I'm glad you are switching to a doctor with a warmer bedside manner. I agree that giving birth is an incredibly personal experience and the doctor's personality makes a huge impact on the experience. I think that's why so many people spend time searching for a good doctor on sites like locateadoc.com. It's nice that you can still see your old doctor so that you have a sense of familiarity.

I had my first child with Keith Duncan at the Kensington Wing and have decided to go with Nick Wales for my second. My decision to change consultants was nothing to do with ability/competency, but as some of the other mums have said, bedside manner. This time round I wanted somebody who was a bit more "warm" and not so "clinical" - of course, professionalism and competency are much more important, but when it comes to having a baby, I think it's such a personal matter that personalities do play a role too.

Anyway, the point is Keith is a fantastic consultant, and delivered my daughter under pretty stressful conditions. I'm currently pregnant with my second so can't say what Nick will be like with the delivery, but so far he's been wonderful, and I still see Keith for my scans so I suppose I'm getting the best of both worlds!

I'm disappointed to read the comment about the lady who had a bad experience with the Kensington Wing second time round. Sorry to hear that. My second is due mid-March, and so far, I've had quite a few of the midwives who have been taking my blood recognise me from last time so I hope the care will be as good as I have come to expect and experienced first time round.

I second the vote for Nick Wales. I have had both my children with him and he is friendly, relaxed, and most importantly, an outstanding obstetrician. My second child did end up in intensive care for two weeks after she was born and I was so glad that I had chosen to go for a big teaching hospital as it would have been so stressful having a baby in one hospital and me in another! The Kensington Wing staff were delightful and I saw a lot of them in the last few weeks of my pregnancy due to complications and I ended up having all my post-natal checks with them as well because the baby was not at home with me. Cannot recommend highly enough.

I had an emcs at Chelsea & Westminster under Keith Duncan in July and he did an incredible job under pretty stressful circumstances and I felt safe at all times as he was so calm. We then had a 4 day stay on the Kensington Wing and whilst it wasn't like staying in a 5 star hotel, after my NHS experience with my first baby, it was pretty amazing (but that was more about having my own room & bathroom!). I agree, Mr Duncan's bedside manner could be more comforting and warm, but he is an amazing surgeon.

Like others, I wanted to have my baby in a large NHS teaching hospital with intensive care facilities (we were high risk preg). If we hadn't been high risk, I might've been tempted by the Portland.

I had my daughter at the Portland last winter (Colin Davis was our consultant - perhaps one of the nicest doctors I have ever met and he did a brilliant job) It was generally a great experience. I was not thrilled with the night nurses, who were overly nervous to a point of probably exacerbating some problems we had and made some errors (didn't give me the correct hypertension drugs and my husband had to show them on my chart...). However, the place is lovely and small, and everyone else was wonderful. I ended up in intensive care as did the baby and I didn't for a moment think that both of us weren't being taken care of well. I feel incredibly lucky to have had insurance that covered this. Would I pay for it from my own pocket? Probably, at least to get Davis and the midwives. I'd have my husband stay, though, as before, to provide a check on the night nurses who weren't up to scratch. Yes, we have been very clear about this all with the Portland and I expect they acted on our comments.

oMG what a horrid story... I guess i have only heard good things about Keith duncan as they have been elective c-sections!

The Portland offers amazing care and can deal with all emergencies, to the same level as eg C&W- so don't let folks scare you off for the wrong reasons! We has Claire Mellon who works at the London Clinic and the care she gave us was incredible, along with a devoted mid-wife team!

I went with Con Kelleher and was in the Lansdell Suite at St Thomas' and would recommend both. The great thing about St Thomas' is that if anything does go wrong, you have everything available on site - both an ICU and a neonatal intensive care unit: I had a friend who ended up in a different hospital to her baby and that just added to the stress. One thing I'd say is that if you go with consultant-led care, you have to accept that there might be a slightly higher chance of intervention. My view is that midwives are more likely to take a "wait-and-see" approach, whilst doctors will intervene more readily. The flipside of that is that you may end up being in pain for longer with a "wait-and-see" approach. I was very pleased with consultant-led care and would recommend it, but if you are against intervention, then you may want to opt for a midwife-led delivery.

Re the Lansdell Suite, it is expensive, but it's worth every penny - a private room means you are actually able to sleep at night, plus the midwives are available whenever you need them and are of invaluable help with breastfeeding etc.

My first baby was delivered by emergency c-section at st Thomas, and then I had a vbac at st Thomas' under mr mascarenhas earlier this year. I transferred to private care for last ten weeks of pregnancy, and then delivery etc. He was fantastic, quite matter of fact but knows what he's doing. The lansdell suite is nothing spectacular in itself but the on demand care was exactly what we wanted and, for me, worth every penny. Nothing was too much trouble We ended up paying about 7k I think.
Personally I would go for private care at an nhs teaching hospital with everything there, as opposed to one of the maternity hospitals.
Good luck.

hi there
i have heard great things about the lindo wing too. my sister in law went to the portland and highly recommends carl chow there. i saw mr mascarenhas at st thomases but went nhs in the end as my labour and birth was low risk. overall i think its the consultant that makes the big difference. if you want to have a natural birth this time check this with the consultant and see how supprotive he is of this and this may help you make your decison. best of luck with your pregnancy and the delivery!

I looked at St Thomas's private wing, Lansdell Suite, and it would have cost about 10k for a natural delivery. In the end I used the caseload midwives and they were incredible. All ante natal appointments are at your home, you are assigned to 2 midwives and one of those will be present at your birth, they come to your home when you are in labour to check how far along you are (preventing a wasted trip to the hospital) and stay with you throughout your labour and delivery. I had my baby on the home from home centre and the rooms were better than the private rooms (no medical equipment - midwife led and you can only be there if you have no pain relief other than gas and air). My room overlooked big parliament and I timed my contractions on big ben! And best of all, it's free! I'm using them again for my current pregnancy and cannot praise them enough.

Good luck with whatever you choose

We also went to the C&W Kensington wing. Our consultant was Nick Wales, who I can strongly recommend - he always made us feel relaxed and it was easy to get appointments that fitted in with my work. Our son was actually delivered by Roger Marwood who didn't have the same personality as Nick but that was more than made up for by his skills (people told me afterwards how lucky we'd been to get him in Nick's absence given his forceps and stitching abilities!)

Also had the same problem re: post-birth meds, but the room was large and comfortable and we were pleased with the security on the wing.

Good luck with your choice...

Hmmm I'm not delighted to hear this about the Kensington Wing at C&W, I had my daughter there in 2009 and it was fine-we're planning #2 and were planning on going back there... Hmmm.

If you are concerend about the portland i would go to the LIndo wing at st marys over C&W... i have about 5 friends who had babies there and all of them had at least one complaint!!

I have had 2 babies at the Kensington Wing in the C&W. Both under Keith Duncan (who is, in my opinion, not exactly a charmer, but is a brilliant obstetrician). First baby in Apr 2010, second a month ago, both by cs so I was in there for 3 days with each. I would not recommend the C&W, I found that, since my last birth, the levels of midwifery care on the wing had dropped dramatically. There appeared to be a lot of temp staff on when I was there, most of whom were not allowed to collect and administer the drugs I had been prescribed for the pain post cs. As a result I would regularly have to stagger out to the midwives desk to ask for pain relief, often an hour or so after the medication was due carrying my catheter bag! Requests were often ignored and forgotten. This was not what I paid c.6k for and I might have well saved the cash and been on an NHS ward. It was really hit and miss with which midwife you got each shift and it would have been nice if they had come to introduce themselves each shift change. I would definitely use Keith again but I would not go back to the C&W privately as it seemed to be very chaotic and understaffed this second time around.