Hospital or home birth with current outbreak of swine flu??

[loganberry12]

im begining to wonder with all the swine flu problem if it would be safer to stay at home to have my baby instead of going to hospital as id planned. I dont want to risk my baby or myseld contracting swine flu whilst at the hospital what is your opion??

the only problem i have with a home birth is firstly my house is small and the neighbours can hear evrything and secondly my bedroom is small and there isnt much move to monouver. Also this is my 5th baby im 43 and have had a problem pregnancy looks like she will be born early and im worried that ill have to be transfered to hospital at the last minute any way, so really dont know what to do!!

Message withdrawn

If you have a problem pregnancy then I think you are much better off in hospital. In our area women over 40 cannot have an NHS homebirth and you have to have a perfect pregnancy. Homebirths are safe for low risk women, but if the midwife thought there was even a hint of trouble you would be transfered to hospital.

If you are worried about catching swine flu then you could ask for a 6 hour discharge.

Community midwives and hospital midwives will be coming into contact with it but if good hygiene is maintained it shouldn't matter where you are really.

EVERYONE will be coming into contact with it! So unless you're intending to hide yourself and your new baby in a cupboard for hte next 6 months there's no real point in avoiding hospital.

You are more likely to contract swine flu pushing a trolley round tesco than in the hospital.
Your midwife may have done her previous shift in the hospital too.

FWIW i am undecided about home birth/hosp birth, but not because of swine flu. Thats the least of your worries, hospitals are full of bugs

Goodness, I am a pregnant midwife and it had not occurred to me to worry about going to work. As a previous poster has said, it is probably more likely that you will catch it going around tesco. We are told that if we have any symptoms of flu at all to stay at home until we are well clear of it.

Having said that I did back away from a man in town yesterday who kept sneezing

Just to clarify a point made earlier, any woman can have a homebirth in any PCT, regardless of her age or any complications she may have experienced during either the current or a previous pregnancy - it may be against hospital policy and/or may be inadvisable due to other risks, but whilst HCP's may recommend against a HB they have no power to say that a woman cannot have one.

(sorry - I feel better now )

Getting back to the OP, I had DD at home and am planning a HB for DC2 assuming this pregnancy continues normaly - but if complications develop that my MW and I don't feel could be handled at home I'd have no hesitation about decamping to the local maternity ward.

Good luck