Chelsea and Westminster Maternity Post Reply

[Roxanaflo]

Hello moms,

I just moved to London being 30 weeks pregnant and I need to choose a maternity to give birth asap. I really wanted to go to St Thomas as a few friends recommended but their experiences were before covid times. Now reading all the reviews on nhs about St Thomas maternity I’m not sure I want to give birth there anymorew, it seems too busy or overwhelmed with births and facing a staff shortage so I came across Chelsea and Westminster maternity but I can’t find any reviews from 2021.
If anyone had any experience with maternity unit here please share so I can be a bit more assured that this is a good decision for me and my baby. Also please let me know if your partner was able to be in the room with you while giving birth.

Thanks a lot

[dizzylizzie]

Hi, Congratulations on your pregnancy.  I have had three babies now all at Chelsea and Westminster hospital and would recommend them.  There's also a nice bagel shop opposite!
If you are  'out of borough' i.e your postcode is not within their immediate catchment and 'low risk' pregnancy I believe you can be under the SunFlower team which are a team of midwives that come to your house (you don't need to have a home birth) and they are all amazing.  Very good for continuity of care.  With regards to whether partners are allowed in, it all depends on their current guidelines.  My husband was allowed in but had to leave once I had gone to the postnatal ward.  It's best to check with them when you register.  Hope this helps -pM me if you want to ask anything further.
This is the website to register, so I'd recommend doing this then following up with a call during normal working hours on monday.  https://www.chelwest.nhs.uk/services/ma ... fer-online

x

[Roxanaflo]

Hi Lizzie,

Thanks for your reply and sharing your experience
I tried the self-reference but they didn’t accept me as I don’t live in the area, but in Canary Wharf. I’m very disheartened now because they have the best rate in nhs website and I’ve heard only good things about the maternity. Now I don’t know what to choose and I’m afraid of another refusal

[Expatacular]

I had my baby there in 2018. It was a completely fine experience but I'm not sure it was that different than friends who had babies elsewhere (including St George's, St Thomas's, etc. It was the closest hospital to us which is why we chose it. I'm not sure it's worth schlepping from Canary Wharf to give birth at C+W.

[piper_halliwell]

My boss told me she was given a few options for her delivery and St. Mary’s (the hospital where the royal children were born, I mean) was one of them. They live in Greenwich. Have you tried that one? I don’t have experience of it, just a suggestion…

[lala82]

Hi there

I had my baby there in September 2020, so in the middle of Coverd, and it was horrendous.

I very rarely post a bit thought I would take the time just because I feel so strongly about it. The staff were lazy or inept, with a few rare exceptions, I was lied to at several points in the labour process, and although I got the labour that I actually wanted, was so horribly mismanaged both my husband and I were quite traumatised for some time afterwards. They are just simply too busy to look after people properly, and in my view it’s highly negligent. I think we were lucky that something didn’t go wrong, and I have two friends who had their babies there 2018 before covid and they said the exact same thing. Both of them will now only have planned Caesareans because of their experience at C&W.

I don’t have a good recommendation for you but I would say go somewhere that is quiet.

[lala82]

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.

[southoak16]

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.

[dizzylizzie]

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

[Melwatk]

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!

[Doodle25]

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.

[stickystick2]

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.

[TwiceatTommys]

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

[DietCokefan]

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!

[DietCokefan]

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