Maternity Hospital Recommendations

[magmagda]

I need to choose maternity care, and would appreciate some advice. The closest to me would be King’s College Hospital, but I have read mix reviews and the Care Quality Report is quite dated (from 2022). Another option could be St. Thomas, but it’s a bit far.  Did anyone had recent experience with King’s? Are there any better options close by?

Edited August 4, 2024 by magmagda

[ArchieCarlos]

Hi Magda. My wife and I recently had our baby at St Thomas’s. The care we received was great, and I liked that as a teaching hospital we always had two midwives looking after us (a qualified one and a final year trainee midwife), which isn’t the case in all places. Almost everyone we dealt with was caring and pleasant and it feels like a generally well run place. I also like that all the delivery rooms and most of the postnatal rooms have massive windows with great views around London from their location on the upper floors. In that respect Kings feels more like a rabbit warren. 
 

Comparison wise, we have many friends who recently had babies at Kings and said it was fine. Our antenatal class leader (a senior midwife) told us she would definitely choose St Thomas or Lewisham over Kings. The CQC reports are also much more flattering for St Thomas and Lewisham. 

Yes it’s a bit further away for the regular midwives appointments but it’s not that bad. And for the big day, our midwives reassured us and said don’t worry, when you start to have contractions, it’s extremely unlikely you wouldn’t have plenty enough time for the 30min trip from ED to Tommys. 

Overall I think they’re all fine, but as a regular visitor to both Kings and St Thomas, I would prefer to spend 5 days in the latter than the former (as we recently did due to c-section)  and St Thomas generally feels less understaffed/reliant on locum staff than Kings  

 

[magmagda]

Thank you so much for your advice. I just saw it, hence my late reply. I will definitely check St. Thomas.