Can you choose a hospital outside of your area?

[curlymam]

I've been informed by my midwife that due to extreme staff shortages our trust have closed all the birth centres, so my only options are hospital or home birth. I have my heart set on a water birth but there are no pools in the hospital, and I'm a bit afraid of a home birth as my first birth deteriorated out of nowhere and I needed medical intervention very quickly.
There is a hospital about 40 minutes away from us in a different trust with an open birth centre and plenty of pools. Does anyone know if I would be able to request to give birth there instead? Thank you.

The bigger question is whether you would want to travel for 40 mins in labour to another hospital. I did the journey just once (my middle one, I was induced with the other 2). It was 10 mins and excruciating. Not a hope would I travel 40 mins in labour.

Yes you can. Ask your midwife how to book in with them. Just leave a bit earlier to get there- tons of rural people travel that far to have babies every day x

Yes you can, your midwife should be able to explain the process as it differs between trusts. Just make sure you leave for the hospital with plenty of time... I live 40 mins from my hospital and left during at the start of rush hour when in labour with second baby... did not make the birthing pool and gave birth 10 mins after arriving!

You can. But remember it’s there is heavy traffic 40 mins maybe longer.

I’ve known two friends who have done this, I.E., antenatal care in one trust with a view to delivery in a hospital in another, and it just caused headaches- neither trust seemed to agree who should be doing what, appointments not made, correspondence not sent to GPs about vaccinations etc. In one instance my friend turned up to the local mat unit where they’d been having all their antenatal appointments due to pre-eclampsia symptoms, having phoned ahead first. On arrival they wouldn’t even do her blood pressure and told her to go up the road to the hospital in the trust where she’d planned to deliver, and that that was a potential emergency.

Yes you can. I did, for similar reasons, although ended up with an emcs.

Yes you can. I didn’t want to give birth in any of the condemned shitholes hospitals near me so I chose a place about a 40 minute drive away, mostly used by the armed forces so all in spanking nick.

The arseache is driving there for every appointment but it’s not the end of the world compared to the prospect of giving birth in a place where mothers and babies routinely have serious issues.

Thank you everyone. Maybe should have included this in my OP but does anyone know if you can do this at any time in the pregnancy? I'm 24 weeks but obviously have only just been told about the staffing problems.

Yes you can - contact the hospital / trust you wish to give birth with and arrange to book with them for delivery. You can have local AN care and birth elsewhere.

I think my advice depends on what actually happened during your first birth.

What do you mean by deteriorated?

Yes I did. It was no problem at all.

I gave birth at the start of lockdown so only had the option to go into hospital. After about 30 hours of labour and 2 hours of pushing my contractions stopped (DS was back to back and would not move). They tried to give me an epidural so they could restart my contractions but it failed 3 times. At this point he was in distress and his heartbeat was too low so we were rushed to theatre, initially for an EMCS but they managed to get him out with an episiotomy and forceps.
I really want to try for a birth with less intervention this time because I'm still pretty traumatised by the 3 days on the postnatal ward. DH had to go home about 30 minutes after DS was born and we were completely abandoned. I don't blame the midwives, as I said it was the start of Covid but they were the worst 3 days of my life and definitely contributed to my PND.

Ok. Sorry you had such a rotten time.

However in obstetric terms what you describe is really really far from a fast deterioration. The staff will almost definitely have seen it coming hours before it happened. I appreciate it might not have felt like that for you at the time.

I'd have the homebirth in a heartbeat.
You'll labour quicker and better at home.

I've never seen a primip push out a direct OP baby without the need for an instrumental delivery. Multips are a different story and either way, this baby might not be OP.

Without a doubt homebirth all the way.

Absolute worst case scenario is you get transferred in, and you wouldn't be getting into a pool then anyway.

Yes you can.

I did.

I had an ELCS so was a bit different but it was 45 mins away.

Some pitfalls: the scan / test schedule was different between the local hospital and the one I went to. This caused some confusion for my midwife as it was different to what she was used to. It means you have to be on the ball and make sure you are clued up / remind your midwife about what you have had / when it's due.

The paperwork generally was different so simply filling in my form wasn't straightforward for my midwife. She had to be really careful doing it. Again worth keeping an eye on.

Results didn't necessarily come back as they should. There were a few things that had to be chased. Again you need to be on the ball and make sure you midwife knows.

Generally speaking you need to be more vigilant/ proactive / don't expect things to go right / clued up about what SHOULD be happening and when so there aren't cock ups.

With it being your second you are probably better placed to do that than a first time mum but there is more potential for things to go missing/ miss appointments etc

I am glad I did but it isn't necessarily the best thing for everyone for this reason.

Yes. My closest hospital is 45 minutes away but I’m a different trust. The one in my trust is 80 minutes. I’m booked to the closer one (and it had pools).

I did with DS1, although it was 2019 and I don’t know if the rules have changed since then. We drove 50 miles to get to the hospital. In fairness we were meant to be moving house to the trust where I was intending to deliver but the sale fell through, but we ended up making the journey anyway because my local hospital’s maternity facilities are awful. Luckily I went into labour very late on a Saturday night so it was a smooth drive with no traffic. I had all my antenatal midwife appointments at this hosp too and all the schlepping back and forth was a bit of a pain.

OP the start of your labour sounds identical to mine. I was on an MLU though and they had no beds on delivery suite when they tried to move me after 2 hours so I had to stay out. I finally pushed baby out after 4 hours without anything but I would've ended up with an instrumental delivery without a doubt if I'd been moved. Next baby practically slid out facing the right way - if you've been through that first time around I have complete faith your next labour will be a breeze. If they're doing home births I would potentially opt for it. Could you try and get a scan when you're at term to determine what position baby is in to put your mind at ease? I know baby can still move but at that point you would feel it turn anyway.

Thanks everyone. My midwife only works Tuesday and Wednesday so I've been driving myself mad waiting to talk to her🙈