to lie knowingly and deliberately to get my own way?

[HorsechestnutBlossom]

I had booked in a homebirth for months only to be told on the day there isn't a midwife available so you'll have to come in!

As an experienced homebirther (3 previously!) I was not going to be fobbed off so I told them the contractions were coming every minute! (lies lies lies)

I told them I could not come in and see you soon!

Heard them muttering to each other on the phone in the background she's too far gone we need to get a midwife to her she refuses to come in, then I did some extra yelp-in-labour for good measure and hung up.

A midwife rang me 2 minutes later saying I'm on my way.

And so I got the homebirth I wanted.

of course you weren't. it all adds to the pressure to improve maternity services. why on earth should we put up and shut up.

i asked for a hb for my first, with an awareness that if I transferred in they would come with me and stay with me. Different midwifery team. I didn't want to be left alone in labour with a midwife I had never met before or no midwife at all.

wolfnipplechips, it must then vary from PCT to PCT as we hve no domino scheme here and differnt MWs for home and hospital births

the fact there is a variation nationwide does not help ,does it?

posie, a doula would not have been any help in replacing a MW. they can't deliver, but offer support to teh labouring woman.. they are not a cheap alternative to a private midwife

But that is skewed because all the complicated births (or nearly all) take place in a hospital

"So, it's possible the OP stopped a midwife from going out to do a post natal check, or from delivering a birthing pack. "
Actually now I think about it this happened to me - MW cancelled at last minute because a HB woman was in labour. Absolutely fine.
Agree that the PCT should be planning for this situation.

No, it's not skewed, Katiestar, because the National Birthday Trust report matched pairs of women (planned Homebirth and planned hospital birth)

"The women were matched for age (within 5 yrs), number of previous children, where they lived, and past obstetric history. Thus, low-risk mothers were compared with other low-risk mothers, and the overall sample in the home birth group could be accurately compared to that in the matching group. The overall group profile was low-risk."

YANBU. Good for you. It makes me that women are told they can have a HB and then MW is apparently not available. I would not have lied to get a MW out but I would have refused to go in to hospital.

Am still very sceptical because only a very tiny fraction of costs in a hospital are variable.How do you fairly know what costs to charge to a particular birth (worked in NHS finance for many years )

how can you plan for this situation though, 15 women could go into labour on the same night in the same area that usually only sees 2 births a night, take into account that midwives need holidays, sometimes spend all night at a birth so can't work the next day etc i think you'll find is very hard to plan for. Now if it was a daily or weekly thing that there wasno MW available that would be appaling but unfortunately one badly staffed night is one persons life experience down the drain.

HorsechestnutBlossom - YANBU

Perhaps they simply invented the figures then, Katiestar.

I'm sure it's not that difficult to work out an approximate cost per patient eg my repair after DS1 took 1 anaesthetist a registrar and another member of staff 2 hours. You know how much they get paid, you know the cost of equipment etc etc.

YANBU

There are very few homebirths in most parts of the country. In many areas its less than 2%. The chances of having 15 women at once having a homebirth is next to nil. It is possible to get an agency midwife at short notice and its up to authorites to budget for this.

Some areas are far more synpathetic to homebirths than others. Where I live its quite easy to get a homebirth where as where my sil lives its next to impossible.

Money is spent differently. Prehaps one to one care is more expensive, however there is no option of an epidural or petidine or continous monitoring with a homebirth. Unlike a hospital birth you can only have 20 minutes worth of gas and air.

I suppose in terms of hours of midwives it depends on how long your labour is. In the early stages of labour the midwife might pop off and do a postnatal visit. You are given a phone number for if things really start to happen in earnest.

Unlike a hospital birth you have to pay for all your food, costs of laundry, cleaning, and most people stay in at least one night.

I live in a big city where homebirths are quite common,Probably because of the excellent domino scheme, i know 15 is way out there but i'm just trying to demonstrate the difficulty of planning for all eventualities. The mw in the domino scheme have been known to arrive at your home when you call them in labour(when your planning a hospital birth) and say ooh you look so comfortable here will just do this, will just do that and wham bang thank you mam you've had a homebirth, it happened to my friend with her first

Yes
Lying is wrong

I'm an epidural/drugs type of gal myself.

"By LuluMaman on Fri 17-Jul-09 13:39:50
i think the one time a woman should be able to be totally selfish and have her needs met fully is when she is in labour"

And when she's The Bride, Lulu, don't forget that

at hunker.

"how can you plan for this situation though, 15 women could go into labour on the same night in the same area that usually only sees 2 births a night, take into account that midwives need holidays, sometimes spend all night at a birth so can't work the next day etc i think you'll find is very hard to plan for. "
That's why PCTs have emergency planners and business analysts. It shouldn't be beyond them - if it is, they're in the wrong job!

Hospital activity is charged by grouping similar types of activity together and charging a national tariff. Each patient's record holds diagnoses and procedures they've had, and the groups are generated based on this. They used to be fairly general - so "delivery of a well baby" was charged charged at one tariff, however the groups have now been expanded to take the details of what happened to the patient into account a bit more. Stays longer than 'normal' are charged extra by day.
Not sure how home births are charged - presumably if these are community (PCT midwives) until very recently there was no charge at all, but this is changing.

aaaah, hello hunker !

labouringwomanzilla not as catchy as bridezilla

intrapartumzilla syndrome?

dunno

have had wine

YABU

I don't know the consequences of your lies but I don't like liars.

When you are in labour, it is your right to have a midwife attend to you...

It is the local NHS that has to supply.

Don't roll-over and say 'well, your taking resources from another mother'. Unless we are united instanding up [leaning, crouching or kneeing] for our rights, you will never get what your owed.

Mothers-to-be are always being fobbed off. When giving birth you are very vulnerable.Our local hasn't updated the midwifery building even though funding and plans had been drawn-up!

Guess why? Because women have always given birth - they don't need a new building!

Unless we show solidarity, how can we get the [male-run] institutions changed?

Lies shouldn't have been told, but I would have just held my ground.

I used my heightened instinct to get what I needed as a labouring woman. The palpitations I got after being told I had to come in! It was awful. I felt very vulnerable and cheated tbh.

Pg woman should not have to face that kind of trauma. Pg women are all sacred and should be treated as such.

I posted on here because I am interested to hear other women's views. If women are not prepared to put their foot down and demand better resources for birth they are not going to get it, that's clear.

My midwife was brilliant and supportive of me by the way (she had attended my other births by coincidence)and said I was right to demand a midwife come out and that if everyone else did the same there would be more resources put in.

We do have a right to a home birth on the NHS and if we didn't that would be another story.

I could not afford a private mw so thank god for the NHS.

Good for you OP...

You were only asking for your entitlement. And agreed the NHS is brilliant. The british don't know how lucky they are sometimes!

On another note, this thread has attracted 175 posts in less than 12 hours yet it does not appear in either the 'discussions of the day' or 'most active' threads despite having way more replies. Why?