Midwife Led Unit vs Consultant/Doctor led care

[LucyJones]

I wonder if anyone has any experience of this. When I had my ds 2 years ago I gave birth in my local hospital. I was monitored closely and had an epidural and had what was considered to be a straight forward birth. Since then my local hospital has now changed to a birthing unit meaning an epidural/emergency c-section etc would involve an ambulance trip 40 minutes away if one was needed.
because of this I've decided to give birth in the hospital 40 minutes away just in case I decide I would like an epidural on the day (I will try to avoid one but who knows what might happen?!!). I've told my midwife countless times my decision ect but she still frowns and says 'but your a low risk case' etc etc. Why can't they just accept my choice? I feel like I'm being judged to be weak and maybe I am missing something? What would you do?

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I would do what you are doing

40 mins can mean the difference between life and death if anything serious goes wrong

I would also tell her to stop trying to dissuade you from your decision!

Thanks CD - that's what I thought, especially as a close friend of mine had a still birth on her due date I just wonder why the midwife and doctor seem so surprised at my decision. Surely I can't be the only one to have reservations about such a service even in a low risk pregnancy?

Well given the fairly large number of births that end up in C sections, I would think that being somewhere where you can have one is a pre-requisite really.

I wouldn't give birth in a private hospital for the same reason. They don't have to have a crash team or even a good doctor, only an RMO who could be a newly qualified!

It just seems so strange to me that they are allowed to do it at all

I agree with CD.

When I was induced with my first I had not even remotely considered the possibility of a section. But a day and half later at 3:00am I was consenting to an emergency section due to fetal distress. I was knocked out because the surgeon was not comfortable waiting for the block to take effect. There was definately not 4, let alone 40, minutes to spare. I would never consider giving birth in a place that didn't have a medical team on call for a possible section.

Tell your midwife that low risk does not equal no risk.

LucyJones, I am curious about the motivations for delivering in a birthing unit. If you want the medical facilities for a epidural/cs (as you do), then it would be a hospital. If you wanted a cosy low-intervention atmosphere, then a home birth. A birthing unit just sounds like an unsatisfactory half-way house.

You might be low risk but the worst case scenario could have devastating consequences. Since you bear the risk, you call the shots. Don't let them bully you, they can't.

I was also considered low risk and asked to consider a home birth or midwife-led birthing centre. Thank goodness I didn't. At the end of a long labour, the doctors discovered a problem and they had 5 minutes to get the baby out alive. Luckily we were right next door to an empty operating theatre, I was whisked in there and 4 minutes later my ds was pulled out alive.

If I had gone for the home birth/birthing centre options, my ds would definitely have been stillborn and I might have died too.

LucyJones, you are doing the right thing. Do not let the midwife persuade you otherwise.

It's now very new and trendy to have midwife led delivery. I've just been to my MLU to have a look around and I think that in some areas there hasn't been enough word of mouth to fill up the places, so the midwives are trying to encourage people to try it. My MLU is only a year old and was very quiet when I went there. It's actually next to a consultant led unit though, so no worries about 40 minute transfers.
If I were you, I'd stick to what you want. You have good reasons, and to be honest, even if you didn't it's still your decision.

Thanks everyone for your responses. Me and dh went to have a look round the hospital 40 minutes away today and it was really nice and luckily no one asked me why I didn't want to go to the birthing centre in my home town. I can see that for some people the atmosphere of a midwife led unit might help and the facilities are really good - en suite rooms etc. But it's defiitely not for me. Just like a home birth isn't, I would never forgive myself if due to my choices somethig went wrong....

Stick to your guns. I used to be very pro 'natural birth', 'home birth', midwife led units, but given my own experiences - I was told I was 'low' risk, didn't turn out that way and after having found out that baby imo totally unnecessay died due to too late transfer from birthing centre to consultant unit - although next to each other in same hospital, I have come to the view that we should focus much more on OUTCOMES, ie healthy mother and baby, rather than giving so much weight to the labour experience ... I feel that women are being conned in believing that homebirths/midwife led units are as safe, they aren't ..

good luck!

Dont let your midwife pressurise you.At the end of the day it is your baby, your body and your choice.I had my first in a hospital with medics and midwives,my second at a midwife led unit.I was lucky to have normal uncomplicated labours and excellent care both times but was still a little anxious as the midwife led unit was 30 mins away from a main hospital.Go with your instincts and do what is best for you.Good luck with no 2!!!

Oh Conni. That is so sad.

I totally agree with everyone. I was blissfully assuming that everything would be fine with ds. While the ultimate outcome was OK it certainly wouldn't have been if I had not had immediate access to a c-section. conni has put it exactly right. IMO there is absolutely too much weight on the "experience" these days and not enough to safe outcomes. We forget how high infant and mother mortality was in the days before hospital births.

Oh Conni, I'm so sorry

I'm interested to read this thread, as I had always understood that if the mother needed to be transferred from home or a MLU, the nature of the problem meant that there was plenty of time in which to do so. I didn't realise that it was relatively common for the emergency to be just htat - a question of every second counts.

I have had all my children in a hospital, partly for medical reasons and partly because of that niggle of doubt. I have fast and fairly straightforward deliveries so have kept the idea of a home-birth in the back of my mind if I were to have more children.

If there is a problem like the baby losing its blood supply by the cord being compressed, or sudden heavy bleeding, or cord prolapsing etc then they need to get baby out RIGHT AWAY.
It takes at least 20 mins to drive to my nearest hospital even in a blue light ambulance, and god knows how long for them to get to you in the first place...20 mins is easily long enough for someone to bleed to death from a big post partum haemorrhage...
No way would I give birth at home. Way too much about the 'experience'. What I want is a healthy baby and to be healthy myself at the end of it. So many women used to die in childbirth that it was not even seen as being unusual. Definitely need to think about outcomes more.

Thanks for the replies I'm considering printing this thread and showing it to my midwfife next time she mentions it!!