not even pg yet but wanting a homebirth

[HopefulKirsty]

Hi ladies - Hope I'm not wasting your time. I'm ttc atm but oh and i have made all our desicions before ttc. I didnt want to be pregnant then find out he was against bf for instance. Thankfully we both want a breats fed, cloth bummed little one.
I live in scotland and was wondering about the financial cost of having a homebirth? I have my heart set on giving birth at home in a pool. do they do that on the nhs or would I need to go private?
I know I'm jumping the gun a bit but I want to be well prepared. Thanks.

 

[Mervs Mum]

There is no cost for a home birth in the UK. You have the right to give birth where ever you please! The pool will be a cost depending on if you buy or hire one or if you have a doula they will often provide one for free.

Good luck TTC xx

 

[indigo_fairy]

I'm planning a homebirth, and really it wouldn't be costing me anything, but I'm hiring a doula and buying a pool (plan to use it again in the future too). The NHS provide the midwives for the birth, so you don't need to hire an independant midwife obviously

Good luck!

 

[HopefulKirsty]

Thank you for the information. I guess i should start looking into pools/doula's then. I hoe I will be allowed a home birth but a friend of mine told me that becase its my first and I'm overweight that they wont let me have one in this area

 

[Mervs Mum]

That's just not true

 

[indigo_fairy]

Thank you for the information. I guess i should start looking into pools/doula's then. I hoe I will be allowed a home birth but a friend of mine told me that becase its my first and I'm overweight that they wont let me have one in this area

Ditto to what Merv's mum said! It's your right to birth where you want, they can only advise not tell you what you're allowed and not allowed to do. My consultant tried telling me I wasn't allowed a homebirth, for different reasons but did my own research and with alot of good advise from the ladies on here I decided differently.

 

[S_Dowd]

I also have decided to have a home birth, even though I'm still TTC. I didn't know a homebirth in the UK was free! You guys are so lucky! It's going to cost DH and me just under $3,000 for one! And that's with a student midwife.

It's worth it to me, though. I hate hospitals!

 

[rachiedata]

I didn't know a homebirth in the UK was free! You guys are so lucky! It's going to cost DH and me just under $3,000 for one! And that's with a student midwife.

We are lucky to have the service on the NHS - so it's not free, it's what we pay our taxes and national insurance for really! - but it is a rather patchy service in that in some areas it's easily accessible but others make it really difficult (eg. what some girls on this forum are having to go through to access a service that the NHS says is available, but in reality isn't!). I guess over there that if in your state midwifery is legal, and the midwives are available, then you just pay for them and they turn up!

On that note, are home births/midwives not covered on your health insurance? I've read about some of these issues in the US and it seems that if you can find a willing midwife, you could write to your insurance comparing the cost of a hospital birth with a doctor vs. the (substantially cheaper) option of home birth with midwife. The insurance companies would be fools not to offer the cheaper (and as we know, nicer and generally safer) option, since they're just run by money men after all. Plenty of resources available online and women who've done this if you need it later.

Good luck TTC