Midwives at kings

[MrsAk]

Hi everyone,

We had our first baby at kings three weeks ago - I was extremely apprehensive about what the care would be like and how the midwives would be. I cannot praise the midwives enough - I had a very long early labour and everyone who helped me were just wonderful! I am so impressed and grateful at the level of care and concern I experienced and just wanted to share this! Good luck for those of you yet to have your little ones!

[sillywoman]

What a lovely thing to post MrsAk. Incidentally I was just commenting to a friend the other day that the feedback I'm getting about the Kings birth experience from Mums & Dad at reunions has improved dramatically since about Easter. Apparently Kings are up their full complement of Midwives on the labour ward and births are down since they've limited the catchment area by postcode. So instead of having to care for women in labour on an overcrowded and understaffed labour ward, Kings are able to give the kind of care they always should have been able to give, & wanted to give. However with one Mums recent experience in mind I should add that this may not be the case if it's a full moon!

[Pickle]

This is nice to see - all to often people are quick to post about negative experiences but not so forthcoming with positives. I also have nothing but praise for the midwives at Kings during the birth of my two children.

Congratulations on your new arrival

P x

[Mellors]

I also gave birth there a couple of weeks ago, and have nothing but praise for all the staff. The King's midwife who delivered me was amazing, and everyone from the lovely ladies who helped me down the ward afterwards to the night staff, doctors, cleaners etc (and my room and the loos were spotless) were unfailingly helpful, polite and allowed me to have as much dignity as possible in very trying circumstances. I had been dreading it after reading a lot of negative feedback, but it was so much better than expected. We are very lucky to have it on our doorstep.

[MrsAk]

I completely agree, we are very lucky indeed!!

[little h]

hello

Congratulations too...

I too havehad been meaning to post on here about how impressed we were with our experience of kings and the nhs with the birth of our second son 4 weeks ago. Everyone was brillant, from the ambulance and emergency r?ponse people to the midwives and labour and maternity ward staff (i was rushed to hospital bleeding at 34 weeks ). I can't praise them enough and there were noticable improvements since our first son was born 2 years ago.

H

[ClareC]

I had my son there 4 weeks ago and I couldn't fault them, spotlessly clean, lovely staff and even the food was fine!

I had swapped to Tommy's last time round at the eleventh hour after a very poor tour, glad to see everything is so good there now :-)

[reren]

Just wanted to add my praise - we had fantastic care at kings.

[Yak]

Congratulations! What a lovely, heartwarming and positive thread. I was so impressed with the care from the community midwives who attended my homebirth and the various teams at Kings that I dropped Katie Yannousiz (head of midwifery) a line and got a lovely email back. Given how tight resources are and how infrequently, in my experience, positive feedback is given to the public sector I'd encourage others to do the same. You never know - it might make all the difference to the care other women receive in the future. PM me if you'd like her email address.

[Monkey]

Good to hear. I was already very impressed with the care I got in August 2009 in the labour ward. Unfortunately all these good feelings were promptly wiped away by appalling level of care or shall I say absence of care on the post natal ward. And it was not due to lack of staff or a busy ward...far from that.

[Fuschia]

The women in charge there care passionately about the service they provide

[mirabelle]

Thanks for the positive messages everyone, it's so reassuring! I'm due to give birth to my first baby at King's in 8 weeks' time so it's great to hear about other women's positive experiences there!

I've been looked after by a King's midwife since the start of my pregnancy and I have to say she's been fantastic - lovely and caring, always takes her time with me, etc. I usually see her at the MAU at King's and at our last appointment yesterday she actually took us round the labour ward as it was very quiet, and showed us a couple of rooms - we hadn't had a chance to go on a labour ward tour so it was great! I'm still on the waiting list for the Lanes community midwives but if I get offered a place I think I might actually turn it down as I'd be reluctant to switch at this stage...

Congratulations on all the new arrivals and good luck to those who are still waiting! x

[sb]

.

[checkmeout]

I loved all my Midwives from at Kings, i was with the Lanes and had sooo much great support and care from all the Midwives.I was in labour for so long i was there for the change of shift so seemed to have every midwife, this really was not a problem as they are all soo great!!

I would not of changed my labour experience for the world (apart from the pain of course), sod the Portland! I loved Kings!

Mary, Becca, Sophie, Vanessa are all amazing!!!! One of the most self-less jobs ever, i have sooo much love and respect for those lasies!!

Thank you sooo much for delivering the love of my life

x

[Otta]

I've just shown this to y wife, as we're having our second at Kings in July, having had our first at Tommy's. Very nice to read such good reports.

[StraferJack]

This ^

4 months later and I can remember almost everything about Mary & co - how helpful they were and nothing was ever too much trouble. Nothing but praise for them.

We nearly didn't have to go to Kings, but in the end (and without any drama) we did need to go in and that went really well too.

[Zo?]

I had an elective c-section at Kings 2 weeks ago and would like to add to the praise for everyone we came across. I had been extremely apprehensive following a dreadful experience at a north London hospital with our daughter, but this time round was so different. The levels of professionalism, care and compassion were incredible - nothing was too much trouble for them and everyone we met was so cheerful, and the breastfeeding help was wonderful. I really hope all you ladies due to give birth at Kings in the near future are cheered by the positive words on here and wish you all the lovely experience we had.

x

[sophiechristophy]

My midwife at kings, Clemmie, was absolutely brilliant :)

[Moos]

I had my sons at Kings in 2007 and 2009, and both times the hospital was extremely busy but the care we had from the midwives on the labour ward and post-natal ward (and not forgetting the staff in theatre) was excellent: kind and professional.

We weren't lucky enough to be with one of the midwifery teams - only 10% of women in the area are, though it feels as though a higher % of EDFers are - but the midwifery care from the King's team was really good, even though we HD not met before.

[buggie]

...surely 2007 & 2010 Moos?!!

Found the post-natal ward staff really nice, but was lucky not to need too much help in my 24hrs there.

[Moos]

Oh yeah, whoops.

*whistles airily*

[buggie]

...I had to do the maths on my fingers to check! x

[ae]

I can't express how much of a relief it is to read this thread. I'm booked in at Kings for my first the end of September and I've been dreading it because I've been worried about the level of care I'd get and having heard a few poor reports about Kings.

Thank you so much for posting all your positive stories. It's really taken a load off my mind.

[Anna27]

Had my son at Kings in June 2009, and due to give birth to our second little boy in Oct. I had such a good experience at Kings that it's the only place I would want to give birth now! My midwife was amazing and I don't think I could have done it without her! my labour was relatively quick but the baby got stuck after 2 hrs of pushing, so had a little help to pull him out.

Everyone was extremely professional.

The only issue I had was down on the post natal ward, the staff during the day were friendly but I felt there was a lack of compassion for new first time mums, especially with the night staff. The communal toilet/shower area was filthy (blood on floor and toilet) needs to be cleaned more often. This time I will be discharging myself straight after the birth unless there are any complications. After 3 nights on the ward I was feeling very depressed and really needed to be at home with the support of my family.

I also think that they should change their policy on fathers being able to stay overnight, after the trauma of giving birth and the shock of having this little baby dependant on me the last thing I wanted was to be alone! Its obviously a very different experience the second time round.

But overall a positive experience, after experiencing complications I would choose kings over a home birth.

[sillywoman]

You're in luck Anna27 Kings have just changed their policy on Dads staying overnight. From the beginning of June Dads are allowed to stay with Mums on the postnatal ward - though they will be sleeping in the chair - beds aren't provided!