I feel so so sorry for you, Towel1967. It sounds like you had an absolutely awful experience, it must have been very traumatic for both you and your partner!

I also gave birth at CW two months ago and had a completely different experience which I would like to share to calm others that might plan to give birth at CW.

I gave birth at the birth centre and all the midwives we met were caring, kind and knowledgeable. My labour took a while to kick off and we were in and out of the hospital a few times during a period of four days. After the first visit if felt like we were “passed on” to the different shifts because everyone know who I was and our “story” when we called or when we came in (for example - they know I wanted a water birth and had prepared the pool every time we got in). We also got the same room every time. My labour was quite quick when it finally started and there was one to three midwives in the room the whole time. Afterwards we were able to stay in the same room (just me, my partner and little one) until midday the next day (so around 24h). During this time we were give much privacy but the midwives came in now and then to check on us and offer us toast and tea. If we needed anything we just had to pop outside the room where there always was at least one midwife available. The birth centre was very quiet and calm and to be honest the environment felt somewhat like a spa. I know that we probably were extremely lucky to give birth at a time with few other patients and more relaxed midwives (compared to the previous post or other people I know that gave birth at the same time) but I just wanted to share this in case anyone is feeling nervous about giving birth at CW. It is possible to have a great experience there as well! Xx

Hi Towel1967, I’m so sorry for your experience. I too gave birth at C&W and must admit I am not wholly surprised as I I also refused induction and had a similar response. For others reading this induction is 100% a choice & some midwives forget this. For those looking for other London hospitals though I would imagine they are the same - continuity of care is only something I am aware is offered to SW11 residents as there is not enough funding.

It doesn’t excuse your experience however. There is a huge variety of midwives there - some incredibly talented and others under qualified with many just overworked & stressed.

I would urge you to send this as a complaint to C&W - they should take it seriously and hopefully your experience will protect some other mothers in the future. Only through these real life accounts may they get better funding.

Having a healthy baby is great but not the only thing and your experience impacts it too - I’d recommend reading ‘Birth like a feminist’ by Milli Hill to anyone wishing to empower themselves.

I had a horrible experience at Chelsea and Westminster. I gave birth 2 months ago to my first child.
My main regret is the staff that was dealing with me in this entire birthing experience.

1) The lack of continuity throughout my entire pregnancy, the fact that I was always dealing with another person, leading up to the big day.
The fact that I had no idea whatsoever who I would deal with and have around me during labour.

2) I had a low risk no complications pregnancy until my blood pressure went up slightly at 39 weeks. I casually called the hospital to share the numbers of my blood pressure and a woman told me to come in immediately, that my baby had to be induced the same day. When I said that I didn't want that, she called me irresponsible and said that it was super dangerous for my baby in a really rough way.
That phonecall made my pressure spike up and I had to be induced.
I am convinced that it could have been avoided, if that woman would have reacted a different way.
Apparently, they encourage induction because it's beneficial to the hospital and costs them less money.

3) I only had one midwife with me during labour, and was very unlucky that it had to be her. She seemed extremely inexperienced, didn't know how to handle anything, from the hospital bed to the monitor, you name it. She seemed extremely bored and unfriendly, kept yawning and looking at her watch while I was pushing. Since it was my first child, having no-one to support me emotionally, encourage me, guide me, was extremely painful. I asked her, begged her a few times to tell me what to do, when to push, she never did. The fact that she was so unhelpful made the pushing last for hours and hours and I am still recovering from that, having difficulties walking, bending and so forth. A doctor came in for two minutes and helped me a bit and during that time, the labour progressed considerably. I am convinced that if I would have been in good hands, I could have had an unassisted birth. Since the pushing didn't progress, after I think 11 hours, they had to use the ventouse. The roughness resulted in my little one having a tight jaw and other issues with breastfeeding later on.

Then, right after birth, they left me and my husband completely alone in the room. I was very sick, shivering and nauseous and had to hand the baby to my husband, who wasn't sure how to hold him.
No one was taking care of my baby or myself. Meanwhile I was throwing up on myself and in the bed , because there was no one there to hand me a bucket and  change the robe and sheets that were covered in blood. My husband couldn't help me, as he was holding our naked and shivering baby.
They left us helpless like that and completely alone right after birth, for what seemed to be an eternity.
I could not do skin to skin as I was so sick and had to tell my husband to urgently take the baby, as I could have dropped him, being so sick and almost unconscious.
A doctor came in briefly after a while, I begged him to give me another midwife but he refused.
She didn't help me breastfeed or showed me anything even though I asked her desperately to help.
She told me I had the wrong size for his clothes, which made me panic (I got newborn), and that was totally false as he used them for the next few weeks onwards.
They gave my baby formula through a bottle when he was only 2 hours, since I had been sick. I saw my husband cry for the first time seeing me like that.
He had to carry me to the bathroom, help me pee and change my bloody pad, when that should have been the staff.
Then they kept me for one week in the hospital, kept pricking my baby with needles because he couldn't breastfeed and was underweight and different midwives came in and out, each one with another opinion about what I should do. They told me to wake him up constantly, strip him, and force him to feed for hours on end. They said they would come back to see how I was doing, which forced me to stay awake, but they never did on multiple occasions. That was extremely violent for him and myself and made me want to quit breastfeeding.
He had such a hard time because they gave him the bottle in the beginning and the rough delivery.

Part of me thinks all of this could have been avoided so easily if I was in the proper hands, it would have made a world of difference. Another part of me thinks that all that matters is that my baby is healthy and happy and you can't control life, there is no point holding on to bad experiences.

I had a horrible experience at Chelsea and Westminster. I gave birth 2 months ago to my first child.
My main regret is the staff that was dealing with me in this entire birthing experience.

1) The lack of continuity throughout my entire pregnancy, the fact that I was always dealing with another person, leading up to the big day.
The fact that I had no idea whatsoever who I would deal with and have around me during labour.

2) I had a low risk no complications pregnancy until my blood pressure went up slightly at 39 weeks. I casually called the hospital to share the numbers of my blood pressure and a woman told me to come in immediately, that my baby had to be induced the same day. When I said that I didn't want that, she called me irresponsible and said that it was super dangerous for my baby in a really rough way.
That phonecall made my pressure spike up and I had to be induced.
I am convinced that it could have been avoided, if that woman would have reacted a different way.
Apparently, they encourage induction because it's beneficial to the hospital and costs them less money.

3) I only had one midwife with me during labour, and was very unlucky that it had to be her. She seemed extremely inexperienced, didn't know how to handle anything, from the hospital bed to the monitor, you name it. She seemed extremely bored and unfriendly, kept yawning and looking at her watch while I was pushing. Since it was my first child, having no-one to support me emotionally, encourage me, guide me, was extremely painful. I asked her, begged her a few times to tell me what to do, when to push, she never did. The fact that she was so unhelpful made the pushing last for hours and hours and I am still recovering from that, having difficulties walking, bending and so forth. A doctor came in for two minutes and helped me a bit and during that time, the labour progressed considerably. I am convinced that if I would have been in good hands, I could have had an unassisted birth. Since the pushing didn't progress, after I think 11 hours, they had to use the ventouse. The roughness resulted in my little one having a tight jaw and other issues with breastfeeding later on.

Then, right after birth, they left me and my husband completely alone in the room. I was very sick, shivering and nauseous and had to hand the baby to my husband, who wasn't sure how to hold him.
No one was taking care of my baby or myself. Meanwhile I was throwing up on myself and in the bed , because there was no one there to hand me a bucket and  change the robe and sheets that were covered in blood. My husband couldn't help me, as he was holding our naked and shivering baby.
They left us helpless like that and completely alone right after birth, for what seemed to be an eternity.
I could not do skin to skin as I was so sick and had to tell my husband to urgently take the baby, as I could have dropped him, being so sick and almost unconscious.
A doctor came in briefly after a while, I begged him to give me another midwife but he refused.
She didn't help me breastfeed or showed me anything even though I asked her desperately to help.
She told me I had the wrong size for his clothes, which made me panic (I got newborn), and that was totally false as he used them for the next few weeks onwards.
They gave my baby formula through a bottle when he was only 2 hours, since I had been sick. I saw my husband cry for the first time seeing me like that.
He had to carry me to the bathroom, help me pee and change my bloody pad, when that should have been the staff.
Then they kept me for one week in the hospital, kept pricking my baby with needles because he couldn't breastfeed and was underweight and different midwives came in and out, each one with another opinion about what I should do. They told me to wake him up constantly, strip him, and force him to feed for hours on end. They said they would come back to see how I was doing, which forced me to stay awake, but they never did on multiple occasions. That was extremely violent for him and myself and made me want to quit breastfeeding.
He had such a hard time because they gave him the bottle in the beginning and the rough delivery.

Part of me thinks all of this could have been avoided so easily if I was in the proper hands, it would have made a world of difference. Another part of me thinks that all that matters is that my baby is healthy and happy and you can't control life, there is no point holding on to bad experiences.

Hi there,
Looks like your three nearest are these:

https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/other ... istance=25#

Not sure if this helps

or have a look at University College Hospital.  

also, definitely have a look at The Royal London, much closer to you and a relatively new unit (building-wise).

Hello,
I had my first at St Thomas', and had worked there previously, not in maternity.  The service is very good.  It is busy and, for example, didn't want labouring mums to come in until contractions were quite close together.  From Canary Wharf, St Thomas' is a lot easier to access than C&W.  Your own actual birth experience may depend partly on how busy the unit is the day you are admitted, which is obviously out of your control.  You also don't know beforehand what kind of birth you will have, but both those units will offer the full range of interventions, if required.  
Best of luck!

I believe that both C&W and Tommy’s have private wards if you can afford to pay (bear in mind the travel time though!)

Had our first at Tommy’s in 2015 - antenatal care was atrocious but birth and postnatal care was excellent.

Had our second at Tommy’s in 2017 - antenatal care was great and birth and post-natal care was horrendous. I got contacted by the CQC a year later as the maternity ward was being investigated following a large number of complaints... this may mean that things have improved since...

Having had to have both deliveries be c-sections, would recommend trying to find somewhere that you can pay to get a private room for recovery. Friends outside of London said they got this for £100/night. After spending the first post-natal recovery period on a noisy ward with four families per room, we were prepared to pay the £1k/night that Tommy’s charged for access to their private rooms, but the hospital was full and if they are filled with private patients it isn’t available. So something to consider when you’re checking out hospitals.

Having said all this, please remember that every hospital in London delivers thousands of babies happily and healthily every year. People have such mixed experiences of every hospital (and sometimes the same hospital). Agree with other comments of finding something close to home and keep an open mind as births rarely go according to plan (have a friend whose husband delivered their baby at home on the sofa he arrived so quickly!)

You and baby will be fine, wherever you end up <3

Their rules about partners not staying past 8pm sound extremely sensible, I wish our hospital had had that rule. Women need sleep and privacy in the wards.

To be honest, even pre-covid most partners will leave at night if the induction has just begun because on the open wards there is no where for them to stay. They can only stay overnight once you’re in active labour. The same is true post partum. The only way around this is to get a private room- c&w do have that option so it’s an added plus.
I had 3 of 4 children at c&w- 1 on the nhs and 2 privately. Compared to St Thomas (where I had my first) it was bliss- much quieter, more attention, etc. The midwives seemed knowledgable and polite. We had some issues with the birth of the last one and the midwives not being very attentive but it was swiftly resolved.
One thing to think about, although no one really wants to- is that if your baby needs to stay in hospital for a bit after it’s born then you don’t want to be stuck miles away from home. Our son was there for a month and being close to home was a life-saviour.

Hi,

Lola’s post is quite scary...

What are the key questions one should ask to really understand what they are signing up to?

Is there a way to avoid being left alone at night if induced?

Thank you!

Sorry I hadn’t realised you weren’t local to battersea. I would choose a hospital local to
you. What about Barts?
I don’t know if you are familiar with the NHS, but as u can see from posts above, it really depends on how busy they are on the day/staffing etc. I wouldn’t recommend one hospital above another. But I would recommend getting booked in if you are 30 weeks! Best of luck with it all xx

I had a baby at the C&W last month and it was excellent. I couldn’t fault the excellent care from the midwives and wider team, and the facilities in the birthing suite were excellent.

My first was born under St Thomas’s who were also good but I have heard the same about staff shortages, home from home centre being intermittently closed etc from friends who gave birth there in recent months.

Sorry just to add

Partners allowed in and you’ll see this however there are nuances that do impact you

if you are induced they can’t stay after 8pm so if you are in labour overnight you are by yourself on an open ward in early labour ( unless they let you go home, however they will let you go home with certain types of inducements and at certain weeks)

When you first go in to be checked they won’t let partners in - then you’ll have a choice to stay in the open ward or go home if you’re in early labour, and if it’s after 8 pm again you’ll be in early labour by yourself

They can’t stay once you’ve had the baby past 8 so after labour you’ll need to look after your baby alone

All but the last one made clear to us, and the last item is the case for most hospitals. The rest really are worth thinking about because as I said this was not something that was made clear to us even though I asked repeatedly several different people, there seems to be a very weak understanding of the rules or they just didn’t want to be clear, and obviously this does have a very material impact on your labour experience.