Lister or Barnet Hospital?

I had my first at north Middlesex and my second at lister this aug. The births played out very similarly, except I also had induction this time around.

I would say I wasn’t happy with the general level of care during induction at lister, but on labour ward and maternity ward post birth it was 100 times better than north mid.
There was an incident after I was brought back to labour ward after my c section were I was left alone and my baby was suddenly unresponsive and lips went blue. I was pressing the call button to get help but it wasn’t working, although it did eventually start working and the midwife came and all was ok in the end but it was scary. I made a point to tell them to ensure the bell was checked.

I would caveat that I had my first in nov 2020 during a national lockdown so this might be part of the poor experience at north mid, but the care provided by the midwives was significantly better at lister. I felt much more informed and they were just much friendlier.

Hiya, I gave birth a month ago at Lister and was very apprehensive as well. I have to say I had the best experience with midwives and nurses, despite having a slightly difficult birth. They were all so amazing. All the mums from my NCT class all said they had really positive experiences with the staff there.
I think they are one of the only hospitals in the area which had an inspection post covid and have made major changes to rectify their results. Hope this helps. X

Hi I was registered for Lister and did all my appts there and at QE2, but then I changed to Barnet in the last month because I saw the CQC ratings as well.
Barnet was ok, but as it was my first baby I don't have any experience to compare it with. I can divulge more if you PM me

Btw the last inspection at Barnet was in 2021, not 2016, not sure if this link will work: https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RAL26

Thanks all for your replies, I really appreciate you sharing x

thank you so much for this. I opened up a document that said they were last inspected in 2016 but can see now they've been inspected more recently!

I had my first at Lister in 2019 and my second at Barnet in 2023 (I switched to Barnet because of the poor CQC report at Lister) I had a good experience at Barnet, but I didn't actually experience the labour ward, as I was only on the induction ward and then straight to theatre for C section. The post natal ward was ok, although I found similar to Lister that some staff treat you as an inconvenience and don't respect the trauma and difficulties that some with a c section. I found the feeding support better at Lister but perhaps that was because it was my first, and I think they do pay a bit more attention to you, i think if its not your first they assume you've already made up your mind about feeding.

The other thing to bear in mind is that some of the antenatal stuff for Barnet is actually at Chase Farm, so not as convenient as QE II

The Lister report was published a while ago now, so things may have improved because general resources are thrown at the worst performing places!

Best of luck with it x

this is really helpful, thank you so much. Do you think it was worth switching overall? X

I guess hard to say. At the time I felt it was the best thing to do, because the report made me lose confidence in Lister, so I felt better that I'd at least eliminated some risk by changing to somewhere else, but of course you don't know what's going to happen when you go in to labour!

Barnet wasn't perfect as their antenatal appointments were chocker, so hard to get to see a consultant, and there were delays with getting me in for induction.

But its positive that others have said they had a nice experience with Lister more recently. I think its probably luck which staff you get!

Its a tough decision, and no easy answer because you'll never know if you made the right choice!

I feel like I'm still so undecided 😂 as you say anything could happen and it might depend what staff are on shift when I'm there. It puts me off knowing I'd need to have all my midwife appointments in Barnet, a bit inconvenient really.

Thank you again for all your comments xx

could you please send me more info 🩷

Just to add to this, funnily enough I have actually ended up at Lister for 2 days having woken up with terrible abdominal pain on Mon morning. The maternity unit have been great and midwives on the antenatal ward really good. Whilst it's a horrible experience being at hospital when you didn't expect to be, I think as a result of this I'm going to stick to having this baby at Lister xx

Aww I hope everything is OK @ incognito. And also all the best for your delivery!

thank you very much! X