Homebirth in Trafford - experiences?

[daisy5]

Hello - I am almost 20 weeks pregnant and just starting to look into the home birth option. After my first, quite quick birth, my midwife said I would be a perfect candidate for having a homebirth and to be careful I don't give birth in the car park!

I would love to hear anyone's experiences of home birth's in Trafford.

Many thanks.

I had a wonderful homebirth in Trafford 16 months ago. I couldn't fault the midwives they were great. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who feels it is the right thing for them and it certainly sounds like it may be the best option for you! Hope all goes well. Happy to give you more information if you have any specific queries.

I guess I have three reservations. One is the possibility of sudden excessive bleeding and how that would be dealt with from home. The second is if my partner is up to handling it.

The third is whether the local midwives are committed to it. With my first labour (elsewhere) I toured the maternity unit and they said how committed they were to water births. When I went into labour, it wasn't an option - they ummed and ahhed and said it wasn't really set up well (at the moment) and tried to discourage me. It made me annoyed that I had spent all that time reading up about it (a whole book) when they really weren't that committed.

Hence why I ask. Just wondering if it is actively encouraged and with good support, or if in fact there is a good chance when the time comes that a midwive 'won't be available'.

Well, in Trafford one of the team of community midwives is always on call to do a homebirth. So you may or may not have met your midwife before delivery at one of your checkups or antenatal class if you do one. I met several of the midwives over the course of my pregnancy. Some were very positive and encouraging and the one who ran my antenatal class suggested homebirth to a couple of the others who had previously had quick first births. While I wouldn't say any of them were negative, a couple were certainly 'realistic' and told me how common it was for first time Mums to have to transfer. I once asked my midwife if they enjoyed doing the homebirths and she said "some of us more than others but at the end of the day it is part of our job" which I thought was a fair answer. On the day there were no problems. They arrived quickly and got the job done. They came back later on in the day and visited postnatally for as long as I wanted. Sometimes people are resistant to change hence perhaps the problem you had with your water birth (new to them??). Here they said they do approx 2 hb's a month.

There is a lot of information on www.homebirth.org.uk/ including 'What if you had a postpartum haemorrhage?'. Why does this worry you particularly, did you have a lot of bleeding last time?

If your partner managed last time I'm sure he would cope again. However, I think that if you are managing well that would probably be the best thing for him to see.

As they were leaving after dd was born one of them said "That's how it should be, Mum and Dad and baby all together, this is what the job's all about".

Yes, my partners previous partner had a bad post partum bleed - apparently the staff ran down the corridor it was so urgent and she was lucky to survive - and that was in hospital. Also, as my birth was so quick and I only lost 100mls they kept me in for the night as there was a small risk of a heamorrhage which I didn't much like the sound of.

I did like having the staff just seconds away in hospital, but I really hated the environment from the moment I got there. I kept wishing I was in the reassuring warmth and cosiness of my home watching my favourite movies.

Thanks for all the information. It sounds like they are sensible about it. If I went to hospital it would be Wythenshawe (as closer) - and I did wonder about the sense of a cross over of hospital authorities! I will take a look at that site later and will speak to the midwives next month.

Many thanks.

OP - i had a PPH 5 days after my baby was born (hospital birth but back at home). Hospital sent out on-call midwife to me and then went to hospital via ambulance. The midwife had rung the maternity ward so was taken straight there. I guess what I am trying to say is that you will have a midwife with you and will probably come back out if needs be and I am sure you would be in hospital in time for them to do whatever they needed to get the bleed under control.

I was also under Wythenshawe. It seemed to confuse people a little but didn't cause any problems. When are you due?

Early June - ages away but I wanted to start looking into it, and before I did any real research/reading, I just wanted to check the local hospital authority was supportive. I briefly mentioned it to the midwife last time and she said to raise it at 34 weeks when they have a better idea if I am low or high risk. I just know that I will need more time than 6 weeks to prepare myself and my partner (get our heads around the whole thing).

I never thought I would be someone who would consider it, but just hated the environment first time and got endlessly annoyed by stuff - such as being told not to push for 25mins while they found a labour room (10mins), filled in all the paperwork (10mins) and carried out an external examination (5mins), while dd's head was wanting to come out. Only one push to come out. It concerned me afterwards that it had been such a wait. And no waterbirth facilities available, a battle to get gas & air, a depressing environment - the only thing I rated was that at least all the emergency services were there should something happen. Surely at home it would be a bit simpler than this.