"Terrible experience - avoid this maternity !"

Ridiculous pregnancy follow up: midwifes argue between themselves, most of them are uncaring and unprofessional. Some necessary tests were not done or booked when they should have been and I was then offered the relevant test (for pregnancy) for a date 1 month after my due date! Birth experience was not acceptable: was not once offered food during the 30 hours I was in labour - apparently I was "forgotten" every time! Nothing was done about non-progressing labour, even when they noticed meconium in the amniotic fluid. This resulted in my baby being very sick at birth (life threatening) and requiring immediate medical attention and then being on treatment for nearly 1 week in hospital. Post birth service was no different: apart from the competent pediatrician who came down once a day to check on my baby, the mid-wifes did not like to be "bothered", I had to chase everybody around the hospital for my baby to receive the night antibiotic dose as they kept forgetting to give it! they lost all my notes as well as my baby's notes and advised me that "they were probably given to someone else" ! then when they miraculously turned up again they contained information and follow up data of another baby... but nobody was bothered by this, even after I pointed it out! During labour I was angry with mid-wifes for putting my baby's life at risk as I knew there was meconium and it wasn't good to leave it for 18 hours like they did, and the day of the birth I was sent a psychiatrist to accuse me of various things including wanting to harm my baby!! Absolutely disgraceful!!! Towards the end of the labour I was transferred to labour ward as they wanted to give me epidural and induce me but did not even look at the medical notes which stated no epidural (medical reasons)! I was so scared and did not trust any of the doctors or midwifes there. To top it all up I was having difficulties with breastfeeding and the midwifes just asked one of the assistants to bring little bottles of formula to us on day 1 (no explanations, we were told to just give the milk to the baby), the pediatrician was not happy about this mistake which had very negative effects on my milk supply and baby weight thereafter and I had to fight very hard to be able to continue breastfeeding... well done UCLH, I am not sure how you got your breastfeeding accreditation when it was clear that all babies on my ward were offered formula automatically! Otherwise, toilets were never clean, my bed sheets were never changed in the week I spent there and the room was never cleaned, despite the blood left on the floor but the nurses taking blood samples from my baby. After this experience, I will never go back there and would recommend that anyone avoids this maternity.