How did you 'book' your home birth (UK)?

[MindUtopia]

I was just looking at the Homebirth.org.uk site to find a list of supplies I might need for my home birth (as I finally realised today that it might be a good idea if I started getting some of these together!) and I happened to stumble across a section on 'booking' your home birth. It recommends putting a call in to the Supervisor of Midwives to officially book your home birth. Did anyone else do this? Do I actually need to?

It was noted in my notes during my booking appointment that I planned to have a home birth, but I haven't really discussed it at length with anyone since then. I was planning to bring a copy of my birth plan to my 36 week appointment and to bring it up again with the midwife then so she could schedule the home visit. But do you think I need to also call the unit and speak to the SOM? That seems a bit excessive and I assumed I'd only ever need to speak to the SOM if there was a problem. Home births aren't that unusual around here and I've experienced nothing but support so far when I've discussed it with my midwife, so I didn't actually anticipate having to do more than just remind them at 36 weeks. What do you think? Did you just mention it at your midwife appt and which one? Did you need to call the unit to arrange anything or book your home visit, or did the community midwife do it for you?

 

[pimento1979]

I told my MWS at every appointment as I've had an issue with continuity of care, they do all the booking in on their end (like put me in 'the book', whatever that means; come by for the homebirth assessment and drop off the kit between 36 and 37 weeks, which is when they actually looked at my birth plan). I reckon each area is different and your MW should tell you whether you need to do anything further.

 

[solitaire89]

I didn't call the SOM or anyone else, just mentioned each time I went for a mw appointment, and then she did the last checks at, I think, around the 36 week mark so that it was all official. But no, I didn't ever "book" it with anyone other than my mw. If in doubt, call your mw and check though. It would be awful if they tried to refuse you because you hadn't called someone else.

 

[MindUtopia]

Thanks. I think I'll just remind them at my next appt (which is 36 weeks) when I bring up my birth plan. I need to have one last scan 2 days before that anyway, which is sorta my last 'clearance' into home birth land anyway (to check that my placenta isn't too low). So I feel like that should be fine. I have no problems just calling and demanding a midwife even if they haven't done the home visit yet or haven't dropped off the box, so I'm not worried about that. Just wasn't sure if I was absolutely supposed to call the ward or not. I guess I'll wait and see, it's only a few more days now, which seems so strange! I can remember being so early on and thinking this time seemed so far away still.

 

[ljo1984]

I told my mw at 20odd weeks, she got some paper work sent out to me from the hb team at 34 weeks, had a home visit at 36 week so defiantly kick their buns into gear. Some areas they have supplies sent out, here they bring it all with them on the day.

 

[Lois22]

I told my MW at 37 weeks then she came and done a house assessment.

Xx

 

[xsadiex]

They do like to check your house so ask at your next appointment what the procedure is. X

 

[rachiedata]

Same here, I just reminded them at 36 weeks (when I saw my named midwife, not someone else, though it was in the notes for every appointment). She filled in a form and "put me in the book" then came to see me at home the next week.

Don't worry about the home visit BTW, think they just like to see the lay of the land. Mine was all about having nowhere to park (lived in 3rd floor flat with no parking at the time) but the midwives who attended didn't mention it and weren't at all bothered.

 

[MummyHunter]

I have just had my check today (36+3) and all notes are written up for my home birth. Copies of notes go to community team etc with all details on it.

I did ask what the possibly of not having enough staff etc was and they were very open and honest with me. At the moment they are well staffed and should I deliver in the next few weeks there shouldn't be a problem. If the hospital was to get busy and they needed the midwives then they have to go there and it would be decided by the local trust whether to close down the home birth service for that particular day/night.
My last labour was only 2hrs 14 mins from start to finish - which included 30mins waiting for natural delivery of placenta. They have told me to phone at the immediate thought of labour starting and they will send 1st and 2nd midwife probably at the same time. If they close the service and I don't feel I can get to hospital they will phone an ambulance for me and advise me to stay at home and wait for the paramedics to come and assist with delivery. Little stressful to think about that but hey let's go with the flow!!

What makes it worse for me just now is my husband has just gone away to work on a job which takes him out of the country for up to 16days so much as I would love little Alannah to appear at 37wks I am going to have to be patient and hope she stays cooking until 39wks at least.
We will see, fingers crossed for a nice birth story later

 

[MindUtopia]

Just thought I'd update this on my experience in case anyone else is wondering how it works in various areas. I brought my birth plan to my 36 week midwife appointment and let the midwife know I was planning a home birth and wanted to go over it. She went through it with me and said it all looked good and that she would give me a call later in the day or the next day to schedule my home visit and to drop off the home birth kit. I got a call the next day that my named midwife would give me a call when she was next in (2 days later) over the weekend to set everything up. I heard from the named midwife on Sunday morning and she asked me to come in and meet with her at the hospital (because she was on the ward) that afternoon to go over my birth plan again and discuss the details for my home birth. I'll admit I was a little bit nervous I was going to have a fight on my hands, even though my midwife team is generally very supportive of home birth and do them often, just because I've heard scary stories from others in the past.

But it was actually a really great experience. I met with my named midwife and another midwife who was on duty (I thought she would be the SOM, but she wasn't, just another random midwife). We went through my birth plan bit by bit and I clarified any bits that weren't clear and they talked about how they would generally want to handle various scenarios that arose, particularly reasons why they might recommend a transfer and how that would happen if it needed to. I thought that was really helpful and made it seem a lot less scary to deal with something unpredictable popping up. They were really supportive of keeping to my birth plan and my wishes for a calm, peaceful birth, even if a problem did come up that meant I would be advised to go to hospital. The only real sticking point is just my desire not to have any vaginal exams, but they understood where I was coming from and I understood where they were coming from, and I told them I would see how I felt in the moment and decide what I was comfortable with. They were happy with that. Then they took down specific directions to my home and sent me off to get my car so they could load in my home birth kit and G&A canisters for me to take home. They weren't interested in coming out to actually do a home visit though. I'm not sure if it's just because they didn't have time and wanted to get the kit to me that day, or they just weren't that bothered since we discussed the set up when I met with them (plus they already did a home visit for my booking appt).

In retrospect, I think I would have mentioned that I was planning a home birth again a bit earlier, maybe at my 34 week appt. I did discuss it with them at my booking appointment and again after my 20 week scan, but no one really remembered this so I think they felt a bit rushed to get my home birth appt scheduled and get the kit to me in the 4 days I gave them before I hit 37 weeks. I did have to have a 36 week scan to confirm baby was head down and that a low lying placenta had moved up, which was why I waited. I honestly didn't think they'd want to talk about it until after my scan, but I think maybe it would have been helpful to start the conversation again a little earlier than I did. But it all worked out well. We've done our practice run of setting up the pool now, so it's just a matter of waiting until this baby is ready to make his/her arrival now.

 

[solitaire89]

Ooooooo I'm so excited for you! I shall be stalking for news you know