Chelsea and Westminster Maternity Post Reply

[DietCokefan]

or have a look at University College Hospital.  

[lemondrizzles]

Hi there,
Looks like your three nearest are these:

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

Not sure if this helps

[Towel1967]

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.

[Towel1967]

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.

[ExperienceofCW]

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.

[Newmumtotwo]

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