Information and advice please!

[kittylady]

Hi I'm living in the UK and am looking into giving birth at either a midwife led centre or at home, but I wouldn't know where to start. What are the pros and cons (or where can I find this information) and how do I get the ball rolling? I haven't even had my booking in appointment yet but I like to consider these things early.

Background: I was low risk throughout my last pregnancy and I started labour at 9.30am I didn't go to hospital until 1.30pm and gave birth at 4.15pm so I spent the majority of my labour at home anyway, only using gas and air at the hospital. I was 8cm when I got there and was in back labour (I thought it was a false alarm and I had spd ).

Thanks for reading

 

[smallpeanut]

Firstly, this site will answer any questions...
https://www.homebirth.org.uk

Secondly, you won't get signed off for a hb until much later in pregnancy. They have to make sure things like blood tests etc come back clear. It's not normally done until around 36 weeks. But I'd mention it once you start seeing your community midwives. That's what I did and I was signed off last week. Good luck on your pregnancy and home birth xx

 

[RaspberryK]

My community midwife was rubbish in giving me home birth info, I looked on the net and found my county has its own hb team so I had to phone up and organise myself. This time I rang them straight away at 4 weeks xx

 

[sept2010]

Raspberryk where are you from? Birmingham has also got its own hb team since the start of the year. They do everythin fr u at home frm the very beginning..appts etc...

 

[RaspberryK]

I live in Northamptonshire, the hb team are lovely xx

 

[Alyssa Drough]

My MW didn't mention my birth plan until 36 weeks. She asked if I knew where I wanted to give birth, I said the Birth Centre and she said ok, here's the phone number.

That was literally it! I'd done my research though so I knew all about the difference between there and a normal hospital birth and what my specific hospital provided etc. I like to think she assumed that I knew what I was talking about and wasn't just being negligent in not giving me any further information!

A home birth was never even mentioned or offered.

 

[madasa]

I told my MW at my booking in appt. It was in my notes, "Planned homebirth" although it wasn't discussed in more detail til around 36 wks.