ergh help me decide ward or birthing centre?

Wriggley

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2010
Messages
11,927
Reaction score
25
Hi all

Need a few opinions

basically for both this pregnancy and my first sons pregnancy i have been under the high risk clinic - when i was pregnant with my son the birthing centre was at a different hospital in a different town (an hour away) and i was not allowed to birth there due to being classed as high risk.

fast forward to this pregnancy there is now a brand new birthing centre (MLU) at my hospital - and one of the doctors there told me its literally through 1 door off the consultant led ward (CLW).

so basically the reason im classed as high risk is because i have anti-E antibodies in my blood and a low pappa level (pregnancy associated plasma protein). because of all of this i have been having regular scans as the pappa can cause a low birth weight.

throughout my pregnancy i have expressed that id love to birth on MLU but my consultant was very wary and said it will totally depend on how the pregnancy progresses and how the later scan reports came back.

his reason for not wanting me on the MLU was because i was classed as high risk and because the midwifes dont like surprises :/

anyways at 32 weeks i had a consultant appointment and didnt see the consultant i saw a member of his staff who said 'the ward is through a door its not a big deal' il ask him if you can birth there and he said he would make decision at the next appointment.

well i had that appointment on tuesday and again saw a member of his staff - my OH had had a blood test done to see if he carried the same antibody as me - this member of staff said that because of my OHs blood test results - it showed that my antibodies could not harm the baby and there for were no longer considered a problem in my pregnancy - she then went on to say because of the low pappa i would need to birth on CLU i explained to her that my consultant said he would make the decision based on that scan report and the pregnancy and asked her to go ask him. - scan report showed baby was measuring a head so growth is good no problems etc..

she was gone quite a while and came back and said hes happy for me to birth on MLU which tbh i was surprised but happy about.

anyways now after all of this im wondering weather im making the right choice? and maybe i should be on the ward? the ward is only through 1 door but on MLU they cannot monitor baby at all - its mainly for water and very natural births

with my son i really wanted a water birth and i couldnt and i really want one this time but im wondering if its in babies best interest to be on the ward

i saw midwife 2 weeks ago and she said i wouldnt be allowed to birth there and also i should take into concideration that with my first son i had a third degree tear but my consultant has written on my notes 'ok to birth at MLU'

i dont know what to do one part of me says go for MLU as the ward is through 1 door but other part of me thinks i should just be on the ward from beginning...
 
Are you sure they can't do any monitoring on the MLU? I had a water birth (on L&D though) and had regular monitoring in the water as I had a high risk pregnancy, and I know that at my MLU they use the hand held monitor too.
I'd say go for the MLU- you're so close to the ward if you needed to be transferred and there are a lot of benefits to birthing on a MLU where the focus is on active, calm birthing. But if you think using the MLU is going to make you anxious then it might be best to just labour on the ward.
I'm so unhelpful :haha:
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
1,650,441
Messages
27,151,001
Members
255,859
Latest member
HAMNCHZ
Back
Top
monitoring_string = "c48fb0faa520c8dfff8c4deab485d3d2"