The best hospitals to give birth in South West London
If you’re expecting your first baby, or recently moved to London from a different country, it can feel confusing to know exactly what to do once those two lines have appeared on your pregnancy test, and where to get your maternity care from in London.
Most people tend to go to their GP to get referred to their local maternity hospital. But what many first mums-to-be often do not know is that you can actually self-refer to the maternity hospital of your choice (ideally by 8-10 weeks of pregnancy), and that you do not necessarily have to choose your nearest maternity hospital/local trust hospital, unless you’re planning/considering a home birth.
Maternity hospitals/ care providers in South West London
So let’s have a brief look at the NHS maternity hospitals & care providers available in South West London.
Chelsea & Westminster Hospital
Chelsea & Westminster is the busiest maternity hospital of South West London, with about 5,500 births a year, and is the primary site of the Chelsea & Westminster NHS Trust which sees between 10,500 and 11,000 births a year together with West Middlesex Maternity (see below), making it one of the largest maternity services in England.
Chelsea & Westminster’s popularity is partly due to the modernity of its facilities (compared to other hospital buildings which can look and feel really tired) but also - maybe surprisingly - due to its postcode and location in ‘fancy’ Chelsea (SW10), which is attractive to many parents, so much so that Chelsea & Westminster is considering restricting its care to women & families actually living locally.
It offers a birth centre with 6 rooms, including 4 with birthing pools, all located on the same floor as the large labour ward and 2 dedicated maternity theatres. Its postnatal ward mostly consists of bays of 6 beds each, making space and privacy restricted. Private postnatal rooms can be booked, although at a price!
Chelsea & Westminster also offers trusted Homebirth service - the Sunflower Team - as well as a popular private maternity service - the Kensington Wing - which manages about 850 births every year.
West Middlesex University Hospital
West Middlesex Hospital is located in Isleworth (TW7) and is the secondary site of the Chelsea & Westminster NHS Trust, supporting about 4,500 births every year. ‘West Mid’ is a smaller site than the Chelsea site and offers a really popular midwife-led unit called the Lunar Birth Centre with 4 large birth rooms, 2 of which have birth pools. The labour ward hosts 11 Delivery Suite rooms and 2 theatres. West Middlesex Homebirth teams currently offers one of the most reliable and professional homebirth service in South West London, with 7 homebirth midwives, some of which are also lactation consultants.
Kingston Maternity Hospital
A much smaller hospital, Kingston Hospital, located in Kingston-upon-Thames (KT2) has a popular maternity unit who sees about 4,600 babies born every year. It offers a Birth Centre (midwife-led unit) - which has recently been renovated - with 5 birth rooms, of which 3 are equipped with birth pools; a labour ward (called Delivery Suite) hosting 8 birthing rooms, including 1 with birth pool (although it may not always be available on the day), and 2 theatres, all located on the same floor.
Kingston Maternity also boasts a really competent and reliable home birth team and service, although there have been some temporary staffing issues resulting in less capacity.
Kingston is also an Optibreech centre, offering specialist expertise, care and many birth options if your baby is breech.
Queen Charlotte Hospital
Queen Charlotte - officially Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital (W12) - is part of the Imperial College NHS Trust together with St Mary’s hospital in Paddington (in West Central London) which houses the private Lindo Wing. It supports almost 5,000 births every year.
The birth centre has seven birthing rooms, three of which have birth pools; its labour ward hosts 18 rooms, some with birth pool and ensuite facilities, and there are 2 operating theatres. Queen Charlotte is also a nationally renowned centre for foetal care, and offers the largest neonatal intensive care unit in the country, as well as a private maternity service known as the Clayton Ward.
St George’s Hospital
St George’s hospital in Tooting is the largest hospital of South West London. It offers a comprehensive maternity service, including 14 beds in the Delivery Suite, the Carmen Birth Centre with 4 birth rooms (and 2 birth pools) and a homebirth team - the Rainbow Team - available to families in Wandsworth and parts of Merton. This said, the availability of the last two has not always been reliable at times over the last few years, with the birth centre closed and the suspension of home birth services.
My doula tips to choose a maternity hospital in London
The first thing to bear in mind is that choosing your maternity care provider is an important decision and it is worth taking the time to research your options before making a choice.
It’s also important to know that, if for any reason, you are not satisfied with your first choice, turn out to need more specialist care that is not provided in your chosen maternity service, or if you move areas, you can transfer your care at any point during pregnancy.
Here are some key criteria you might want to use:
Overall rating of the maternity: you can access key information, statistics and performance indicators on the care provided by each maternity hospital on the NHS Maternity Services Dashboard. You can for example see the number of bookings and births (‘deliveries’), many statistics on the care provided, including rates of intervention, user satisfaction on various aspects and mother and baby health.
Location and accessibility of the hospital: this is probably the main criteria that most parents-to-be consider. How close the hospital is to their home, and how long the journey is likely to be on ‘the day’ if you want to give birth at the hospital or in the midwife-led unit/birth centre. This is for sure an important criteria but a slightly longer transfer time might be worth it if it means being followed by a maternity team you prefer. London traffic being quite a thing, take into account how long the journey can take at the peak of rush hour, but also at night-time (when the chance of you going into labour is overall higher!).
Location and accessibility for your midwife appointments (antenatal care): before you get to birth, you will have many pregnancy care appointments with your midwife especially if you’re a first-time mother. Depending on the hospital, midwife appointments may take place at the hospital, but most often in the care of the community midwives in community centres, local health centres, children’s centres or GP surgeries.
Peer reviews and testimonials: many women ask for advice and opinions among their network but also on social media/local facebook groups about where is best and what the care is like. Whilst this can give you an idea, please bear in mind that you are likely to hear both extremely positive experiences and extremely negative experiences about the same place/provider. So try and make a decision based on your own views and experience of the care you receive.
If you want to give birth at home, or would like to consider the option of giving birth at home with the NHS : you will have to self-refer to the care of the homebirth team you fall under the catchment area of. If you’re aren’t sure which one this is, ask your local hospital who will be able to confirm. It is sometimes possible to get under the care of a different homebirth team, especially if you live right on the boundary of their catchment area, but it remains a rare case.
If you would like more help choosing where to give birth in South West London based on your situation and needs, or support navigating your birth choices, maternity care, or labour and birth at your chosen maternity, I offer 1-hour doula consultation calls and thematic support sessions, as well as ‘full’ pregnancy & birth doula support. You can book a free initial call here to ask all your questions, or simply get in touch by email.