Where to have my baby

[BTE]

Hello

I am shortly moving to Dulwich and I am pregnant. I am not familiar with any of the hospitals and/or health care services in the area.

I was hoping to get some advice about which hospitals in the area have good maternity wards or if there are any hospital alternatives that are good? It is my first baby so it is all new for me and I don't know where to start.

Any ideas?

[lorraineliyanage]

Home births are very popular although you'll need to register quick with a midwifery team. I think this is usually done through your GP or approach the teams direct - Brierly, Oakwood and The Lanes. I am sure someone can pass on the numbers to them or you can google it.

Hospital options are Kings or St Thomas', there have been quite a few discussions on which one is best if you do a search on here to have a look through everyone's feedback. I think it will always be mixed reviews for both.

I registered with The Lanes who were fantastic, tried for a homebirth but ended up at King's. It was OK, nothing special!

[BTE]

Thanks so much for this, I will have a look at past discussions...

Talking of GPs, do you have one you can recommend?

Thanks,

[lorraineliyanage]

I only have experience of the Dulwich Medical Centre on Crystal Palace Road, they seem pretty good although I rarely ever go other than when pregnant. I loved their midwifery service, 'The Lanes'.

[BellendenBear]

If you want a home birth you don't have to be registered with one of the midwifery teams. The Kings community midwives do home births too. They have Southwark East and West teams I think.

They don't offer the same continuity that the teams mentioned above seem to provide and you aren't guaranteed that your chosen midwife will deliver your baby and come to Kings with you if you have to be admitted. But you get the opportunity to meet all of them before your due date, and all the ones I met were lovely, and I would have been happy for any of them to deliver my baby.

In the end I had to go to KCH. And that was fine too. 3 different midwives looked after me during labour. They were all very different but all excellent, and I couldn't fault their care.

The general feeling from what I remember from previous threads and from talking to other mums is that KCH and St Thomas's provide excellent care on labour ward, but the post-natal ward experience can be a bit lacking. But hopefully you won't need to stay in anyway.

Good Luck!

[The Nappy Lady]

Hello BTE,

Congratulations on your pregnancy and impending move to lovely Dulwich!

Here is a long thread on Kings vs St Thomas' if you haven't found it yet;

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,377569,page=1

I had home births both times, once through the community midwives out of Kings, the other time with The Brierley and it is well worth considering...if any problems they go into hospital with you, so you still get good continuity of care, and otherwise you get to stay at home which is really wonderful. You can always change you mind, even at the last minute and have a hospital birth instead, but it is much harder to book hospital and change to home birth later (unless it just happens like that on the day)....eek!

Molly

[linzkg]

Forest Hill Road Surgery is a great surgery and I'd definitely recommend them!

I also second Molly - Brierley are a great bunch.

[R&A]

The best advice i have read on here is to say you're having a home birth and then change last minute to a hospital birth. You will then get a midwife for before/during and post natal care which is what i didn't get and wished i had in restrospect. You need someone to fight your corner and your partner may not be enough e.g. to get you that epidural (or care you need) should you want it.

or get a private midwife (lots of thread and recs on here too)

also probably a good idea not to read any of my posts (!) as i had a bad time.

Saying that - lots of people seem to have had very good care. It's a mixed bag.

congrats and big good luck

[buggie]

Having seen it "recommended" on here several times, lying about birth plans to get one-to-one care really doesn't sit easy with me and doesn't feel much different to people who call 999 claiming the person has severe difficulty breathing/isn't breathing despite it actually being a cold, as they know this will result in a blue light ambulance arriving within minutes.

Surely by lying like this it means other local mums-to-be could be missing out on something they really want??

[The Nappy Lady]

I agree buggy. I think it is fair enough to book a home birth while you are considering the options and are maybe undecided, but not to do so with the express purpose of changing your mind at the last minute.

Molly

[R&A]

I completely agree and would never have dreamed of suggesting that this was a good idea before i went into labour.

However - desperate times call for drastic measures...

Had i done this i wouldn't have been left in the hospital toilet on my own during the whole of my labour and i would have got an epidural which i wanted and requested throughout.

No one wants to be irresponsible but until maternity services improve this is the sort of thing woman will be driven to do.

[Smiler]

Hi BTE,

Welcome to Dulwich (nearly!)

Definitely worth ringing round the midwive practices as they get booked up (think they have waiting lists though).

Re. the debate on Kings vs Tommys, others have posted the old threads. I found it helpful to attend ante-natal classes with NCT (the classes run by Kings were, at the time, limited to half-day workshops, so there was no opportunity to meet people or think of questions week-to-week) and read up on the options and various medical interventions etc. This helped me and my partner to be confident and assertive when it came to the birth (at Kings). There is a number at Kings to ring about ante-natal classes: I'm hoping that they are now offering more, but somehow doubt it.

With respect to GPs, I have found Dulwich Medical Centre (DMC) excellent. They have long opening hours now too. When deciding on a GP it's worth asking about how many doctors and other health professionals work at the practice (the more there are the easier it should be to get seen and the more services will be offerd), surgery times, waiting times for appointments, how to make appointments etc. (is worth knowing "the system" by which they manage demand).

Re R&A's point, I can see both sides. I am not surprised people do this, since the only way to get dedicated midwifery is to have a home-birth (or say you want one). The Lanes now practice for hospital births too, though, which is great!

Good luck with the move and it all.