Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

Get updates on how your baby develops, your body changes, and what you can expect during each week of your pregnancy by signing up to the Mumsnet Pregnancy Newsletters.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Get updates on how your baby develops, your body changes, and what you can expect during each week of your pregnancy by signing up to the Mumsnet Pregnancy Newsletters.

Childbirth

Denied a homebirth when in labour?

205 replies

PrettyCandles · 18/10/2006 15:06

Has this happened to anybody else?

When I phoned up to say that I was in labour and was booked for a homebirth, they could not find a midwife to come to me and I had to go to the hospital. I know that in theory that can happen, but have never heard of it happening before. Even the midwife who booked me for homebirth a couple of weeks ealier said that it had never happened as far as she was aware.

OP posts:

Report

Quadrofiendia · 18/10/2006 18:55

where i live the midwives who attend home births are community midwives, a completely different team to those who work on labour wardm so in theory midwives will not be taken from women labouring in hospital. Giving birth is the only time when i think its okay to be as selfish as you want.

morocco · 18/10/2006 18:55

sadly though lulamama, that kind of is what it is like in the nhs. Imagine if we all had the right to use the birth pool, maybe they would be throwing some people out early . I know several people who had their 'emergency' cs later than ideal because it wasn't possible to have the cs earlier cos of shortages - luckily they were all ok. And I think that's why lots of epis are done late as well - got to get the anaesthetist!

lulumama · 18/10/2006 18:56

but that is not a decision you made - you wanted it and couldn;t get it...same as PC wanted her home birth and couldn;t get it...because of the hospital, not through any fault of your own...

pooka · 18/10/2006 18:58

Happenened to me. Rang at 6pm and left message. Rang at 7pm to be told no midwives and to get into hospital. Got there at 8pm. DS born just before 9pm.
Was pretty gutted, particularly when they said I should stay overnight as no paed to sign ds out. In end left at 11pm as I had argued that if had homebirthed as anticipated I would not have had a paed to check ds over and he had agpars of 9 and 10.
Ho hum. In the end it was all OK - think that having my mum come over to bath and bed dd and the fact that she saw us first thing meant that she wasn't upset by being whisked off to my mum's, and in any event, would have been grunting like a farmyard animal by the time my mother appeared (7.50pm) and wouldn't have wanted her upset.
Next time (! whenever that might be) am determined to labour at home. So there!

lulumama · 18/10/2006 18:59

but i suppose the bigger picture is this

why do we have to fight and struggle for a good birth? it is ludicrous that birth pools are not freely available and given first come first served

so women try to go for a home birth so they can have a pool.or whatever it is they might want..

but are then deemed selfish?

2Babies0Bumps · 18/10/2006 18:59

get this then.
i went to my local college to enrol on relevant courses to become a midwife as there is such a shortage and i have wanted to do it for 7 years.
i then find out my local hospital would not employ me as full time (which i need) as they cant afford to pay the wages- charming....

SenoraPostrophe · 18/10/2006 19:00

there is no such thing as homebirth on the equivalent of the nhs in spain btw.

and no, trusts don't get notice of how many women will be in labour. there may be a rush on even though the overall number of 40 weeks preg women in the area is normal.

2Babies0Bumps · 18/10/2006 19:00

i didnt need 'the right' to use the pool....?

SenoraPostrophe · 18/10/2006 19:00

and there isn't a single birth pool in the whole of andalucia.

lulumama · 18/10/2006 19:01

same here 2babies--i cannot commit to a 3 year course, for which i would get no financial support.. and then have no job at the end of it/. midwifes being sacked at our local PCT and midwifery led unit closed over a year ago

porpoise · 18/10/2006 19:01

this is an interesting thread.
About five minutes after i had ds3, the midwife told me i had to leave the delivery room because there was closing that set of rooms (specially set up to help you give birth more naturally) because a woman having a homebirth had called in in labour and they don't have the resources to run both services at once.

SenoraPostrophe · 18/10/2006 19:01

lulumama - it's not the women who want homebirths who are selfish. It was your suggestion that women should stamp their feet and "refuse" to go to hospital on being told there are not enough midwives that would be selfish.

belgo · 18/10/2006 19:01

My problem with asserting your rights and forcing a midwife to come out to attend a home birth is that the midwife might not be there of her own accord. I wanted a homebirth primarily because it meant that I could have the midwives that I knew and trusted, and who wanted to attend my baby's birth.

lulumama · 18/10/2006 19:02

senora- does everyone have a hospital birth? do you think that is ok? or does it bother you at all? just interested to know..

2Babies0Bumps · 18/10/2006 19:03

lu, i wanna be a doula.
can you mail me how you went about it please? cheers.
[email protected]

anyway....

belgo · 18/10/2006 19:04

The problem with the NHS is that in theory it tries to please everyone by offering everything - but in reality it can't possibly provide that standard of service for absolutley everyone. Someone ends up losing out somewhere.

SenoraPostrophe · 18/10/2006 19:04

yes, everyone has a hospital birth, apart from the tiny number of women who pay for a private home one. I suggested it at my antenatal class and everyone was scandalised at the very idea.

I think ideally women should have the choice, but I do get a bit annoyed about the idea that it's a "right".

lulumama · 18/10/2006 19:05

i don;t believe i said that women should stamp their feet and refuse to go...am looking for that bit now...

belgo · 18/10/2006 19:06

Senora - I'm in Belgium and had to pay privately to have a homebirth - but as all health care is private, it didn't cost us anymore then a hospital. In fact the insurance paid us back money because a home birth is cheaper for them. So I was paid to have a homebirth!

lulumama · 18/10/2006 19:06

i take your point senora

esp about depriving women on the labour ward of a midwife

BUT - as i pointed out..that is the fault of the PCT and not the woman

and if we meekly do as we are told and stop asking for better births, the situation will continue to decline....

2Babies0Bumps · 18/10/2006 19:08

it will get worse anyway as the nhs cant pay mws!

lulumama · 18/10/2006 19:10

that is also true....and independent midwives are very expensive....

what this debate - which has given me much food for thought - thank you all....has really shown - is the shocking lack of care for labouring women ,,and as morocco says, we ought to write to our MPs, not fight about it with each other!

have e-mailed you 2babies!

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Email address

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

happybiggirl · 18/10/2006 19:18

Message withdrawn

2Babies0Bumps · 18/10/2006 19:22

i also recall my mw, on both occaisions, literally begging me to have a homebirth!!?!
but i didnt want to have to hire/fill/empty a pool at home.

pooka · 18/10/2006 19:27

The problem I had was that while I was aware that I could stamp my feet and demand that they find an available midwife, I was in labour and needed to concentrate on that rather than fighting for my rights. Next time, hopefully, I'll get the birth I want, but you never know do you? I could just as easily have some complication requiring that I have a c-section.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.