Water birth at Queen Elizabeth Hospital

I am following as water birth is one of the options I am considering. I am also with Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They have been okay so far.

I don’t have an experience with water birth but I have a good experience giving birth in that hospital in overall. I had induction and gave birth vaginally in delivery suite. The midwives were lovely and I felt taken care of. Honestly - all hospitals have patients with good and bad experiences if you look at reviews. During my induction I stayed in the birthing centre where water births take place and honestly it was very lovely!!

Hi Rana! I've got exactly the same dilemma. Feedback was not great about QE in Google reviews, but my personal experience with other QE departments was quite good, despite them been low rated too. I also had to travel few times to st Thomas to visit friend and it is indeed very long and tiring journey. I decided to stick to QE, but curious for other comments here.

I had a water birth at Queen Elizabeth in 2022, such a positive experience once in the birthing centre & couldn't fault it to be honest, the only blip was it was during a staff shortage & they nearly couldn't open the birthing centre, but the midwives were nothing but amazing throughout & I'd have no issues going back. More than happy to answer any questions, feel free to DM me! ☺️

I had an induction at QE last year, the doctors and midwives were lovely and took good care of me and baby.

I wanted a water birth at QE, but they couldn’t offer it to me (2022). It was closed due to being under staffed. It’s a shame as it’s only 5 mins from where I live and I thought it looked really nice when I had a look around. Instead, I had to book in with the birthing centre at Lewisham, but that didn’t go to plan either. I ended up getting brought to theatre at QE via ambulance!!

@Philomena I'm sorry this happened to you 🙏

Thanks a lot, everyone. Really appreciate it.

Hi, I have heard nothing but bad things about them but from experience i have had i can name it the best hospital 🙏

I had an almost water birth there in September 2023 (i chose to get out of the water right at the end). It was faultless. The staff were amazing, and the room was brilliant. The birth centre wasn't full either, so we got to stay the night in the room too. The only downside was the night staff definitely weren't as brilliant as the daytime staff, but the midwives were all excellent.

I had a water birth in February this year and couldn't fault it. I was midwife led and she was brilliant, the facilities were excellent. I've only heard bad things about St Thomas' from friends in my NCT group and positive about QE.

I gave birth 2 weeks ago in the delivery suite, I would say my experience was positive despite all the complications I had, I felt that the team I had was competent and knew what to do and intervened at the right time when the baby was in distress

I didn't have a water birth but I gave birth at QE. The aftercare was exceptional, however, due to the shortage of staff the labour was horrendous. Wherever you choose to go I strongly suggest having a birthing partner that can advocate for you. Let them know your birthing plans alongside your preferences if anything were to arise. My cousin advocated for me during labour because I was out of it and without her, Lord knows what would have happened. That's not to frighten you but to know the importance of choosing good birthing partners. All the best and congratulations on your pregnancy x

@Rie I am so sorry to hear about this. What do you mean by horrendous? Could you tell us more?

@Maria When I was in active labour the staff did not believe me, as I went from 2cm to 10cm in 5 hours. They assumed it would take longer so I started pushing despite their advice that I was not in active labour. Long story short, they saw my baby crowning and then had to wheel me to a delivery suite whilst I was giving birth. In the process, they crashed the hospital bed into the wall. There wasn’t enough time for me to labour in my preferred position of all 4s or standing, so ended up tearing as one leg was raised on a leg contraption whilst the other was on the bed. Additionally, my cousin had to advocate for pain relief to be provided despite asking numerous times, as they didn’t believe I was near to active labour so I ended up spending most of my labour without pain relief.

@Rie oh God! I hope you were not traumatised by all this!! Was the delivery suite your first choice or you wanted to give birth in the birth centre?

@Maria I had gestational diabetes so I didn't end up having the water birth that I desired. It was traumatic but so grateful that my youngest and I made it through. I complained as I didn't want anyone else to experience what I went through. They apologised and it was mentioned it would be used as a learning reflection for the staff. All I can hope is that this actually happened.

I had a water birth in Jan 2022, the staff were lovely just weren't as experienced as I would have hoped them to be, I was out of it due to being on Gas and Air and baby head was underwater for 4mins which lead to him not breathing, luckily my partner was with me and advocated and I was bleeding out excessively. Long story short have a birth partner. The water birth on its own was amazing with pain management coupled with gas and air (so defo recommended and will be for my next birth) but generally traumatic experience. Let me not get into being forgotten at the ward for 4 days and only to be told that my paperwork was lost so had to wait longer to get it done due to staff shortages