University College Hospital : Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing

"I had prenatal care during a hard pregnancy by Dr Fred and Emma back in 2021. They were very professional and told me what I needed to know about my baby's health. It was a grey diagnosis. I had an echo test for my baby too. On that day the obstetrician couldn't understand why I still had enquiries about my baby's condition. He's a doctor, I was an expectant mother and I was completely heartbroken. I understand that doctors can sound harsh when they have bad news for the patient. I wish I could have known more about my daughter's life but I understand that doctors are not prophets. My baby had a rare syndrome so dr Fred offered to do early scanning if I got pregnant again. I was so lucky to get pregnant quite quickly and Dr Fred did the early scanning as promised. This time he had good news for me. Thank you, forever grateful for the care for both of my pregnancies."

"I spent an entire day at this hospital (clinic K). The staff is very attentive, friendly and professional. It was the best experience I ever had in a public hospital. Congratulations, you make us (taxpayers) very proud."

"Mixed experience at UCLH EGA. I can echo a similar review by RM H. (Go down to * for the negative bit) Generally, antenatal care was good when you forget all the waiting around and one nurse who had zero people skills on a couple of occasions. We had a small baby. Most staff were caring and took a cautious zero tolerance approach. Which we were grateful for. We would have regular scans and couple of trips to MFAU. We went in to be induced on our due date. We were not induced until 36hours, so do not go in thinking it’s game, set and match. A 5/5 for the lovely team who assisted with the induction prior to going to the labour ward during labour. We had about 4 midwives Celia, Anna (who delivered, assisted by student, Jessica) and Obeni and Phung (post labour). All were great and had slightly different styles and advice. We had a very difficult last 30mins of labour. I could tell Rosie (doctor I think) by the way she was looking at Anna it was becoming critical. Thankfully, mum was oblivious and high on adrenaline and pain relief medicine. We got there in the and my partner delivered a beautiful baby girl. But it does bring to my concern and of where the level of care dipped with the theatre staff (not the midwives). Unfortunately, my partner was unable to deliver the placenta and it was stuck. I appreciate that this can be very dangerous if it is not removed soon after baby. *I think her name was Sargita who waved a two page document (attached) in partners face telling that she needs to read, add comments and sign a consent for the placenta to be manually removed. Moreover, that we needed to do it now because that there was about to be a shift change. Yes, you read correct. She emphasised not my partners safety but being able to bring the new shift team up to speed on events. Anna (midwife) tried to buy us more time and tried her best help my partner deliver the placenta. But to no avail. I really wanted to step in more but did not want to stress my partner any more arguing with the medical “professional”. I asked, is this necessary now. Without any compassion, Sargita said we cannot go to theatre without it. I strikes me as very odd that in the maternity ward of a hospital a woman who had just given birth would be refused treatment if it was to become life threatening. So, my partner signed the form under duress. The removal seems to have been successful (time will tell). However, my partner lost a lot of blood. Most skin-to-skin was with me (father) and breastfeeding was a slow start. 4 hours later, back from theatre, even more exhausted and traumatised my partner had to try and breastfeed. It was like a weird experiment. It was horrible holding my reborn baby cry for food and just as painful seeing how helpless and out of it my partner was. Even over a week later, the consent form is still not a quick read and there are many questions I still have, and I was not exhausted from not eating for 24hrs, fatigued from the trauma of giving birth and high on pain relief medication. One must question the ethics of asking a woman under such unique conditions to read a complex document and sign it under so much pressure and duress. One may even go as to far as to question whether permission was truly given. It really felt like this was more about insurance for the hospital and should be reviewed. We were in hospital another two days to recover and my partner had to be put on a drip for iron deficiency because of the blood loss. There definitely could be better communication checking-in and out of hospital. We thought we were coming in, in the day. Turned out to night because of a lack of beds. This meant starting induction practices such as sweeping followed by an hour bouncing on a ball then walking around for an hour right before my partner was already tired and ready to sleep. On the last day, we were told we were leaving soon so my partner stayed awake but we did not leave for about 12 hours at 2200h. So we got in late, tired and unrested which made the first night home very rough."

"Very supportive and caring staff at all levels. Was given very professional treatment and advice. All of the facilities were clean, bright and accessible. If anyone had any doubts about whether they would be treated well I can advise based on my own experience that you’d be looked after well."

"Whilst I had an excellent experience in terms of antenatal care, my postnatal care was terrible. In terms of antenatal care, the staff were excellent, reassuring and extremely caring. I had an emergency c section and the speed at which they made the decision and delivered the baby, whilst keeping me calm and reassured was just amazing. Thank you so much to the wonderful staff who took care of my delivery. You turned a potentially traumatic situation into a positive one. On the the postnatal ward, I had a terrible experience, namely with one nurse/ midwife. After my c section, the first night was the hardest. My husband was not allowed to stay and I couldn’t stand up or pick up my baby on my own given the c section. The nurse/midwife told me to let me my baby sleep when it had been 4.5 hours since she’d last fed, no help was provided to change her nappy on the first night (I had to risk it and do it on my own despite being attached to a catheter and painful stitches) and the education and care was absolutely terrible (I was told I don’t need to burp my baby when breastfed). I was also waiting for 30 minutes for someone to help me each time overnight. I also had conflicting advice from a number of midwives. The discharge process took half a day as well. Be prepared for a shocking postnatal experience."