Mooglet I did not post to put people off hospital births - I posted to ask for help and advice. Thanks for understanding. I rather thought that was the point of this forum? Your post appears quite hostile.
I got the stats from the NHS Choices website, backed up by a visit to the unit. The stats were repeated by the midwife who showed us round on the guided tour. She and other local midwives who work in the hospital have told us that a HB would have a considerably lower risk of infection, as would the MLU that we cannot get to (we don't drive).
The reason I called it ghastly and depressing was that this is the image we have after the tour.
- It was dark and dirty (food on the floors but apparently the cleaners were not due for a few hours yet),
- we were told that 24 hours after waters breaking we WOULD be induced,
- that after a certain amount of time we WOULD move using forceps/ventouse and stirrups,
- that we would not be allowed our own food from home (I have blood sugar issues and need proper food regularly, a sugary drink makes it worse),
- that 4 hours after birth we would be moved to postnatal and dh would have to go home. I understand the reason for this, but being moved to a shared room in the middle of the night and coping on my own 4 hours after birth, then waiting til 11am for visiting time is depressing. We were also told that they no longer let you pay for a private room, even if there is one available
- shared bathrooms, so you would need to put clothes back on to go for a wee in labour, and possibly wait to be able to go.
Generally, we were given the distinct impression that we would be on a conveyor belt with timings dictated by routine, that we would have no choices in our care/birth, and that birthing mothers with opinions were frankly an inconvenience. I would go to the local MLU but as I say, we do not drive.
Since then I have been on a different tour of the same unit with the NHS antenatal class, and it was completely different. This was down to the midwife who showed us around. She showed us the midwife-led rooms (turns out we had only been shown a high dependency room) which actually had somewhere to sit down, told us they had birthing balls, showed us that the beds could be manipulated so you can give birth in different positions, showed the lighting options (you cannot overestimate the difference that makes!), it was all clean, we were reminded constantly to use the handgel every time we moved area within the unit (never happened once on the other tour), shown more toilets and showers and told some of the rooms ARE en-suite, told us we would get tea and toast after the birth regardless of the time and that we COULD bring in food/drink, and generally reassured us that we would not be pressured into agreeing to interventions we did not want.
I feel a lot better about the unit now, but still do not want to give birth there in case I get that first midwife! I no longer have faith in them, and I do not know which attitude is more common in there. I do know that both of the midwives I have seen the most of agree I would be better off at home, based on being low risk in every category, my concerns about infection rates and the general stress of a hospital environment.
I am aware that I may need to be transferred to hospital, and that roughly 25% of planned hbs do transfer. My priority is a healthy baby and healthy me, in that order, followed by being happy and unstressed. I am not daft, and I would not endanger the baby if anything started to go wrong. Each midwife has said to me that I would get the same care/expertise in a hb as I would get in the MLU, and as I live considerably closer to the hospital than the MLU is (5 minute drive rather than 30 minute), it really is safer.
As I say, I did not post to put people off, nor am I stupid. I have looked into it - after all, it is my baby's life at stake in any kind of birth. All I wanted to know was whether support for a hb in this specific area was likely to be spuriously pulled at the last minute, as I have heard happening elsewhere. A reasonable question.