Birth Centre or Hospital?

[EmW78]

Having spent 34 weeks being certain I would give birth in hospital, I am now seriously considering the midwife-led birthing centre at Maidstone. I really want to use water, and to try to have as relaxing and natural a birth as possible, and I think this is my best chance (the hospital delivers 10+ babies a day but only has two pools) BUT if anything goes wrong it could be up to an hour to transfer... So I'm a bit scared!

Midwife and NCT seem to be very pro-birth-centre, and it does look lovely (although haven't taken the tour yet, and no tour of the hospital is available), but so many other people are saying "NO DON'T DO IT!", I don't know what to think.

Does anyone have any advice? Either specific to Pembury Hosp vs. Maidstone, or general?

Thank you

Hi Dear,

Is this is you first child?
I would be a little nervous if it was a first baby - because they usually take longer and more prone to require interventions etc... and if the nearest hospital is an hour away - that is a little risky.
DS1 was born in hospital - I had to be induced because he took forever etc...
DS2 was born in two hours in hospital w/o any issues whatsoever so decided to have DD in a birth centre - it was like a home away from home - really relaxing, double bed, sofa, lots of space to move around.
I was encouraged to be active istead of being on a small bed like in hospitals - i certainly prefered the birth centre but would worry about it if it was a first pregancy.

Wish it all goes well

I was in the same situation as you - MLU closer, and the transfer from them to the hospital was an hour.

The MLU had a transfer rate of 1 in 5 - so 20% of their women would end up going to the hospital. Ask what their transfer rate is.

I got the whole MLU to myself! My own room, my own en-suite bathroom, a pool that I could get in and out of as I wanted etc. 2 midwives all to myself - it was almost like a home birth. I was the only one there.

If you are a 'low-risk' I would say go with the MLU. It was calm, quiet and I got to make as much noise as I wanted. Didn't have to spend any time on a post-natal ward with a million other mums etc.

I'm in exactly the same situation, I'll have to drive past the MLU which is 5 minutes away to go another 30 minutes to the hospital, it's my first baby too.

The MLU is amazing, big individual rooms with a pool each, plasma telly for DH and so calm but I've decided on the hospital because I'm worried about any possible delay if I do need intervention, I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to her during childbirth that could've been avoided if she's received help faster.
From a more selfish point of view I'd like the option of an epidural if necessary, I may be fine on gas and air but as I'm a total newbie I have no idea what to expect pain wise and feel more reassured knowing I have more options.

Does the hospital have a low-risk MLU section as well as "hospital with ward"? I ask because our hospital unit does, the MLU is on the floor above the maternity ward. I know several people who opted for that, purely because then if they did need to transfer, it was just in a lift rather than half an hours drive.

Bit academic for me though, I'm classified high risk so the only option I have is the maternity ward, I'd love to have the option of going into the MLU on the floor above!

My answer to the birth centre/ hospital dilemma is always the same: neither. I'd need a gun pointed at my head to get me out of my house if there were no problems! I'm very much of the opinion that (as a general rule) it's what bodies are designed to do. I'd quite happily not have anyone there except DH!

Hee hee, thank you for your replies - just goes to show, there are great arguments on both sides!

I don't think I am 100% convinced either way, so I reckon I'll register for the MLU this weekend, and then wait and see whether I want to go there on the day.

I know people have fought hard for us to be able to have choice in childbirth, but sometimes I wish there weren't so many choices to be made at a time when my brain isn't really up to it!

I've had 2 very stress free births at our local birth centre and I think its important to remember that most women don't need ant intervention. Have you had a look at Birth Choice UK? It should give you the intervention stats for both places.

The other option is a home birth. You would get your water birth and the transfer time might be less (if you did need transferring)

Any intervention not ant intervention. Know that the NHS are skintight but I don't think ants have any place in a birth

I was in a similar situation as you. I went for the local midwife unit in the end, but looking back I would only ever give birth in hospital or a MLU attached to a hospital again. Not because the care I received was lacking, in fact the midwives were all wonderful, but I had no idea how traumatising I would find the whole birth (and I'm saying this having had a completely drug-free, 'textbook' delivery).

Also talking to friends who had low-risk pregnancies and still ended up with difficult births, you just never know what's going to happen, and I don't think personally I'd ever want to take that chance again of not having all medical resources at hand should something go wrong. An hour's transfer to hospital would definitely put me off.

I've been considering this the last couple of days too. I'm fairly certain I want to give birth in our local Birthing Centre but it only has 6 rooms and I'm due in May so I'm sure it's going to be busy... The maternity ward is attached to the birthing centre so if I can't be fitted in it would only take about 2 minutes to get to the ward. But I don't know how beds are allocated? Do you not know until the time whether you'll get to give birth there? I am tempted to ask what their turn away rate is but have no idea who I'd speak to about that...

A tough one. I think the distance between Maidstone and Pembury would put me off but must admit I am quite risk averse by nature!

wee I'd ask but also book myself in at he birth centre. At least that way you'll get your first choice, hooefully.

At what stage do you say where you want to give birth then? I'm at 24 weeks and no one's brought it up yet. Is it something I have to be a bit more proactive about? Have checked my notes and the midwife definitely hasn't just 'assumed' I want to be in the main ward.

It's been a while since I gave birth but then it was at your booking appointment. You can change your mind though.

We are midway between two maternity hospitals. One does fab antenatal classes and the other doesn't do any. So I did my booking appointment with the hospital that did the courses but said I wasn't sure where I wanted to give birth. Once we'd done the course I said I'd made up my mind and it was the other hospital. Knew all along we wanted the other one, I'd given birth there before and it was close to my family.

Thanks JJJ. I definitely wasn't asked about it at my booking appointment and that happened at my local community midwives GP office as opposed to the hospital? Will have a look into it - I've got another midwife appointment in a month but have seen 3 different community midwives since getting pregnant so hopefully it will all be in my notes!

You might find that the GP refers to one hospital and the MWs are from that hospital so everyone assumes you are giving birth there, that's what seemed to happen to me. What are your options?

I can either give birth in the main Birthing Ward in the big hospital in Edinburgh, the Birth Centre which is attached to the hospital (about a 30 second transfer if something happened...) or another hospital in Livingston which is an hour away and is, by far, my last choice. Because the Birthing Centre is so small though I think they've just assumed I'll go into the main ward. I'm starting NCT classes soon though so guess I can ask the person leading the class as they'll likely have quite a bit of local knowledge.

I'd ask about the birth centre, if you are low risk there is no reason why you shouldn't go there. Have you looked into a home birth too?

I cannot see any advantage of going to an mlu not attached to a hospital over a home birth (aside from lack of mess!). Either you're happy with just midwife care, in which case go for a home birth, or you want medical backup, in which case go to a hospital, or mlu attached to an obs unit.
60% of first timers have to be transferred in for hospital care from intended home birth. 50% of first timers have an epidural.
I've spent too much time on obs wards (professionally) to ever consider a home birth, but respect the choice of those that would.
I had a straightforward first delivery in 6hours on gas and air. Still wouldn't consider HB. I'll either use the mlu attached to our obs unit or the obs ward.
You have to do what you feel comfortable with, but an hours transfer time? If your baby becomes distressed, that's just too long IMHO.
Bear in mind that mumsnet has a high proportion of HB enthusiasts. You need to look at all the information available and make a decision that's best for you and your baby.
All the best for a straightforward delivery.

Hi op. I'm 35 weeks and will be giving birth in pembury. With DD1 I was supposed to have a home birth but was taken to hospital (we were in London back then) and gave birth in the mwlu attached to a major hospital. It was, despite having to change plans, a really positive experience and I considered Maidstone mwlu this time. What swayed me was that all rooms at pembury are private and my MW has assured me that they are very pro natural birth, so I felt reassured from that pint of view, andif anything does go wrong, we are in a hospital.

Having gone through one labour and birth already I feel v confident in my ability to voice preference and feel in control of my own labour. I didn't know how I would be last time so opted for most natural method I could, hoping to avoid as mucht intervention as I could, and I managed to end up somewhere in the middle. I'm very happy with that experience but we were 10 mins from a hospital and had an ambulance bay at the end of our road (literally!) This time is different so I'm going for least risk possible, hoping that I will again feel in control and able to assert myself and preferences (and gave briefed DH fully!) I know this probably sounds odd, but my last birth ended up being pretty close to intervention free (had wTers broken bit nothing else) so this tome I feel less pressure. Not sure that
makes any sense to be honest.

Sorry for atrocious spelling, am one handed on iPhone!

Missingthemincepdoes having had a hb for second baby the only advantage I can think of with birthing centre is gas and air on tap. To my hb they only brought 2 canisters of gas and air, which with my first labour would not have lasted long!!! Generally agree that there is no more medical support, which I sometimes think women don't realise.

I had my first in hospital, that was definitely the right decision for me but only you know op.

I would have been worried about my hb if it was an hour to transfer but everyone' s different. I was much better looked after than in my hospital birth which would probably be the same in mlu.