Homebirth with Cleft?

[PebbleFrog]

Our little one was diagnosed with a bilateral cleft lip, and possible plate, at the anomaly scan.
I am hoping to have a homebirth, with one of the main reasons being that I would so much rather be at home after the birth, than on the antenatal ward (I have heard they can be a nightmare at busy London hospitals).
My midwife has been supportive of a homebirth but was suggesting that we may need to transfer to the hospital soon after birth, so that the baby can be checked. We have been in touch with a specialist cleft nurse, who told us that a member of the cleft team would visit us within 24 hours of birth to asses the cleft and assist with feeding. She didn't mention needing additional checks in hospital.
Is my midwife mistaken? Do any of you have a child with a cleft? Who were they checked by after birth?
Would appreciate any advice or experiences.

*palate

I'm not an expert but I work as part of a cleft team in an administrative capacity.

The CNS would normally visit you in hospital. The main reason for this iukdnt be the children with a cleft palate have difficulty feeding and an assessment would normally be done before discharging you both. It's fairly common for children with palatial issues to need feeding through an NG tube for a while.

Apologies for the awful phone typos

CLAPA are always really good for information too.

My best friend's little boy was born with a big cleft, both his lip and his palate were open. They only discovered this when he was born, but he had to go to the neonatal ward and stay there for a while, as he couldn't feed properly.

I've just asked my FIL who is a consultant plastic surgeon specialising in clefts. He says what you have been told is correct and a cleft nurse would visit to assess within 24 hours and then they would take it from there. Please ask if you have any more questions, I can ask easily.

Thanks for your responses.

I guess my main question is; do we really need to go into hospital for checks after the birth? Other than the cleft specialist nurse(who will visit us at home and advise on feeding), who will we need to see?

I don't want to end up in hospital unless there's a good reason.

DS was born with a cleft at home, it wasnt detected before birth. We did have to go to neonatal but only to be checked, the Cleft specialist nurse arranged to meet us at home within a couple of hours bringing us bottles and then visited us daily for some time.

I cant see any reason why you would need to go to the hospital unless your CSN suggests it, afaik most cleft babies will feed quite happily with the bottles.

Do you have the bottles ready?

We've been shown the bottles (only 23 weeks, so haven't got all bits ready yet) & have apt with BF consultant to teach me how to start expressing colostrum from 37 weeks. Hosp are going to lend us a double electric pump as I'll probably be exclusively pumping breast milk.
Feel well informed and prepared. We've been given so much info, was surprised the MW was suggesting we'd need to go to hosp for more checks. Cleft specialist told us about so many things, but didn't mention that.

Im not sure what tests you can have that your nurse specialist cant sort out tbh, from my experience MWs/GPs are no where nearly experienced as your NS tbh, our Midwife didnt even look for the palate after DS was born, the GP came a few hours later and looked and said it was the first cleft baby she had seen, so she sent us but we were only there for about an hour as we were then passed to the Cleft team who said they would meet us back at home within the hour. She turned up with the amazing words this is nothing that cant be sorted` bottles, tons of information and reassurance.

Theres a good forum called face forward which is fantastic if you want to have a chat with other parents

Yes, I expressed, and DS fed really well, the only tip I can give is stockpile the bottles! We were always buying them.

Thank you onestep. Your experiences seem to match what the NS told us. I'll stick to my guns and bring it up again at next MW apt.

Good tip abt the bottles too