water birth at midwife unit after v scary hospital birth with first baby

[mummyhj]

With my first baby I planned a water birth at my local midwife led unit with very little pain relief, then had preeclampsia and a weeks stay in hospital before an induction with an epidural. They twice lost my baby's heart beat during labour and had the very scary experience of them getting me ready to rush to theater before then deciding to get me to push like crazy to get her out. Luckily she was fine but with this pregnancy my birth plan has basically been that at some point I'll go for a midwife appointment and be sent to hospital and that will be it. Today midwife says things look really good and I could have my baby at the midwife led unit, it's half an hour away from the nearest hospital and I just don't know what to do. Any advice would be gratefully received

If you were to get pre-eclampsia again, then this would be picked up before you went into labour and you'd end up in hospital again anyway.

I think that if you want a water birth at the MLU, then plan for that :) There's no reason for you not to, especially if the MWs are supportive.

If there are problems during labour then they're likely to be picked up with enough time for you to transfer to the hospital, and if not then the MWs at the MLU will be trained in dealing with emergencies.

If you plan an MLU birth, there's nothing to stop you changing your mind on the day and going to the hospital instead if that is what you want to do at the time.

I had a fairly similar experience with my first birth, no pre-eclampsia but the birth itself was traumatic and needed a lot of intervention and left me feeling like a 'failure' for a long time. Since my first birth, the hospital I went to has changed to a mw-led unit, with a 20-min transfer if anything else is required. DH was very concerned about this but I was determined to at least try mw-led and I'm so glad I did. The experience I've had this time has been great and the care wonderful. The unit was so relaxed and proud of the care they give, with good reason. They apparently choose their cases carefully so have a low transfer rate. If you're allowed to choose a mw-led unit I'd personally recommend it but go with your gut feeling. Good luck

I would go for it if its been offered! I was the same as you in that i was planning for a water birth a MLU, but ended up with EMCS in hospital after failed induction. The MLU in my area won't now accept me for my second pregnancy (currently 13 weeks) because i'm considered high risk because of my previous section - they also won't take people who've had assisted deliveries with forceps or vontouse.

Currently I'm allowed to go to the midwife unit as long as my blood pressure stays ok, think I'm going to go for it,thanks for the responses