Community midwifes at Whipps Cross

[Maracas2013]

Hello all.

I'm 6 weeks preggo with my first, so this is all new to me. I live in South Woodford and my closest maternity unit is at Whipps Cross. I've heard very mixed reviews of giving birth in the hospital itself, so I'm leaning towards having a home birth (but registering at Whipps just in case I need to be transferred or I change my mind...)

My question is: does anybody have experience of the Whipps Cross Community Wives Homebirth team? I read somewhere that they were relatively new (from 2012 I think) and an independent midwife in my area said they were good, but I'd like to hear from first hand mum experiences. And how does it work - do they do antenatal appointments at home? All of them or just the later ones? Do you get assigned one midwife foe all of them? And what if they're all on call when you go into labour, do you have to go into hospital?! etc etc.

Thanks in advance!!!

How it works is that your care is transferred to them at 36 weeks, and they then do all your antenatal/postnatal care at home. There were previously four of them on the team, but unfortunately from 1 Sep there will only be two of them. We have been assured that they will be able to continue to cover with the help of other midwives from Barts health trust, but that remains to be seen - also whether any community midwives they send out will be experienced and confident in home births. There is a monthly meeting on the last Thursday of the month for people interested in having a homebirth, where you can meet the team and ask any questions. It's normally at langthorne health centre in leytonstone, but this Thursday it's in the maternity classroom at Whipps at 3pm as they are expecting more people to come along (and I think trying tks rally support for the team). If you can make it all, do come along.

Ps I haven't had my homebirth yet, am 38 weeks, so I'll share my experiences in a few weeks time!