Home birth with UCLH or Whittington?

[JoJoDa]

I am considering giving birth at home and would love to hear about your experiences with either UCLH or Whittington hospital.

I am currently with UCLH and I am somewhat underwhelmed by the care I receive from my midwife. I am 31w and started to worry whether there is a better option. I recently met a midwife from Whittington and she expressed such strong enthusiasm about my plan for home birth and said they're team are really pro home birthing. She suggested I look into switching my care. Though I'm not sure what to base that decision on...

Do you feel strongly about having rapid help if the cord is round the neck, the shoulders don't come out or something else happens? Be aware that 999 can often take up to 5 minutes just to answer, so it'll be 10 before they dispatch an ambulance and may well be half an hour before it gets to you. If you're willing to take the risk, in the knowledge that 3 minutes of oxygen deprivation = brain damage then go for it. If not, and you want a low intervention approach, I'd look for a MW led unit that is physically situated next door to the delivery suite in case of emergency. I think Whittington has one.

I had DS in the birth centre at the Whittington and it was a very positive experience, highly recommend it

A few of my NCT group had babies at UCLH and had complications because of how busy it was. Took ages to be induced because of lack of drs, etc