Some positive birth stories at Kings, please.

[Fuschia]

I have a hospital phobia and was determined I would have a HB for baby no 2.. until it turned out to be twins! I can't tell you how much i stressed about how things might turn out. But it was fine.. with a lot of forethought and discussion and good support in labour. For a straightfoward birth, there is no reason why you can't labour as you would at home, with minimal hospital intervention, but close by to medical help if required. Worked for us.

FM:, if you're anxious about hospital birth, i'd suggest speaking to the senior midwives in advance (Supervisor of midwives) and also maybe some hynotherapy/counselling to discuss your worries and help you relax? i saw Christine neillands who made me my own MP3, I heartily recommend it to reduce some of the anxiety. Sounds like birth no 1 was just a traumatic birth, in the end, it will take time and gentle support to move on now you face a second birth in hospital, won't it?

[Moos]

My birth story is a few years old now, but I had a planned hospital birth which escalated into an emergency C-Section. Won't go into the details as I've posted this several times now but just to reiterate that the labour ward midwives, the theatre staff and the midwives on the postnatal ward where I was for 3 days were ace. Professional, kind, reassuring, smart. Couldn't have asked for more.

Best of luck, fidgetsmum.

[BellendenBear]

I had planned a home birth but ended up being induced in Kings. At the time I was gutted, but it ended up being a positive experience. I had 3 different midwives and they were all fantastic.

The experience at Kings should be improving as they expand their maternity services to meet demand. Maybe this is old news, but they are planning to expand their birthing capacity next year and in the meantime are no longer accepting out of area referrals apart from for women who need to go to Kings for medical reasons.

[Fidgetsmum]

Thanks everyone for going back on topic (especially Vickster - it put it all into context).

Fuschia, I'd considered contacting Christine Neillands but just haven't got around to it, so perhaps I will now that I have a recommendation. I did the Mongan method with first baby which is the biggest reason I'm sure that I coped at home for as long as I did (I had no lead in and from the first contraction, they were at least 1 min long and no more than 3 mins apart so the hypnobirthing was invaluable).

And also thanks for the recommendation to speak to the supervisor of midwives at Kings. I hadn't thought that would be possible. So I'll give them a call. I am booked with the Brierley so I'm hoping that they would be able to come along to Kings too - I'm seeing them next week so I'll ask. A few people have said the Oakwood midwives attended their births, and the Brierley run along the same lines so fingers crossed.

Having posted my first post feeling like a fish out of water, I feel much more confident than I did about the staff and facilities at Kings. I know that it might all go wrong again, and I might get unlucky, but knowing that there are people out there with positive experiences of Kings makes me feel a whooooole lot better.

Thanks again to everyone. I hope others find this post helpful too.

[Fuschia]

I think the senior midwives at Kings are brilliant, and very woman centred... just maybe sometimes "on the day" it doesn't go as they'd like, and also drs have a slightly different (very risk averse) agenda but when I have spoken to them about my worries they have really tried to reassure me.

[Fuschia]

And Christine Neillands is lovely too and really helped me when I was stressing about the whole tiwn birth in hospital scenario. She does hypnobirthing but also general hyonotherapy and something called EFT and I think would be excellent and really help to lift the weight of birth trauma.

Let us know how it goes!

[Fuschia]

I assume Brierly will attend you in the hospital

[duchessofdulwich]

just thought id post about the after care help i recieved from Kings, which was very good. I rung a maternity helpline which i think was only set up at the beginning of this year? I hadnt seen a midwife when i got home and the were so reassuring and got a lovely midwife sent out to me the next day.

I also rung them as we hadnt recieved a newborn hearing test....and they helped me chase this up aswell

[MrsLL2b]

Thank you all for your posts,I'm expecting my first baby in Nov and don't feel 100% confident about a home birth but felt nervous that the hospital care at Kings might not be great. So these posts have made me feel very reassured.

Thank you.

[fhmum]

If you need yet more reassurance, I can add mine. I had my first baby at St. George's Tooting and, frankly, I may as well have been alone in an alley way somewhere for all the support and encouragement I received. I barely saw a midwife until the last hour and had a traumatic, long labour. In TOTAL contrast, my second child was born at King's. (We moved into the area but I wouldn't have gone back to St. George's.) It was a fabulous, joyful experience. I was admitted at 4 am, at exactly 37 weeks. Waters had broken but because of breech presentation and early signs of labour, they wouldn't let me home. That in itself was good news as I wanted to get on with it. Labour stopped but I was well cared for and visitors were welcomed. Labour restarted at 19h that evening and my son was born very fast indeed at 23h. As with my first child, I needed surgery immediately afterwards for a retained placenta. At St. George's I was kept waiting for hours and lost a dangerous amount of blood before the surgery and being sent home the next morning feeling like death. At King's I was whisked straight in, minimising blood loss and allowing me to spend time with my baby as soon as possible. I have nothing but respect for the professionals at King's. Good luck and look forward to it if you can.

[Fidgetsmum]

Thanks fhmum for your addition to the thread. I've looked at these birth stories at least every few days and it's really helped me be positive about where I'll have to be.

Thank you everyone for keeping it positive.

[VeLenz]

I had my daughter at Kings at Christmas and had a wonderful experience. The midwives were very caring despite being understaffed due to holiday period. I too had an instrumental delivery (foreceps) and quite a lot of tearing, but I felt the medical team was very well prepared and expert in their care. Once in the post natal ward, a midwife helped me thourout the entire night and was a truly calming angel. I would do it all over again at Kings!

[MrsMc]

I had massive bleeding too (due to placenta praevia). However, this was always a possibility so CS was planned and everything went very smoothly... even when it went wrong if that makes sense? The Kings staff were amazing throughout. If things are likely to go awry there is nowhere I'd rather be looked after. Without wishing to be over dramatic, the doctors there saved my life and I am eternally grateful to them.

[edanna]

Hi Fidgetsmum, I've had two births at Kings and had excellent care both times. The first one was a bit traumatic, not because of Kings but just because of how it went - my little boy was in special care and I think if you've had an emergency situation somewhere you naturally get a bit of fear attached to the place. I was worried about the second time, not because of kings but because I didn't want to go through all of that again - I wanted a pink crying baby. And that's what I got. V quick labour, fabulous midwife, who was very kind and very reassuring about breastfeeding etc. We were home 4 hours later and I really found it healed my memory of the first experience. I hope it's the same for you. It's v likely to be quicker and better than the first time but if you or your baby need a bit of extra help I think you will have brilliant care on hand. Good luck!

[Fidgetsmum]

Thanks edanna. So pleased you got a better birth second time and again, so reassuring to hear good things of Kings. x

[prm]

Great to hear many positive stories and I also wanted to give Kings some praise. I too was concerned about the stay in the Post-Natal ward after hearing some horror stories & posted here about it a while back. I haven't given birth yet but due to a complication a couple of weeks ago I had to stay one night for observation at the Ante-Natal ward (which is the same ward minus the babies) and I was positively impressed...the midwives, doctors & all the staff were all really nice and very attentive, the food was excellent for a hospital in my opinion (you even have a menu to choose from), the shared bathroom was always clean and available when I needed it....maybe I was just lucky and I do realise things are a bit more complicated after labour & with the baby (i.e. I really would like to keep my baby with me all the time and hence I will have to ditch the earplugs & mask plus getting the hang of breastfeeding, babies crying etc.) but all in all I am feeling a lot more positive & I'm no longer dreading it. Best wishes to everyone!!

[berryberry]

My niece was born at kings hospital. Her mum was overdue and missed her due date. She begged and the family begged for the hospital to induce her and the hospital refused because they were full busy and over booked. The pregnancy got to 9 months and 2 weeks after my sis in law, when in labour they sent her home and didn't check her or anything. Skip to the end after finally giving birth with midwives who didn't care to do their job that day and no monitoring my niece was born with severe brain damage and jaundice due to being starved of oxygen in the 24 hours before her birth. There was an investigation and it was put down to negligence of duty of care and the hospital were responsible. My niece is not far off being a vegetable and will not be learning to walk, talk or have much of a normal life. What was worst is that they have done it quite a few times so its not so much the staff but the hospital. We love her dearly but it hurts to know it was for no reason and was avoidable. This was my personal experience and I'm glad to hear people have a better time with them.

[sophiesofa]

Berryberry that is so awful. The OP mentioned she was worried and asked for positive stories only for reassurance so maybe you could delete your post and start a new separate thread? x

[berryberry]

Yeah it is awful and I think anyone having a baby in a hospital that has done this a few times should know before they go there. Sometimes a positive experience is born out of knowing how to avoid a negative one. Sorry if I caused offense.

[sophiesofa]

Hi Berry Berry. I do agree that women shouldn't go in thinking there will be no problems etc but the OP said this:

"SO. Having had two pretty negative experiences at Kings (both under 'emergency' situations) I reaaaalllly want to hear from some people who planned to birth at Kings and had good experiences. And please don't remind me about the benefits of homebirths. I've closed that chapter and accepted my new path. Just want to hear some positive things."

She understandably just needs to hear some good stories and has specifically asked for only good ones. All hospitals must have tragic stories such as yours and the OP is just after some reassurance.

Best wishes to your sister-in law, brother, niece and the rest of the family. Your story brought a tear to my eye but I hope you understand why I don't think this is the right thread for your post. x

[berryberry]

Having said sorry if I caused any offense I don't feel you need to patronize me as well.

[sophiesofa]

Good grief that was not my intention at all and I'm sorry that's how you feel. I only posted again because your original post was still there. I won't post again on this thread because we're off topic. Apologies to you for unintentionally patronising you and to the op for going off topic.

[sillywoman]

Bayberry, I've emailed admin to request that consider your original post for removal. It's undoubtedly a tragedy for your family and I'm so sorry this happened to you but it's of no relevance to this this thread, and is in fact scaremongering of the worst order. Totally unnecessary and very unfair to OP.

If you wish, maybe you could start your own thread about 'terrible things that can happen at Kings (or any other massive teaching hospital delivering over 6,000 babies a year)' as a way of allowing anyone who would like to to discuss your personal experience with Kings?

[realdeal4476]

i also had a very good experience at Kings.

I had opted for a planned homebirth with the brierley midwives (btw - if you have a planned homebirth with midwives in attendance and you have to go into hospital it's never in a taxi through London traffic, you are taken in a prioritised ambulance which is actually quite exciting and a diversion from interminable contractions!) but after failure to progress i was whizzed in, and met with an anesthetist who had been alerted on our way in. he then gave me an epidural pronto - i'd been going for 3 days so i feel this was fine ;-)

baby was born around 10hours later after the staff had given me EVERY possible opportunity to have as normal a delivery as possible. but my son was quite happy where he was and had to be brought to the world via a c section in the end!

the teams and surgeons were fantastic. they were in and out every 15 minutes checking the monitors and brought me food (weirdly i wanted fish and chips) and water, brought me pillows (which we had forgotten) and even found me a hairband (my husband had brought me a cycling cap - bless him). the surgeon even came to see me the next day and met baby again. she was incredible and we owe her a lot.

the after care was also great, the midwives are very hard working and will therefore take no nonsense, but they are so fantastic at explaining breast feeding (which we totally failed at!) and then making me feel fine about bottle feeding that i would go back there without any hesitation. i was there for 2 days and it was ok - not great, but then compared to what other women in the world have to go through i thought it was all fine.

good luck and congratulations!!