Recent experience of Kings or St Thomas Maternity Services

[EDAus]

Posting for a friend who is trying to decide between Kings College and St Thomas for the birth of her baby in November. Any feedback would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance EDF.

[Jules-and-Boo]

Kings - good.

St Thomas - bad.

[nixlo]

I've had a baby in both as we moved house inbetween and to be honest I think it is pretty variable depending on the staffing levels and which midwife you get on the day. Personally I would go with whichever is closest! Also - if she lives in SE london it is worth seeing if she can get on the books for one of the caseload midwife teams as they're brilliant.

[motorbird83]

Congrats to your friend!

I am currently pregnant with my first and I've chosen St Thomas for three reasons:

1.) It's maternity unit was better ranked by Quality Care Commission. Since I made my choice I think a new report has been released so I don't know if that's still the case.

2.) I have a couple of friends that work / used to work as medics in neonatal care in London (but are not obstetricians). They both said, if they had the choice within London, they'd give birth at St Thomas. One of the women actually worked at St Thomas before moving out of London and now works in a different hospital.

3.) I have two friends who recently both gave birth at Kings and were very unhappy with their birth experiences (though I think this is the exception rather than the rule).

I am about half way through my pregnancy and so far I can't fault the antenatal care I've received from St Thomas. I'm on mumsnet and compared with some women elsewhere in the country, I can say that the level of care, services available, speed of referrals, appointment booking etc seems to be in the upper end of what the NHS offer.

For instance, I had some hip pain and was immediately referred for physiotherapy by my midwife and seen within a couple of weeks. Also, if there are any issues with your 12 week down syndrome screening, St Thomas is one of the few trusts in the country that offers non-invasive prenatal testing (like Harmony) as an alternative to the CVS or amniocentesis.

With that said, I've had to be seen at Kings Early Pregnancy Unit for an emergency scan before my care began with St Thomas and I was happy (some of the staff were a bit rude and unhelpful but my care itself was good).

I obviously haven't given birth but as nixlo said, so much of that experience is down to staffing shortages that may exist on the day (which is an issue for all NHS hospitals). For that reason, we are considering paying just for a private birth and doing all the antenatal care on the NHS which is only an option at St. Thomas (if its financially feasible). Another option is a having a Douala if your friend has a lot of anxiety around being well supported during her birth.

[carebear]

I had my first in St Thomas's because I lived in London Bridge and then had no 2 after we'd moved to ED and chose to have him there again even though Kings was my default and closer hospital. There were a variety reasons for that but the main one was that I was anticipating a c-section and they're pretty renowned for that side of things.

In all honesty I think you will hear horror stories from both sides and you'll hear good things from both sides and to a certain extent your friend will need to trust her instinct. I do think that St Thomas's might be worth more attention if your friend has any reason to think that she'd be more inclined or likely to have a medical (vs 'natural') birth. Equally, if she lives in the area and has any reason to think she's likely to have a quick labour, that would be an argument for Kings.

My whole NCT group had their babies at St Thomas's and I also have several friends who had their babies at Kings. In all cases the birth was fine and in many (including my own on the first occasion) the post natal experience was not positive. My feeling is that that is the case in most hospitals.

Please feel free to pm me if you have any questions that I might be able to help with.

I'm sure there are pros and cons of both but you can get a lovely view at St T's!

[Liv76]

HI there

I truly hope this will never be the case but if the baby needs neonatal care St Thomas' are by far better than King's. Perhaps less due to the quality of consultants but more to do with general management and nurse hiring. My child spent 8 weeks at the NICU in between both hospitals and we had better service at St Thomas'. Also, they have the Evelina Hospital, which is amazing.

Hope this helps

[sylviah]

Hi there. I had a baby at King's in the spring and I have mixed feelings.

Antenatal care - Not that impressed by the team I had at Midwives' House, which is in a dinky old clinic. Some of the staff there were rude. The scans however are done in a spanking new building and the staff I saw were lovely.

Labour Ward - Pretty full up when I went. I think it definitely depends on the individuals you get. I had an extremely inexperienced midwife and due to her incompetence I had a longer labour than expected. The midwife who came in the next shift however had 30 years' experience and we would be grateful to her forever. I had an epidural and had to wait an hour or so for the anaesthetist to arrive. When he did come he was lovely.

The main problem seemed to be that they were so short staffed that we were left to our own devices post-birth. The teams rushed in to stop my bleeding then all rushed off once I was stable to attend to other patients. No one told us to feed the newborn or taught us how until hours later! I overheard the midwives in the NICU complaining about the same, that staff in the labour ward feel their job is done once baby is out.

NICU - We were there 5 days. The midwives and doctors were mostly kind and caring but again, there were a couple individuals who I was not impressed with. The facilities were better than I expected. The hot meals were actually tasty!

[EDAus]

Thank you so much everyone for the feedback my friend has really appreciated it.

[EQ]

I had my antenatal care with kings up until 36 weeks when I found out my baby was breech. Couldn't really fault the antenatal care at kings. They're busy but thorough.

As he was breech, I qualified for c section which my private medical covered. Kings doesn't do private maternity but st Thomas does. Had the best experience with the Westminster suite, one too one care and the midwives help you to breast feed everytime the baby has a feed.

I know that if you do nhs for the care, if the rooms are available on the day of birth you can pay a bit extra and have a private room up there. Also st Thomas has top consultants that work for the Westminster suite, portland hospital and do nhs aswell (but dont get to choose). I guess if you don't go down the private route, your friend could get lucky in the nhs draw and still be seen by one of these consultants. I've been told also that if you have twins on nhs at st Thomas and if the rooms are free, they ll slot you up there :)

The views are amazing :)

[ClareC]

I had my daughter at Tommy's (emergency C Sectuon) and son at Kings (elective).

I would echo the comment above, both are fantastic hospitals and it really does come down to the luck of the draw in terms of how busy they are, staff on duty etc.

I would wholly recommend your friend going to visit both hospitals and having a look around (they do tours of the maternity units) seeing how long the journey time is, how it differs at different times of day etc.

Both are fantastic, she needs to go with whichever she is personally more comfortable with having visited and considered her personal circumstances (where she lives / works etc)

Good luck

[arlosmum]

Hi

I had my first born at Kings and must say I can't fault the quality of care. The mid-wives and doctor's were all amazing, compassionate and friendly. Felt it was special but also quite everyday (which made me feel very safe)

I would agree with the comments about Midwives House. The reception staff there are bloody AWFUL and SO RUDE!

I left in tears on one occasion. :(

They also lied about my doctor's surgery mid-wife being made redundant (which she hadn't been) and threatened to kick me out of King's if I didn't go to them for my Ante Natal care. Sounds far fetched I know but my local GP had to make a complaint about them (as apparently I was not the first patient this happened to)

The hospital though was fantastic, wish I had a chance to use one of the birthing suites but unfortunately my labour didn't roll that way. I had a natural birth (with Epidural in the end) and all went fairly smoothly...

Post-birth I really appreciated the help of the midwives and lactation consultants who visited us on the ward.

Good luck to your friend!