Overview

Maternity: care during pregnancy

Choosing where to have your maternity care

Congratulations on your pregnancy.

We understand it can be an overwhelming process to find the right maternity care for you.

To help you do this, it can be helpful to know how NHS maternity care is provided.

We want everyone to have continuity of carer during their maternity care.

This means you are linked to the same team during your pregnancy and postnatal care. This helps build a relationship with your midwife and their team. Research shows this leads to better outcomes for both mums and babies. It can also give you a more positive experience throughout your pregnancy.

Matron and midwife on maternity ward

Please consider where you live as part of your decision about where to have your maternity care. All hospitals offer continuity of carer if you live within their catchment area.

If you live outside of the catchment area, we can still provide maternity care but are unable to offer continuity of carer. The hospital from the catchment area you live in will be responsible for your postnatal care once you have left hospital after giving birth.

All midwifery appointments are held in local community hubs if you live within our catchment area.

You can use the catchment area map to see:

  • if you live within our area for maternity services
  • details about your local hub

Map of Guy's and St Thomas' maternity services catchment area

Please see the community midwives page for more information on each midwifery team and their catchment areas.

If you live in postcodes SE3, SE4, SE6, SE9, SE10, SE12, SE13, SE24, SE25, SE27, SW11, SW12 and SW17, we'll book you into our community hubs for antenatal care. Please refer to our catchment area map. Your postnatal care after giving birth will be from your local hospital.

If you do not live within our catchment area, you can find out which hospital can offer you continuity of carer on the catchment area map for other London maternity providers.

Map of catchment areas for other London maternity providers

We hope this information has been helpful in your decision on where to have your maternity care.

It's important that you only receive maternity care from one NHS hospital at a time. You can choose to transfer your care between hospitals at any point. Please notify the hospital that you are no longer receiving care from.

If you no longer wish to have your maternity care with us, please complete the cancelling your maternity care form.

Last updated: November 2023

Self-referral

You can self-refer or ask your GP to refer you.

Please consider where you live as part of your decision about where to have your maternity care. Please complete this form to make a self-referral to St Thomas' Hospital only. 

Self-referral form

Cancelling your maternity form

Contact us

Phone: 020 7188 2300

We answer the phone from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Our phone lines are very busy, especially at the start of the week. After 1 hour of waiting your call may disconnect. Please call back if this happens. At 5pm, all unanswered calls will disconnect. Please phone back the next working day. Thank you for your patience while we try to help as many people as possible.

We'll give you an email address for your midwifery team when you book.

We have midwifery clinics at our community hubs throughout south east London and at St Thomas' Hospital. For full list of locations, see our community midwives page.

Do you have any comments or concerns about your care?

Contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

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