Leicester Royal - Kensington Birthing Centre

[louby86]

Hi,

I went to see my midwife today and we were talking about what options I have of where to give birth. She mentioned quite a few places local to me and then had very good things to say about the Kensington Birthing Centre at the LRI. I liked the sound of this as it is just down the corridor from the usual maternity ward if there were to be any complications, as well as having NICU/SCBU upstairs. Before I make a definite decision I just wondered if anyone had any experiences of the LRI or the birthing centre that they wouldn't mind sharing. Thank you

I do not have any first hand experience as I am expecting my first but am Leicester based. I do however know about 7 people who have given birth there in the last year and all of them have had positive experiences. A friends mum is a neo natal nurse there too and says the care is second to none (although hopefully neither of us would need it).
How pg are you? If it's very early days bear in mind that you are able to change your mind right up until the last minute if you want to.

Thanks for replying, that's reassuring to know. I'm only 8 weeks but my midwife asked me to start thinking about it today so I thought I'd ask around and see.

I hope everything is going well for you in your pregnancy!

My friend gave birth to two babies there and says it's really great. At the moment I'm down to give birth at the General but think I'm going to swap to the LRI based on her experience.

I gave birth there earlier this year. They were lovely. We had a nice big room with lots of bean bags and a sofa. It had little chests of drawers instead of medical looking cupboards. They got me the pain relief I asked for straight away. I had my baby kneeling on the floor by the light of a lamp with just one nice midwife and my husband there.

It was so much nicer than I was expecting giving birth to be!

I had my baby there in the early hours of Thursday morning and the staff were wonderful - I couldn't have been treated better! I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks for all of your replies!

Congratulations SpannerPants

hate to throw a spanner in the works but i was there last May (2010) and hated it. To be fair it prob depends on your whole birth experience and mine wasn't great, i ended up getting moved along the corridor to the delivery suite in the end to have syntocin to speed things up.
If you give birth there take something to do during labour as i had tv and radio in the room i was in and neither of them worked so as i had a long labour had nothing to take my mind off things!!