Best Private Option For a Natural Birth?

[DaisyBug]

Not pregnant yet but wondering....

Now that John and Lizzy's no longer do births, what's the best option for those who'd prefer a back-to-nature approach and aren't averse to a bit of whale music? The likes of The Portland/Lindo Wing/etc. don't seem to be very geared-up to this. Or am I out of touch?

I would have considered an independent midwife at home but, with this option likely to be disappear shortly too and availability of NHS midwives for homebirths being something a lottery, I'm wondering if there are any other avenues I should be exploring?

*Home from Home unit, I meant.

I was out of catchment but still gave birth there, this was last year. You do have the right to choose which hospital you give birth in, although yes St Thomas' are popular they will consider out of area patients depending on capacity.

I had babies in 1987, 1998, 2001 and 2009.

In 1987 services seemed pretty old fashioned. I recall even being offered an enema and a shave (which I declined in disgust). Hospitals were dirty, staffing levels low, epidurals hard to come by, and you had to make a fuss to get a HB.

1998 was a bad year in London and maternity services were in meltdown. I ended up having an independent mw for a HB after I was nearly admitted for pre eclampsia by the NHS after some random frazzled mw mixed up my noted with someone else's.

2001 I had moved to Cambridge and had an NHS HB of the same high standard as the 1998 independent one in London.

2009 baby boom meant I was initially badly neglected by the NHS, really badly, and I had to go private again, although I did see an NHS consultant once a month because of complications, with my independent mw in attendance.

Ultimately it is a numbers game. If it's a busy time, care often suffers. If it's quieter, you get an excellent standard of care from the NHS. That's what needs addressing - managing peaks and troughs.

No, at home but under care of indi mw and Rosie consultant called Alison something.

Have done so Harriet.

Caesarean rates were less than 3% in the 1950's - not an age typified of women/babies dying in childbirth either. I don't suspect as a species we have biologically devolved that much with regards to our capacity for natural childbirth in the space of 60 years for the 'normal' rate to jump so massively to 25-33%?

Unfortunately our NHS hospitals are at full capacity and labour needs to be run on a tight schedule. If you are not dilating at an 'acceptable' rate of 1 cm per hour you will come under pressure to have things sped up. At a birth centre (which should be pro-natural) I had to really fight: against having an internal in the middle of transitioning (there was no reason for any worry), to have extended time with the cord uncut and left pulsating, and the right to naturally birth the placenta. I was booted out of the (lovely) room an hour after the birth so I guess this was why! But all these things aside, it was still a great experience.

Sorry that first sentence appears callous- I don't mean you have to be dying to qualify for a c-section!

We have more sections partly because mothers are a lot older on average now, I have heard.

Yes that's true and I guess lifestyle changes etc, but not sure that would explain such a massive rise in rates? Think change in psychology and how childbirth is perceived, but that's very much affected by policy also.

CS's rates have rocketed since the 1980s when they were about 8%, and yet I don't think the mortality rates have changed much at all since then.

A friend I qualified with works on the midwife bit at the Portland, you can book directly there I think and have totally midwife-led care, pools, etc the lot. There are only, I think, 4 midwives there and you meet and get to know them all and two of them present at your birth. Friend loves it.