Anyone laboured/ delivered at standalone MLU and regretted it?

[Seasidedolly]

Hi all

Visited our local standalone MLU today (Cossham, Bristol) and thought it was wonderful.
I've booked in for my 36 week app there next week and am seeing my local hospital with a MLU attached tomorrow (Southmead)

The thing that worries me a little is the average transfer time to southmead from Cossham, if required, is 40 minutes. Their transfer rate is currently 22%.

This is my first baby so no idea how I'm going to cope with the pain, if you want an epidural you have to be transfered to Southmead.

I was wondering if anyone had opted for a standalone unit but wished they'd just gone to the local delivery suite instead? I've heard lots of positive stories but these are mainly from non first timers!

Thanks in advance :)

Watching with interest as I'm 39 + 1 and have chosen to deliver at a MLU and feeling nervous about it....

I am a first timer with a positive story! I was at Ashurst birth centre and it was amazing. Transfer time is 15mins to hospital there and my cousin had to make the trip in an ambulance. It was very calm and they picked up on her needing hospital care very early on before it became an emergency.

I was booked into our local MLU, really wanted an active birth with minimal interventions. In the event it didn't work out that way - my waters broke before labour had started, MLU sent me home to wait until labour was established. It did start the next day - I went into the MLU, got sent home again. Contractions stopped. Ended up being induced in the regular labour ward, with epidural, monitoring, etc.

I would still choose an MLU again, but there are some minor cons I hadn't thought of. The main one was that our local birth centre really don't want you in until you are well on your way - if you can hold a conversation when you phone them, they pretty much tell you to stay put. As it was my first baby, I felt a lot like I was ending up with a home birth without midwife support, at least for the long buildup. Then when I had to go to plan B with induction, it was in an unfamiliar place as I hadn't visited the main labour ward having been focused on the option I really wanted. So in my case there was no ambulance dash, no emergency, but a last minute change of venue which I found a bit unnerving. If you go for MLU make sure you have visited the fallback option, figured out the parking there, etc.

On the plus side I had a really good birth on the labour ward and found the interventions I needed were mostly reassuring (the monitoring) or flipping brilliant (epidural)

Good luck OP, you'll do fine wherever you choose.