Celebrity maternity unit to close - St John’s and Elizabeth’s Hospital a pioneer for the “natural birth movement”

Published: 9 April 2010
by TOM FOOT

A PRIVATE maternity clinic – popular with celebrity mums including Kate Moss and Emma Thompson – is set to close one year after a major revamp.

The unit in St John’s and Elizabeth’s Hospital in Grove End Road was a pioneer for the “natural birth movement”, which rejects excessive medical intervention, and charges up to £10,000 to perform one of its famed “holistic deliveries”.

It handled around 500 births a year before the recession. But now it is believed mothers are increasingly going to nearby NHS hospitals such as St Mary’s in Paddington or a new birth centre at Chelsea and Westminster.

The clinic is also thought to have suffered from the departure last year of its director, the charismatic South African gynaecologist Dr Yehudi Gordon who personally delivered many of the celebrity babies.

A St John’s and Elizabeth’s Hospital spokesman said: “This decision has been made as a result of an exhaustive financial review of our maternity services.

“Sadly it’s become clear since then that the unit isn’t financially viable in the long term, leaving us with no choice but to close it.”