Home birth in York ?

[prettywhiteguitar]

Hey just wondering if anyone has had a homebirth living in or around York, I live in one of the villages nearby, but still a half an hour drive to York hospital, including the traffic time !

Just wondering if it is a particularly home birth friendly area or not and if anyone has any experiences at all.

I gave birth last time at the Castle Hill midwife led centre and really loved it but it was all over in 5 hours so don't want to risk driving over from York and giving birth in the car !

Thanks :)

Didn't think you could have homebirth if you lived that far out.

Have you spoken to midwife?

I went to this lady for ante-natal class, she was good, and very pro-home birth, so maybe going to that might be helpful?

Just to say, i know a few people who have had homebirths in york, but they were more based in the 'burbs.

As pootles said, the York yoga co is very good and pro home birth, with good contact etc.

are you really out in the sticks?

I had a HB in york and they were very supportive of it (the hospital, dr and MWs) although I was clodser than you. Perhaps 20 minutes including traffic. I would guess it would have been abou 10 minutes under blue lights. I am not sure what their cut offs are so I would suggest you run it past your MW and see what response you get.

If you get a negative one get back on here o some of the home birth threads, thre are some very helpful and knowledgable ladies around here who will help you decode what is said!

I had a home birth but I live in the 'burbs aka Southbank, but still at least 20 min drive to hospital and when the traffic is normal (ie: not rush hour)

Heard of a few people recently unable to have home birth because of staff shortages. I nearly didn't get mine as there weren't enough staff on but no one had told my midwife!

hey thanks for replying ! I did speak to the midwife and she thought it would be fine, I live in riccall so the traffic estimate would be us in traffic not the ambulance so she thought it wouldn't be a problem.

So I guess we'll just have to see if the midwifes are free at the time :)

Just really don't fancy having loads of people fussing around in a hospital trying to intervene, I might just be being paranoid I don't know ! Has anyone been to York hospital ?

Yoga co looks great I might see if I can get to it, thanks for the recommendation

I have had 2 births in York hospital and 1 in an ambulance outside my house after being sent home from the hospital. I live in a village 10 miles away (30 mins drive in normal traffic, 20 in the middle of the night).

birth 1: long labour ending with epidural and ventouse; it was not a terrible experience - the anaesthetist and registrar were ace - but frankly if the MWs had done a bit of basic encouraging (as opposed to the 'you're not very dilated yet' negative type stuff) I might well have not needed the epi. Oh yeah, and I wasn't shown how to use the gas and air properly either. Not hugely impressed tbh.
It was not that they were fussing round trying to intervene - there was never any pressure on me - so much as that they were not particularly good at giving the kind of support that helps you not need intervention. A sympathetic mw at home would probably be much better.

birth 2: labour progressed rapidly and baby popped out literally 5 mins after arriving at hospital.

birth 3: not wanting a repeat of birth 2 we went in sooner than we might have done; they sent us home despite me explaining what had happened the time before.
got home, laboured for a couple of hours then things suddenly speeded up so we rang ambulance, no sooner had I got into ambulance than baby popped out. I think that officially counted as an unplanned home birth.

my retrospective conclusion was that I would have been far better with a planned home birth for the last one, what with their habit of sending you home if they don't decree that you are far enough on.

so IMO it sounds like a sensible decision in your case.

I gave birth at York, was fine, apart from blimmin triage - my contractions were never regular, so they were adamant not in labour - in the end i told them i was coming in, as needed drugs! They said fine, we'll just turn you back round - i was 8 cm.

Once we were there, they were great. Just had one midwife, there all the time, just quietly leaving me to it, doctor popped in once or twice, i just had gas & air, then she was very encouraging whilst pushing.

Aftercare excellent as well, although food was foul! Sounds like home birth could be good for you, as you've done it before you wouldn't need help with bfing etc like i did.

thanks for the stories sethstarkaddersmackerel and pootles, I think that a homebirth seems a sensible option too

just the messing around of trying to tell them you're in bloody labour half the time seems to be the issue, cause they're so busy

The first time I told exdp to ring and say I was 3mins apart and we were coming in he got off the phone and they said I couldn't be and to wait and have a bath !

I told him to ring back and say we were and that we were coming in no question and of course when we got there I was nearly fully dialated and wanting to push

if yo listened to them half of the babies born would be an unplanned home birth !!

Hi Prettywhiteguitar, www.mumsnet.com/te/2.gif

Have you considered hiring a Doula? You can look us up at www.doula.org.uk for more information. It may be just what you need. You can see who is in your area (we do travel) and go from there. Good look with everything.
Love, Zita the Doula. x www.mumsnet.com/te/1.gif

Hi, I'm writing an article for a Swedish parenting magazine on how people give birth in different countries. Home birth is extremely rare in my country. I'm looking for someone to interview who had her baby at home, in England. Anyone interested?

You need to start thread in Media/Non member requests..

I didn't know that - thanks. Can't find seem to find media/non member requests, though...

here

:)