Maternity Services
COVID-19 Update
Before your visit please read our COVID-19 Maternity FAQs.
We would encourage everyone coming into our maternity, neonatal intensive care and special care baby units to test themselves for COVID-19 before coming to these areas where ever possible. You can still obtain free lateral flow tests for this purpose for delivery to your home.
Simply visit www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests and follow the instructions. You are entitled to obtain free tests because "you've spoken to a healthcare professional recently and they asked you to get a test".
You can order one pack every 3 days if you’re eligible. A pack contains 7 tests.
You can also obtain tests, for free, on the unit if you are unable to obtain them online.
We would encourage everyone coming into our maternity, neonatal intensive care and special care baby units to test themselves for COVID-19 before coming to these areas where ever possible. You can still obtain free lateral flow tests for this purpose for delivery to your home.
Simply visit www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests and follow the instructions. You are entitled to obtain free tests because "you've spoken to a healthcare professional recently and they asked you to get a test".
You can order one pack every 3 days if you’re eligible. A pack contains 7 tests.
You can also obtain tests, for free, on the unit if you are unable to obtain them online.
Welcome to Maternity Services
We remain open, so please continue to attend your appointments as normal or as advised by your midwife. Please use the Labour Ward reception for all appointments.
We're here for you from the very start of your pregnancy, through to the birth of your baby and beyond, to guide and support you through this exciting time in your life.
We tailor maternity care to your individual needs. Our dedicated team will look after you every step of the way, from your first antenatal appointment through to our health visitors seeing you and your baby at home after birth.
Every day about a dozen Whittington Health babies are born to women with a wide range of ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. We are very popular with local women from Haringey and Islington and we also attract mums from other London boroughs who travel to Archway to have their baby with us.
Check the 'Your Pregnancy' page for other important updates.
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Our Response to the Ockenden Review of Maternity Services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust
On the 30 March 2022 the final report regarding the investigation into the care of pregnant women and babies at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust was published. This report found failures in the quality of care, and failures to investigate and report poor care over a period of 20 years. This failure led to the same incidents being repeated. The report highlighted the reasons for this were
- Too few staff
- Lack of ongoing training
- Lack of effective investigation of incidents
- Not listening to women and families
The report highlighted the ways in which maternity services nationally could learn from what happened at Shrewsbury and Telford and Whittington Health NHS Trust would like reassure you that we take this report very seriously.
We have a close working relationship with the Whittington Maternity Voices Partnership and value contribution that parents to be and families can bring when reviewing and developing our maternity services. It is important that we listen to all women and put their voice at the centre of our care.
As a result of the report, we have started work with Maternity Voice Partnership (the Whittington MVP), the North Central London Local Maternity System and NHS England to look at our maternity services to review and implement the recommendations contained within the report.
We take the views of everyone giving birth with us very seriously.
During the pandemic we did experience staff shortages due to sickness and currently do have vacancies for Midwives and support workers which are being recruited to. Our staff are trained to the highest standard and undergo regular professional and training updates. All of incidents are thoroughly investigated using a clear and open process, these are discussed and shared with our Maternity Voice Partnership.
If you have any concerns or questions, please contact our Patient Advice Liaison team, Yana Richens our Director of Midwifery or our Maternity voice partnership. We would all be very happy to answer any of your questions.
Page last updated: 05 Apr 2022