To offer another perspective I have been with clients in this situation (midwives all attending other homebirths) and a labour ward midwife (who was comfortable with homebirths) did attend.
We simply repeated that we would be staying at home and expected a midwife to attend as the home birth had been pre-planned.
Though I know the situation might be different from trust to trust in terms of availability I have found that in the situations I've been in like this standing our ground has worked.
Obviously if you don't mind going to hospital then making a big fuss may not be the right thing for you, but if a homebirth is important to you then you do have the right to insist.
I'm copying and pasting the advice from the homebirth.org.uk site at the bottom of this post as it gives a useful way of handling this situation.
It might also be worth phoning back now and asking to speak to the supervisor of midwives on duty. You can explain that you expect a midwife to attend and, as they do in fact have some advance warning that someone is likely to be needed tonight, expect a midwife to attend.
It's also worth saying, that some women do opt to forgo admission.induction after 24 hrs if they aren't in established labour. Again I've been with a couple of women who felt they wanted to do this and both went on to have a normal birth at home. Not saying this is what you should do, just letting you know that nothing is compulsory!
If you can get your partner to deal with this so you can concentrate on relaxing and letting your body do its thing then all the better.
"FROM HOMEBIRTH.ORG.UK
What if you phone when you are in labour, and are told no midwives are available?
Many homebirth advocates feel that it is still important to stand your ground in this situation. If the labour ward is really this busy, is it a safe place for you to labour? You do not need to feel guilty about making the labour ward manager's job harder; while she may have a tough job, you are having a baby. She has ward crises every week and, by next week, will have forgotten that you ever existed. You, on the other hand, will remember this baby's birth for the rest of your life.
To the best of my knowledge, and from discussions on the Homebirth UK email group, in every case where a mother has insisted that she is staying at home and that she expects a midwife to be sent, a midwife has indeed been sent out. It is important to make clear that you will not accept a paramedic, nor will you accept transfer to hospital in an ambulance if one is sent out.
Here is some advice from Shawn Walker of the Norwich Home Birth group:
Over the past three years, we have seen this a lot among our group in Norwich / Norfolk. Here's what we recommend if it may happen to you:
Have someone with you who is not your partner or mother or other close, emotionally involved person. This person should have ideally had a successful homebirth herself and at a minimum be entirely supportive of your plans to do so, comfortable advocating for you in a situation where you are being told that there will be no midwife sent, and able to be calm in such a situation.
Prepare your supporter by practicing the 'broken record' technique with her. No matter what they say, your supporter should keep replying that you are going to give birth at home and are expecting a midwife to be sent. When they say they definitely won't send one, she should keep playing the record 'Clare is going to give birth at home and we look forward to seeing a midwife.' Needless to say, you should not be involved in this exchange you have enough to do! And we recommend that someone other than your partner be the spokesperson, so that your partner can concentrate on you. At no time should your advocate say, 'Okay' or 'I understand' or try to reason with the person on the phone. Just keep playing the record.
Don't think of it as preparing yourself for a fight; think of it as preparing not to fight by being clear about your position and having support to keep strong in that position.
My doula colleague and I have been successful with this technique many times, even when they are absolutely insisting they will not send someone. The only time it wasn't successful was when a close family member did the advocating -- and that person was very concerned about there not being a midwife. None of the couples who chose not to have another supporter with them chose to stay at home when told they had to come to hospital. When you think about it, that's a lot of pressure for a dad-to-be to be under in such a situation.
Shawn
Norwich Birth Group -- www.norwichbirthgroup.co.uk "