help in hospital, so long as you know where else to go if you need help...

I wouldn't honestly let that put you of Homerton. It's still a good place to actually give birth - and like ourraquel said, definitely tha place to be if there are problems of any kind. I ought also to mention that my consultant(s) were fantastic, all of them. A lot of hospitals would have wheeled me off for a C-section, but my consultants were very supportive of my desire to have as natural a birth as possible despite several hitches and a (very) protracted labour.

Which beats a bit of breastfeeding couselling any day, I reckon - you can get that elsewhere - but you're stuck with your medical staff...

db
xx

everyone i speak to say wonderful things about the delivery suite but awful things about the post-natal ward, which does worry me, for example about the lack of assistance from the nurses. Why is it so difficult for the nurses to just be polite and help people in need out!

I just hope I dont have to stay there for that long, but if i end up having a c-section (which may be the case as I have a low lying placenta) i may not have a choice!

I also have a bit of a phobia of using other loo's

I went through successful IVF at Homerton and they were brilliant, but have decided against giving birth there a) because of the dreadful reputation re postnatal care and b) their appalling cleanliness record. A year or so ago they were rated one of the worst 10 hospitals in the UK (8 of the 10 were in London) and a year later a spot check revealed they hadn't learnt their lesson - they were only taken out of special measures a few months back

I have chosen Whittington on the reputation of their post natal care especially and good midwives generally so we shall see.....they have also just opened a new birthing centre which isonly 2 floors away from the labour wards so nice and close for nervous first timers like myself who want to go natural but aren't sure if we will cope!

As a previous poster has already said - avoid North Mid if it is the last thing you do (or it could well be) it is old, understaffed, dirty, slow and generally grim

I gave birth in 2006 in the Homerton and it was a mixed experience. Difficult birth as midwives didn't realise my baby was presenting face up - ended up being a ventouse delivery with an obstetrician in the 'high tech' end of the delivery suite (just about avoided a C-section) after which they didn't monitor how much blood I lost and three days later I needed blood transfusions. I got the impression there were a a couple of good midwives there but I saw about 7 on a too-fast rotating shift and non seemed brilliant - some seemed inexperienced or unhelpful. It might have all gone ok if it had been a straightforward birth. My baby had to go to the SCBU for 8 days as he had breathing problems and that unit was fabulous and all the staff there were dedicated and impressive. The post labour ward was horribly filthy - as others have described here, and the staff incredibly lazy. Had to kick off such a fuss to get basic care (painkillers on time - so I could hobble off to the SCBU), food or drink (I was seriously weak/anaemic from blood loss but nobody noticed until I complained of chest pains and breathing problems). Just by being assertive and in the end a bit aggressive in order to get basic care I was accused of being overly emotional and they sent a psychiatrist to assess whether I had PND. I didn't see a breast-feeding counsellor and had milk-production problems, so ended up never able to breast-feed. So I cant give a good review of the Homerton unfortunately, but they looked after my baby exceptionally well in the SCBU.

Sabs, since you're obviously in our bit of North London, and want to breastfeed, I thought I'd just put in another plug for postnatal breastfeeding support via La Leche League. I know the NCT is really good too, mind you. But La Leche League have a breastfeeding consultant who you can phone for advice (she saved my life), and a very dedicated local volunteer counsellor who, in my case, came over to my flat and sat with me for two hours to watch me breastfeed my dd and help me with technique. We were having real problems, and it was amazing to have such caring support - none of which they charged for, either. I couldn't praise her (her name is Suzanne Cohen) enough. LLL also have regular meetings at Born on Stoke Newington Church St, where you can go after the baby's born (or before, for that matter), to talk about breastfeeding and baby poo and anything else you like.

As for Homerton, like most women who've had babies there, my feelings are mixed. I would, in all honesty, like to punch the midwife who delivered my daughter - nobody needs a baby shouted out of them - but she wasn't typical, from what I've seen. But there are two other options, if you're still worried. One would be to switch hospitals - it's late in the day to do it, but you still could, and I do hear the Whittington is very good. But perhaps more realistically, and taking into account all the good things about the Homerton too, you could hire a doula? I don't know how much they cost, but the antenatal teacher I had last time also works as a doula, and I would have killed to have her in the delivery room with me!