"Overall, very good antenatal care"

I had my first child at Royal London in 2013 and have chosen to have my second child there this year. Overall, I was very satisfied with the antenatal care I was given during my pregnancy. Room for improvement: - Waiting time in antenatal clinic and reception staff in antenatal clinic. Reception staff are too busy and this often led to rude responses and inefficiencies. - Labour ward staff should try at all times to be caring and supportive. It is a busy department and I expect the staff are frustrated by early attendees but mum's are often feeling very anxious at this point and need a high level of care and support. I found the labour ward staff to be a bit curt and unfriendly at first until labour was established when the level of care dramatically increased. Staff should aim to be consistently kind and supportive. - Less ancillary staff in the post-natal ward/private rooms. We seemed to have a different person coming in constantly to empty the bins, clean the bathroom, provide clean sheets, clean the windows and even hoover the air conditioning unit - on top of all the medical staff visits!! While trying to establish breast feeding and generally feeling bruised and emotional after the delivery it did feel like an invasion of privacy at times. One person doing more ancillary tasks would have been much better. - Meals should be provided for the guest in a private room (at a cost would be fine). This sounds quite a fussy complaint but only mum's get food other than breakfast. This resulted in us sharing the food and then dad having to go to the canteen or outside for more. The canteen is quite far and very busy. It would have been much better for dads to be able to pay for a meal at the same time as the mums and not have to leave the ward. Standout excellence: - Cleaniness and facilities at the hospital. - All antenatal clinic medical staff. - Quality of medical staff and support throughout CVS. - Antenatal courses. - Breastfeeding support. - Private room availability in post-natal ward.