Giving birth in North West London
The NHS in North West London is dedicated to ensuring that women have access to the highest possible quality of care, wherever they choose to give birth.
Recently we have concentrated our staff and resources into six maternity units. This has enabled us to have more midwives and senior consultants in our units to provide care for women, upgrade our facilities, provide more antenatal (before birth) and postnatal (after birth) care locally and offer greater home birth choice.
Your choices
In North West London there are six hospitals where you can give birth:
Maternity bookings for Ealing Hospital are no longer being taken, and as of 25 June women will not be able to give birth at the hospital.
All our maternity units offer both consultant-led and midwifery-led care depending on the level of support you need. You can also choose to give birth at home, where you will be supported by our home birth team.
Antenatal care is carried out in our hospitals, in children’s centres and in health centres close to where you live. Most women can choose where they receive antenatal care, although some women with particular medical needs may be advised to attend hospital for appointments.
Women can also choose to have their postnatal care either at home, in hospital, or in health and children’s centres near where they live.
How to book
You can be referred to any of our maternity units by your GP, or you can complete a referral form on the individual hospital websites, which are listed above.
This booklet provides you with information on each of our hospital maternity units in North West London, including a map of where they are.
For more information to help you make your choice of where you want to give birth, you can look on each hospital website or speak to your midwife or GP.
If your first choice maternity unit is fully booked, we will contact you to help you book at another unit.
Whichever hospital you choose for your care, all maternity units in North West London include the following services...
Core services
- Birth centre
- Birth rooms
- Birthing pools
- Midwife-led care Consultant cover
- Home birth option
- Antenatal ward
- Antenatal care in the community Neonatal care
- Postnatal ward
- Postnatal care in the community Postnatal care at home
- Private room hire
- Option for partner to stay overnight
Expert care
- Midwife-led care for the majority of our women with access to a highly experienced team of midwives 24-hours- a-day, seven-days-a-week
- Increased consultant cover for women who require more complex care and support
- Experts from different areas of healthcare and other health professions as required
- Support for women who choose to have their babies at home
Modern facilities
- Birthing centres which include rooms with birthing pools
- Labour wards with specialist maternity theatres
- Recovery areas for women who have given birth in theatre
- Special Care Baby Units and intensive care units for babies requiring continuous medical and nursing care due to prematurity or complex needs
Choice of care
- Choice of where you give birth: at home, in a hospital birth centre or labour ward
- Choice of where you have your antenatal and postnatal care: in hospitals, children’s centres or in health centres
Further Information
You can view an easy read version of the Giving Birth in North West London booklet here.
You can view the Giving Birth in North West London booklet in Tamil here.
You can view the Giving Birth in North West London booklet in Punjabi here.
View a map of the varying maternity units and their locations here.
Click here for information on bus routes to maternity units around Ealing.
Maternity Care for Ealing Residents Community Poster
