which hospital?

[Monty]

What criteria do you use when chosing a hospital? My sister is pregnant and asked me this question. To be honest, it was never really a question for me; there's only one in the area and everyone from around here just goes there. My sister lives in North London and has the choice of three. Has anyone else been in this situation and how did you decide which one to go for?

I had a choice of two and asked which one they would prefer to send me to. I think it was the right question as they did have a preference because most of the midwives had closer links to one of the two hospitals. I found out from my post-natal group that those who had been to the other hospital had all had their babies dilivered by midwives they didn't know whereas those who had been to the preferred hospital some had known the midwife.

I was living in N.London when I was pregnant and I phoned up the hosps and asked for any bumf they had. Also she could make an appt to visit on a tour date for mums to be and see which one she likes the most. I have to say that I have heard that the Whittington is v.good.

IMO it depends on the type of birth your sister wants. I'm in N London and could have chosen the Whittington or the Royal Free. I chose the Whittington because I thought the care in labour would be more midwife driven (as opposed to Dr driven)as it is not a major teaching hospital. I think its cs rates are lower than the Royal Free. You can do a tour at both and I would really recommend this as a good way of getting a feel for the care you'll get.
There have been other discussions about the Whittington on mumsnet - you could do a search to find them, but broadly my experience was that the care was wonderful but the wards are awful. Luckily I didn't have to spend much time on the wards.
I recently had my second, again at the Whittington.
HTH

You might want to check (using Doctor Foster ) how many births per midwife per year each unit has. I think there is a cut-off point (maybe Mears or Leese can confirm!) of about 30, over which it suggests that the unit is struggling at busy times to provide optimum coverage for its clients. There is much more to it than that, of course...we have chosen the local hospital whose figures do suggest overworked midwives - rather than the one which is less overrun - because the former has a good reputation locally, a brilliant Head of Midwifery Services, decent consultants, a "can-do" approach to VBAC, and a proper birthing pool. The latter is thought to be a bit of a second-rate, bare minimum sort of place in comparison. Nothing "wrong" with it, just less midwife-led and less client-centred.
I think Dr Foster also provides data on whether there is an anaesthetist available 24/7 to do epidurals - not a problem in urban hospitals, I'd have thought - c-section rates, etc etc. It's quite a useful website for basic quantitative data.
Visiting, and asking the midwives themselves, is also well worthwhile. I also asked the local NCT branch and their views were unanimous, no matter what kind of birth you were likely to expect/want.
I've heard the staff at the Whittington are fab too, also that the postnatal wards are grim.

Ask around. Find out what kinds of experiences people have had at each. Weigh those personal experiences in with the statistics.

You don't have to go to the hospital 'in your area'. I wanted to go to a different hospital (EGA/UCH) and asked my GP to refer me there. It helps if you have a reason (1st time I said it was because my gyne worked there, 2nd time because no1 had been born there). For me the main criteria - apart from wanting to be under my gyne's care - were availability of birthing pool together with not having to be moved if I or the baby needed high-tech care, and the attitude of the staff. I'm not certain it matters all that much whether you know your m/w when you deliver; I'd much rather have continuity of care during the pregnancy, and an open-minded m/wifery team during the birth. I have really felt cared-for and listened to and well-looked-after just about every time I have attended EGA/UCH (apart, ironically, from one m/w when no1 was born, but I still returned for no2's birth).

It might be important to your sister to know things like intervention rates, c-section rates, b-feeding at discharge rates, births per midwife per year, etc, but it's important to view such things in context - eg EGA/UCH has relatively high rates for certain interventions, but that is because complicated pregnancies/births are refered there nationally, so only a minority of births are uncomplicated.

EGA/UCH - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson at University College Hospital