Feedback on St George's hospital

I haven’t had a baby anywhere else, but for delivery thought St George’s was mostly pretty good (6 months ago). I started on birth centre but realised an epidural was 100% for me 😁 was seen quickly by an anaesthetist and had 3 sets of fantastic midwives through my 30 hour labour. They were really excellent - I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. Were l up to date with physiological birth, hypnobirthing etc. Post natal was not great, small and hot ward (ask for a fan) and the other patients were so loud! Not much staff can do about that but I would get your birth partner to ask for a private room if you’ll be there a while (I ended up there for 2 days after a difficult end of labour). Or you may be lucky, have a straight forward labour and be on your way home within 6 hours 🤞 I personally would decide based on proximity - I had several episodes of reduced movements at the end of pregnancy and was glad to close to St G instead of having to go further to C&W for instance.

Hello! I haven’t had any experience with other hospitals but I loved St George’s with my first and going there again with my second. I had a really difficult birth from start to finish and the midwives and doctors on the wards were so amazing to me. That’s annoying that they can’t guarantee the birth centre will be open. Have they said why? What has the care been like? I was under maternal medicine so I wasn’t in a midwife team. As above, postnatal wasn’t great but I don’t think it is anywhere as you have to share a room with a couple of other people, I was not in the frame of mind to do that 😂 hopefully you won’t need to be there for very long.

I went for st Georges because of recommendations from here and Facebook groups. Everyone raves about it and I have ZERO idea why. I hated my experience throughout.

I had a high risk pregnancy but was certainly not treated as such. I felt like I wasn't allowed to ask questions that might prolong my appointments and my preferences were constantly questioned. Only once did a midwife give me a full hour of her time.

Aftercare is DISGUSTING. The mat ward was crazy hot, you will never gey a private room so forget about that, and there aren't nearly enough midwives (or doctors) to give adequate care.

I developed a condition on the mat ward that was life threatening and was ignored - midwives literally avoided eye contact with me - as I screamed from agony up and down the corridors. My husband finally had to raise his voice before I was taken care of.

I am seriously thinking about suing for medical negligence.

Avoid.

Thanks all for your feedback, it's much appreciated. Sounds like experience can be varied and stuff like the centre being closed isn't hospital specific with insufficient resources across hospitals. Sorry you had such a bad experience Jan and hope you've recovered now.

I'm at St Georges now and pregnant with my 1st so can say anything about delivery. When I asked about getting booked in at the birth centre and they told me there's no booking but it was highly likely I'd get what I wanted because the midwife said they have 4 birthing rooms to cater for the 500 women a year who still want/need it come time of birth vs the 5000 who either end up wanting or needing the delivery suite. She did also say though that it could be closed if they're short of staff. I'd agree with the point about lack of continuity of care. I see a different midwife each time and some are locum. Good luck with your pregnancy and birth

You can always try. Chelsea and Westminster, that’s where I had my baby girl . It’s a newer hospital but it’s very busy with maternity , bare that in mind .