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You are here because you or your partner is pregnant (our congratulations) and you want help to choose the best London hospital to give birth.
The baby scans and particularly the early pregnancy scan is one of the most popular ultrasound scans we offer in our ultrasound clinic. This popularity of the private ultrasound scans is related to the need for reassurance of parents to be that the pregnancy is progressing safely.
The parents to be are also anxious, and they are looking for reassurance (specially when it is their first pregnancy) about their choice of the hospital to give birth in London.
We have therefore documented their choices of maternity hospitals and their reasons so that we can give you an insight of the most popular birth hospital in West London.
We do see pregnant couples travelling to our ultrasound clinic in Notting Hill, west London from all over London and home counties but the majority of our clients are located in West London. Our results will therefore at the time being will be skewed towards west London hospitals.
We do have a survey at the end of this article if you want to let us know the maternity hospital of your choice. The more votes we get the more accurate the results will eventually be.
Maternity Hospitals in London
The main NHS hospitals that our clients have chosen to give birth and have their prenatal care are:
St Marys Hospital
St Marys hospital is part of Imperial NHS Trust, and it is located in Paddington. It has royal appeal as 2 royal babies were born there in the private Lindo Wing.
Back to the 'NHS Wing' the hospital offers Consultant and Midwife-led maternity services.
According to the NHS website reviews
86% of respondents said they would recommend antenatal services to friend and family.
91% said that would recommend the labour ward and
86% said that would recommend the postnatal ward to friends and family
During a 2019 CQC inspection, the quality of the maternity service was graded as Outstanding (source)
As expected the reviews are mixed.
For example:
'The staff were brilliant across the board. I felt listened to, I was given pain relief as soon as I asked for it, and I was consulted step-by-step with my care plan explained to me and my consent asked for ahead of each procedure. Additionally, my husband was able to remain by my side constantly until I was transferred to the postnatal ward where visiting hours were in place. I was personally concerned about being on my own during labour and post having my baby, but I needn't have worried. The staff were committed to partners being present and the midwives were only a call button away when I was alone overnight on the postnatal ward.'
'Absolutely no desire to bad mouth the great work the NHS do. This comes too late to benefit me, but you must review your allowing of partners into pregnancy scans. I have now been refused entry for the first 2 scans of my first child's scans. The negative psychological effect for mothers (lack of support) and disenfranchisement of fathers needs amending. In the most part, I would imagine father and mother are in the same household anyway. These experiences have been lost forever - I am appalled.'
We cannot thank the staff from the Fetal Medicine Unit enough. They saved our baby's life. At 20 weeks pregnant I was diagnosed with Vasa Praevia, a very rare and serious complication which, if left unnoticed, has a high chance of resulting in a still-birth if a natural delivery occurs.
Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea Hospital
Queen Charlotte's hospital is attached to Hammersmith hospital, which is not in Hammersmith but in Du Cane road between White City and East Acton. As St Mary's, Queen Charlotte hospital is also part of the Imperial NHS Trust.
From the NHS website:
97% of respondents said they would recommend antenatal services to friend and family.
97% said that would recommend the labour ward and
89% said that it would recommend the postnatal ward to friends and family
Online reviews:
I had my baby at Queens Charlotte in September 2020, it was a great experience, I want to thank the doctors and all the staff at the obstetric medicine kidney clinic for looking after me during pregnancy and making me feel safe and in good hands. Thank you and all the best
I had such a positive experience giving birth that I wanted to thank and commend the midwives who took such incredible care of me. Thank you.
Midwives here are extremely rude. I have had 3 midwife appointments so far with 3 different people and i am describing the most horrible one. She was extremely judgemental, patronising and aggressive. She commented on what i was wearing and told me not to wear fancy dresses to the appointment when it was a £20 dress from Zara! It was a loose dress that i specifically wore for the appointment.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
The Chelsea and West hospital is located in Fulham road South West London. The Chelsea and West hospital (including the West Middlesex University Hospital) support around 12,000 women a year who give birth in their catchment area. They offer birthing support for women who chose to give birth in hospitals or at home.
According to the NHS Services
93% said that would recommend the labour ward and
87% said that would recommend the labour ward and
92% said that it would recommend the postnatal ward to friends and family
We did not find many reviews related to maternity services that we thought is good as it is more likely for people to leave a bad review than a good one.
Below are some of the reviews we found online:
Me and my wife received great care throughout the pregnancy and labour. The staff especially the nursing staff were amazing. They were very friendly and extremely helpful.
Had the most wonderful birth experience here. The midwives are wonderful! Transferred here at 28 weeks as I moved house and I'm so pleased I was. I came in a few times to be checked for reduced feral movements as I'm quite an overthinker and everything was fine both times but I was never made to feel silly or stupid everyone was always really lovely. Also had some growth scans and a scan with the foetal cardiologist which once again everything was fine for but everyone was lovely
I was admitted to the labour ward for monitoring at 38 weeks. Initially, the staff were very attentive at the maternity assessment centre but once on the ward, it was very busy. The midwives were clearly understaffed and could not cope with the demands of each of their 10 patients and as a low priority patient on the ward, I was ignored and given very little information about the status of my condition. The doctors on duty were even more vague which left me feeling very disappointed with the level of care and completely ignored even though I was heavily pregnant and in an anxious state. One can't but wonder that the NHS funding cuts have had a huge impact on the level of service these hospitals can provide.
Other London Maternity Hospitals
Some clients had chosen to attend UCLA, Royal Free in Hampstead and St Thomas Hospital.
The number of women who were planning to give birth in these hospitals was statistically small so we did not have a detail look into these facilities at the time being.
Our study however is ongoing, and we will update this article frequently.
You can also help us by letting us know your birthing hospital of choice at our poll at the end of this article.
What are the reasons for choosing a birth hospital?
There are various reasons why people choose a particular hospital to give birth to.
All our couples did some research before they picked up the maternity unit of choice to give birth and the most common reasons can be summarised:
- 'Because my friend gave birth to that hospital and she said they were amazing'
- 'Because I gave birth at this hospital with my first baby and I loved it'
- 'Because I live close to this hospital'
As you would expect some women had positive opinions for a particular hospital when some others had negative opinions for the same hospital that correlates favourably with the online reviews we saw.
Which is the best birthing hospital in London?
Taking into account our clients reasons as well as the online reviews it is clear that there is no hospital better than another.
Most people will describe the place they gave birth to as amazing and some people for various reasons will have a bad experience.
Which is the most common reason people choose a particular birth hospital?
Our research found out that the most common reason for choosing a particular hospital was the distance between the hospital and the place of residence. Nobody wants to travel for ages in London traffic while they are on labour.
This is also the reason why people look to book a private scan near where they live and International Ultrasound Services is perfectly located a few minutes walk from Notting Hill Gate station offering accessible ultrasound scanning services direct to the West London community.
Which is the most popular birthing hospital in London?
You can see our clients choices in the poll below.
We expect that the most popular birthing hospital in 2021 will be the hospital with the most women of childbearing age in its catchment area.
If you haven't been to our clinic, and you would like to let us know the birth hospital of your choice, please choose or add your hospital to the survey below.
In conclusion, from our data, there is no hospital better than another as patients experience varied for the same maternity unit.
The most common factor in choosing a hospital to give birth in London was distance.
The ranking results below are more likely to change.
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Private Pregnancy Scans
We offer the following complementary to the NHS private baby scans in our ultrasound clinic in London.
