"Great level of care and facilities"

We attended the Royal London from May 2017 through to the birth of our son in November and have since benefitted from great postnatal care too

- Antenatal services: we had a large number of additional scans due to conceiving in a Zika zone and having a small baby - these were booked in efficiently by the staff and conducted in a friendly way.

Scans were always fairly prompt (you have to expect some waiting time) and staff very friendly and answered all our questions, special mention to the Foetal Medicine unit team who were great

- Induction ward: my wife was induced on our sons due date as they were slightly concerned he was a small baby.

The facilities are great - we were given a private room with an ensuite that meant my wife could have a bath as contractions got stronger and we also had the freedom to head out for a walk or coffee at any point.

However, this was the only part of our experience we would give constructive feedback on.

My wife was given a pessary to help bring on labour and was checked at the time it was inserted and was 1cm dilated at that point.

Despite us pointing out contractions had got a lot stronger later in the day (and that a monitor wasn't working well) she was never given a second physical check to see how dilated she was and it seemed like the midwives didn't really take her seriously when we said we thought she was farther along labour wise - we'd advise listening more closely to the patient in future even if they aren't making a fuss!

When her waters did break it then transpired she was having a partial placental abruption, was 9.5cm dilated with no pain relief and the emergency button was pressed!

- Labour/delivery: after the button had been pressed the care was immediate and fantastic.

The team of doctors/midwives then quickly assessed the situation and safely delivered our baby boy 10 minutes later, minimising stress to both mother and baby and ensuring we understood what was happening at every stage

- Postnatal ward: we paid for an amenity room and spent 2 nights there (baby was born at night and because my wife needed an anti-d injection we spent an extra night there).

The room was great and well worth paying for and the midwives (especially a particularly great student midwife) were helpful and friendly.

The daily breastfeeding clinic also identified our son had tongue tie which meant it could be dealt with quickly

- Breastfeeding team: they visited us at home twice and we also used the daily walk in clinics in the borough - all very helpful

- Tongue tie clinic: he had pretty severe tongue tie which took 2 appointments to fix - both times we were given great care by the 2 ladies there who were friendly and did a great job

Considering the constrained resources the NHS is operating with, we felt like the standard of care in general was very high and that everyone involved had our best interests at heart.

We'd highly recommend using the Royal London Maternity services