Any experiences of Andover birth centre?

[Sariska]

Does anyone have any experience of Andover birth centre? If I stay low risk I'm booked in to (try and) have DC2 there in March. I've been there and met one of the MWs, who seemed lovely but am starting to get a bit concerned about the transfer time, should it be needed, to hospital in Winchester (19 miles away). DC1 was almost a waterbirth at a London birthing centre but contractions tailed off at about 9 3/4 dilated and we had to transfer to hospital - less than 10 mins by ambulance. Everything was fine in the end but I am very nervous of repeating the experience and having a lot further to travel should a transfer be necessary. However, I will perhaps feel happier about the whole idea if someone can reassure me about Andover as a place to give birth.....

i thought it was closing down?

Hmmm, it seems you are right. This was news for me. Although apparently - according to my quick Google search - they are going to try to reopen in January rather than April. (If they reopen at all, of course.)

Oh god, am now going to have to think about a homebirth. Will at least then only be 10 mins from the hospital.

Official line is that its a temporary closure and they want to re-open as soon as poss once they've sorted a new staffing model. I went to the open day in Oct and was v.impressed but we live v.close to RHCH and so I decided homebirth was a better option. Didn't really want to go to RHCH for a 2nd time due to spending a v.long time there 1st time round. I think transfer times from Andover to RHCH are quite quick cos you'd be on a blue light all the way, so not as long as driving yourself IYSWIM.

Don't forget that you'll have the same access to pain relief etc at home as at the MLU - the only reason I am going into the unit is because I want to use the pool and it's just not practical in our house.
If the nearest CLU is 10 minutes from home compared to 25 in the MLU and there aren't facilities in the MLU that you really want you might be better off at home anyway.
Just a thought.

Yes, am going to talk to my MW about a possible homebirth. For some reason I just didn't feel as comfortable with the idea of it as with using the MLU. However, we'll see.

jujubean - do you mind me asking what your experience of the RHCH was like first time round? That's my local hospital but I have no real idea what it's like for maternity services. I am basing my desire not to go into hospital on my experience in London.

I used to work at RHCH (but only occasionally in obs/gynae). I recall there was some talk, maybe a couple of years or so ago, about the possibility of pulling the AWMH midwives back to RHCH to cover staff/patient ratios. At that time, there was the suggestion that homebirths might also be affected.

Obviously, I don't know what the situation is now, but it might be a good idea for AWMH people now thinking of opting for a homebirth to enquire about that as soon as possible, just in case.

I really hope that AWMH MLU re-opens. Over the years there have been suggestions about what should happen to AWMH and many of us have breathed a sigh of relief every time services at AMWH have been "reprieved", so to speak. A lot of the staff, as well as patients, like AWMH because it has a different atmosphere from RHCH.

I've had two babies there, and am really saddened to hear it might be closed (no longer in the area). Although the building's a little archaic, my experiences there were wholly positive, largely due to the very committed and professional midwives, and the aftercare, including feeding support which seems to be rarely available in a hospital environment.

Unfortunately, due to complications I had two transfers to Winchester, one during labour, one after. The transfer can be very fast by ambulance, and you'd be with a midwife. The most important thing to remember however is that you're monitored much more closely during labour than in hospital, with on-on-one mdwife care (if you want), which means that at the first sign that things are going wrong you're transferred to hospital, in the same way as with a homebirth.

I found the midwives to be very experienced, very knowledgeable and very pragmatic, and would recommend the ABC to anyone.