Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I think Kings is great. There can be problems with waiting times for clinic appointments, but that is just a symptom of their being a centre of excellence for ante-natal care and people being referred to from all over the south of england, and further afield. We are also extremely lucky in this area to have so many community based midwife teams who can give you the private birth experience for free no matter where you choose to give birth. The presence of these teams also means Kings attracts an awful lot of applications for every midwife vacancy, so you'll looked after by the best.


Yes, some people have had bad experiences there, but you'd find the same for any hospital and the benefit at Kings is you couldn't be in a better place if anything were to go wrong.

I'm another happy Kings customer, having given birth there twice - Jan 2007 and June 2008. I think the thing with hospitals and birth stories is that people are more likely to tell you about their bad experiences than the good ones, so don't read too much into what you hear.


I had two complicated pregnancies and can't fault the care I was given by the team of consultants there, from when I was admitted to hospital at 30 weeks for a week long stay through to my inductions. We're very lucky to have fantastic midwives in the area too - I was under the care of the Lanes Group at Dulwich Medical Centre (not in existence first time round, Erica was the sole midwife there and is still there now, she's brilliant).


Good luck!

Another happy Kings Mum, 4 times. Twice in the hospital & twice at home with their community midwives. You'll always hear horror stories 'cause people love to tell 'em. The (many) straightforward labours have little or no drama to them (apart form the obvious - hey, a new person!!!) so people don't repeat them so often, nor with such salacious glee. Kings & their midwives are fab, & I've heard on the grapevine that they may be getting a small midwife led unit in the spring next year - something like St T's home-from-home perhaps?
Just to add, what makes the most difference to your experience is the midwives you have in labour & afterwards. As pickle & gubodge (love those names) say; The Lanes midwives are some of the best around, but also consider booking with The Albany @ Peckham Pulse (internationally admired and copied), Oakwood @ Forest Hill Practice, or The Brierly group @ ED Hospital. Any of those teams will see you right. Get in quick though.
I must say that I wish I had known about these midwife teams before I had my son - don't rely on your GP to tell you anything about 'available extras'. I never saw a midwife more than once, and would have loved to have had someone I knew helping me through labour.

Thanks for all this great info. It's a minefield to say the least!


I love the sound of the Lanes midwives but apparently I'm outside their catchment area. They recommended I try Chadwick Road medical centre, which is attached to the DMC but does anyone know if I would get the same service at this surgery?


Off to look up the Albany and Brierly right now...!

Yes, book with a midwife team. If things go well and you wnat to, you can have a homebirth. if you need to go to Kings, some of those mws will go with you. But book RIGHT NOW.


Kings is good, of course it is, if you have complications. But problems seem to arise when women start to be treated according to their policies without much flexibility... many inductions seem to start in unfavourable circumstances and descend into a spiral of increasing intervention ending in an emergency CS.


I had a fantastic twin birth there, which wasn't without complications inc pre-eclampsia and a need for induction and twin II needing to be manually turned.. but by dint of much planning and discussion, and employing independent midwives who were with me as "friends" throughout, it was lovely.


When I had a DVT in my first pregnancy, I was looked after very well by Kings. They are world renowned for the Harris Birthright centre.

sandy_rose Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thanks for all this great info. It's a minefield

> to say the least!

>

> I love the sound of the Lanes midwives but

> apparently I'm outside their catchment area. They

> recommended I try Chadwick Road medical centre,

> which is attached to the DMC but does anyone know

> if I would get the same service at this surgery?

>

Call them.


There's also Oakwood.


Albany prioritise women in Peckham. Brierly do just home births I think.


But call them all!

Keep trying sandy_rose, please also try Oakwood. I know of a woman who is going to be with Albany, but only because she registered with Oakwook, they didn't have space for her so passed her details to the Albany waiting list & a place came up. Don't be put off if they say they can't take you. Ask to go on waiting lists and summon up some tears if you can. that way they remember you & you may be top of their "poor lady" list when a place comes up (I'm sure there is a much fairer system than this in place, but the cynic in me also thinks that it may work that way & it can do no harm!). You may need to be politely persistent.


Good Luck.

Good plan, that shouldn't be too difficult right now! I think I'm outside the Oakwood catchment area but will give it a go. I didn't even know these places existed until today, but now I'm feeling slightly desperate to get registered with one!

Just wanted to add that when I first moved to ED all I heard were horror stories about Kings and I was very reluctant to go there. Now, with the benefit of four years of meeting local mums I've heard overwhelmingly positive things, particularly re the community midwives.


Both of mine were born at Thomas' - the first one because I got pregnant in Lambeth and the second because I wanted to use the home-from-home unit for a VBAC (too scared to try it at home and didn't want to be monitored continuously etc in a consultant-led unit). But if I decided to have a third I'd go for Kings.

Fuschia,


Hope you're feeling better, the fact that you're posting makes me think perhaps you are!


For some reason I thought you were looked after by the Albany Midwives, I know Leona Penna is their linked Consultant. I wonder if you didn't get 'in' with them was because you were expecting twins and unlikely to deliver at home?


However you describe a very positive experience of your birth. The group practices mentioned do limit their numbers and in truth most women will have more standard care. It would be a shame for sandy_rose to feel all is lost if she doesn't get in with them as I'm sure lots of you can confirm.


Good luck Sandy, keep us posted.

Ann Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Fuschia,

>

> Hope you're feeling better, the fact that you're

> posting makes me think perhaps you are!

>

> For some reason I thought you were looked after by

> the Albany Midwives, I know Leona Penna is their

> linked Consultant. I wonder if you didn't get

> 'in' with them was because you were expecting

> twins and unlikely to deliver at home?

>

> However you describe a very positive experience of

> your birth.



Albany would have liked to take me.. and support me in hospital...but they were full.. i really tried and tried to get with them, or anyone else for that matter. I had independent midwives, and lots of liaison with the head of midwives and leonie.

I'll let you know if I have any luck, I hope it's not too late (I don't even know what week I'm in!) Slightly unprepared for all of this and there's already so much to do and think about.


Thanks for all the great info. I suppose the baby will come out one way or another!

Re St T vs Kings.. I was in both at various times in the twin pregnancy (had a problem with my windpipe meant i got admitted to st T, then pre-eclampsia, week in kings, then 6 days in the Evelina with twin 2 in january whe she was seriously ill)


It's not nice being too far away. If you are hospitalised at any time, or just for scans/assessment in late pg (if you go overdue you can end up having to go for a daily trace of the baby's heartbeat) when it's hard to travel far.. or if your baby ends up in SCBU for any reason, then dealing with the closest hospital is a huge advantage.

im supposed to be having my baby at the princess royal (bromley)....as this was near to where i used tolive...just looked at the Healthcare commissions report and its been a depressing read. looks like Kings maternity unit have recieved a better rating...in two minds whether to see if i can transfer as i now live in dulwich

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • @Sue said: nobody is blaming the child, they are blaming the person who should have been watching him g) do you really think it was acceptable for that person to find the situation funny? This is the point. Adults are meant to teach their children by example. It sounds as though the adult guardian/ father in this case did not react appropriately. Had a truly sincere apology been given,  I suspect the OP would not have posted on here. It is possible the OP snapped in the heat of the moment, but they were possibly startled because they were hit from behind? If we are startled it can be instinctive to initially react with anger. I also agree that it would be highly irresponsible to let any very young child ride or walk or do anything on a busy public street without supervision- most of all to protect the child. If in this case the child was out of the adult's line of sight that is perhaps another indication that the father needs a refresh in appropriate behaviour around a child, as well as his manners.
    • Malumbu,  if none of us were there, does that mean that nobody should post anything on here unless they have witnesses from the EDF? Why would someone post something like this if it  wasn't true? This is not about whether children should or should not be cycling on the pavement. There are specific issues. a) the child was out of sight of the person supposed to be caring for him b) he appears to have been  either not looking where he was going or was out of control of the bike c) if he did see that he was about to hit someone  he apparently did not give them any kind of warning  d)  a person was unexpectedly hit from behind whilst just walking along, which in my view makes him a victim e) does the title of the thread really matter as the issue was described in the first post?  f) nobody is blaming the child, they are blaming the person who should have been watching him g) do you really think it was acceptable for that person to find the situation funny? The OP was not complaining about the 4 year old. They were complaining about an adult's lack of supervision of a 4 year old who was not capable of riding a bike and who hit someone from behind with no warning. Also, apart from reading the OP more carefully, perhaps also choose your words more carefully. Jobless? Lunatic? Charming.
    • I have to say, I too am upset about the passing of DulwichFox. He was a real local character, who unlike me, managed to stick with ED despite all of the nauseous yuppification of the last three decades. R.I.P to foxy    Louisa. 
    • How long is a piece of string? AI was a bit rubbish on this one, but Checatrade : average cost to paint a house exterior is around £30 per square metre So depends on the size, access, time to put up scaffolding and cost of hiring and building that, surface preparation, and quality of materials.   Checkatrade put it at £2.5 k for average semi, that sounds a little cheap.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...