Anyone got any info about the new Birthing Unit at Lewisham Hospital?

[lizardqueenie]

Hello all

V much in my early stages of pregnancy and waiting to be have my first MW appointment which will be with Princess Royal Hospital Bromley (used to be Farnborough).

I know that there is a new birthing Unit opening at Lewisham hospital in the Spring so just wondered if anyone has been referred there yet or if there are likely to be transferred there? Haven't heard many good things about the PRU and think a birthing unit would suit me a bit better.

Thanks

Hi, I live in Lewisham and also in early pregnancy, 9 weeks. I have my first appointment with my midwife and Tuesday (lewisham midwife) and I am going to ask lots of questions about the birth centre so I can feedback then. All I know is that it is actually in the hospital, has five en-suite birthing rooms and three have fixed water pools. I want to know how many midwifes will work per shift and if they are shared with the labour ward on the actual shift. I am hoping because it will be all brand new and new excited staff that it could be a good option...But then the hospital has a bad reputation so if you need to get transferred .... I have emailed them to ask for a tour once its open so hopefully that will be something they will offer to all local pregnant women.

Good luck and congratulations on your pregnancy!

Hi BrockleyD

Congratulations to you too! Thanks for coming back to me. I live in Bromley so I think the choice is either Princess Royal or Queen Marys at Sidcup neither of which I've heard good things about and so far have only been given option of PRU. Would really like to give birth in a birth centre but wonder if I would be able to transfer over - from what I have seen on here people just say that you make the request with your GP.

Exactly like you I am thinking it will be all nice and new (and clean hopefully!)

Good luck with your appointment & it would be great to hear what they say.

I can't tell you anything about the birthing unit but I am really really pleased to hear that it is up and running.

Not so long ago (Aug 08) Lewisham had it's knuckles rapped by the Royal College of Midwives. A very serious complaint on the treatment of a woman requesting a home birth made it's way all the way to the RCM. Lewisham was told to pay for an Indy midwife for the rest of the woman's pregnancy, to pay for the same for every woman who requested a homebirth till they had a HB team set up and trained. They were given till January 09 to get their house in order.

It sounds like the MLU is a result of this situation.

I would say guess that they would be keen to provide a good service, or else.

Good luck to both of you and I hope you get the births you wish.

Thanks foxy good to know this inside knowledge.

"They were given till January 09 to get their house in order. "

I had a screaming toddler last night but here I meant - to have a home birth team set up and trained. Maybe they have found the funding to put in the MLU too. It is amazing how they can find the money when pressure is applied in the right way.

Ah i see, thanks for that. Still no letter in the post today to say when I have got my first MW appointment :-( - fingers crossed it will come at the end of this week.

Brockley - is this your first pregnancy too?

Yes it is my first, hence the huge amount of research I am doing at the moment. Also just to let you know my friend had a home birth in January this year with Lewisham and it went really well, she could not have been happier so things are changing. Although somebody else I spoke to said their lewisham midwife tried to put them off a home birth but now is encouraging her to go ahead so mixed signals from where I stand.

Good luck.

I'm in Lewisham too and asked my midwife about the MLU at my appointment this morning. It sounds as though it is due to open in mid-April and she was pretty enthusiastic about it. She said that uncomplicated pregnancies would automatically be referred when turning up in labour although I imagine you could opt for the main ward if you wanted to at that point.

This is my second and I had my first in the main unit at Lewisham three years ago. I found the midwives on the ward to be very abrupt and unsupportive so hope that has changed since then. Generally the community midwives seem a lot nicer so I don't know whether the unit will be staffed by them or by the ward midwives.

The midwives I've seen have also been fairly encouraging of home births although I've decided against that (mostly on the basis that the MLU sounds like a good compromise).

Bluejay thanks for that & pleased to hear that it sounds like this experience is going to be better than your first one 3 years ago.

Brockley yes sounds like they may have had to change their tune a bit. All for the better!

I wonder if it is possible to transfer across from PRU?

I heard that the centre is opening on 7th April. I emailed the midwife contact and said I was interested but had heard negative things about Lewisham. She sent me a lovely response (after a week or two!) and encouraged me to come and speak to them. I'm planning on going to have a look in April as I'm with Kings and was quite shocked at how dated and clinical their labour ward was so really keen to transfer to a birthing centre if it looks as good as it sounds.

Some other mums to be I have met through antenatal yoga have had more positive things to report about their experiences at Lewisham so far so feeling more reassured. Good luck deciding!

Hi Flex - oooh that is a positive response! I've emailed them too, but only yesterday so will wait to see what they say when they get back to me.

Good luck with your pregnancy!

If they have been forced to get a home birth team set up then they probably hired new midwives, I would suppose the MWs who got the job were keen to do home births?

I would suggest asking your case midwife about how the MLU is staffed. Some MLUs are staffed by the same midwives and would not work on the ordinary ward at all. Some I imagine have shifts onto a ward. But I don't know. Ask what happens if you decided to transfer from the MLU to the ward. Does the MW come with you from the MLU and stay with you or do you change midwives. This is an important q. imo.

Ask if birth partners can stay after normal visiting hours. In an MLU I think it should be a yes, but, I would ask to be on the safe side.

Also ask what scenarios would they suggest a woman transfer for. From what I have read, the main reasons women transfer from home births is not because of medical complications but for pain relief. So that is all good news as the need for pain relief lessens when a woman labours in a environment where she feels mentally secure and familiar with.

Recently saw job adverts for MW's for the new Birth Unit so yes I thought that they had recruited a new team.

We had our first antenatal class at Lewisham Hospital yesterday and the midwife running it said that the centre is due to open on the 7th of April. She is hoping to give us a tour on the 6th of April if all on schedule and to show what the MLU has to offer.

I spoke to my midwife last week about the new centre and she thought it was going to open in early May. She answered some of my questions about how the centre would be run.

1)Whether DP can stay throughout and not be asked to leave - answer yes and there will be beds unlike previous information received from another midwife who said there were no beds.
2)Discharge time - 6 hours.
3)Pain relief, gas and air only AND it's pumped in through the walls = unlimited amount Unlike the 1 hour capacity per cannister during home birth.

We are still hoping for a home birth because I do not want to go into the hospital but am coming round to the idea of the MLU. It seems to be a compromise between getting a 'home birth experience' whilst having the reassurance that we can be transferred upstairs in an emergency situation. Or if I can't cope with the pain and need stronger pain relief.

Hello Mumabee & congratulations

Thats really useful thank you. Yes thats exactly what I like about the idea of an MLU, a bit more homey but right next to the hospital if you need it. Like the sounds of the pumped in gas & air too!

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

Thank you lizardqueenie and Congratulations to you too.

I'll post about MLU when we have the tour.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and safe pregnancy!

I am there on Monday for my antenatal, so I'll let you know. I heard great things about it from a friend who had done some corporate work there, so I took the plunge and had my GP transfer me there from Queen Elizabeth's. Hope it was the right decision!

Hi Emma - how did your antenatal go?

Just marking this thread with interest as I'm in Lewisham and due at the beginning of September. I had DD1 in 2005 and she was a homebirth (though ended up transferring to Lewisham at the very end because of meconium in my waters) so they have had a homebirth team for a while.

I had DD2 at home and it was brilliant. All my midwives have been brilliant from Lewisham. There were 4 teams iirc, so it was pot luck who was on call on the day, but they did arrange a meeting so we could meet as many as possible.

I guess I've been lucky in that both births were straighforward, drug-free labours. Even when I ended up in Lewisham with DD1 it was the same midwives who were with me, and the birth was fine. And I was never remotely discouraged from homebirths either time - in fact most of the midwives I've met have really enjoyed doing them!

However, the ward I ended up on was horrendous at Lewisham which is why I would definitely choose a homebirth again! There was blood all over the bathroom (shared between 6 women) and the people working on the ward were brusque, unsmiling, unsympathetic and in some cases downright rude. I couldn't wait to get out of there. the other new mums didn't help either with their mobile phones, arguing with partners etc.

So if you used the birthing centre would you then have to go to a ward or would you actually be discharged from the centre?

Sorry for rambling on. I can only praise the midwives on the homebirth teams in Lewisham, but I wasn't keen on the postnatal experience. However, better the devil you know and all that. But packing some Flash wipes and flip flops this time just in case!

Its great to hear so many other people are based in Lewisham and thinking of having a MLU birth or home birth. Lets keep each other informed about any new information we hear about it. I spoke to my midwife and she said all midwives will be fully trained in waterbirths and it would be very unlikely that it won't be possible to have a waterbirth (which is very important to me!). It would be wonderful to hear some stories after some of you actually give birth there, lets hope it doesn't involve making a trip to labour ward!

So, the new birthing centre is actually inside the hospital and is due to open in April. I popped my head in and had a sneaky look round and, although it's nowhere near ready yet, it looks lovely! Has a whole corridor of private, ensuite rooms and looks all sparkling and new at the moment.

Thanks lizardqueenie - antenatal when very well. The midwives were lovely and we all ended up in a fit of giggles as people kept walking in just as she was trying to explain about vaginal discharge!

Bumping this thread.

I'm newly pregnant with dc2, had dc1 at St Thomas' which was great but they won't take me this time. Had the choice of Lewisham or QE and chose Lewisham because it's easier to get to.

I'd love to know more about the MLU if anyone has any more info?

TIA and congrats on your pregnancies.

Hi,

I posted earlier on this thread as we were attending antenatal classes at Lewisham. The MLU tour did not take place on April 6th because it is not ready, the midwife said that they are still recruiting staff and it will be open May 6th (hopefully)

I have asked my usual midwife about it and she said they are going to have a strict criteria for the MLU and will be asked to put qualifying patients forward. And no, they do not yet know what the criteria will be but hoped to have more information towards the end of April, which is cutting it fine as I'm due early May.

Congratulations to all and hope we get some concrete information soon.

Thanks for that mumabee. Fingers crossed it will be open in time for you.

Just wanted to add this link for anyone else thinking of going to Lewisham. It's info about how to contact the midwives directly without going through your GP. HTH