Birth centre look around

[Littlefeet26]

Has anyone been to look around their birth/midwife centre? I've just ring and mine have told me that unless I'm booked on to the hospital antenatal classes (the birth centre is part of the hospital) I won't be allowed to look around. I've already attended my local antenatal classes and was told its a good idea to go for a look round. Just wondered what other people's experiences are and if this is a pretty standard thing?

Our hospital have stopped running tours (except as part of an AN course) because it was too disruptive. They have provided a series of video tours on YouTube though, I'm not sure if this is common or not.

Where I live they have a tours of the maternity ward and birth unit ( they are in the same building) and you can just ring up and book onto the one you want.
I've never heard of you not being allowed to do that because you've not been to the classes.

Haven't heard of this before. I know with mine you have to be attending / registered at a specific local hospital and have the OK from the midwife but that's about it! I've looked around and I am booked in, haven't been to any antenatal classes

Ours won't do a tour of the consultant led unit (hygiene and busy) however insist on a tour of the MLU if you're going there. So almost the opposite!

I don't know about that, but my hospital won't do tours any more because they're too busy. However, I went to ante natal classes at the birth centre and I have to say the most useful thing about it was the fact that it was led by the midwives who work there so they gave lots of very specific information about what they do there, services they offer, the ways that their practices differ from the hospital (for example, avoiding coached pushing, having a majority of births in water). They were also happy for people to just drop in for one or two classes and the whole thing made me look forward to giving birth a lot more, so it might be worth going to a class or two there to meet them anyway?

No tours here due to how busy staff are - have a video on the hospital website to look at also.

Tours are often restricted.

Although it is nice to see wards beforehand, it's essential they work as well as they possibily can for the labouring and delivering woman. So if they do not have enough staff to do everything, it is the tours that go. And they seem to vanish during peak virus season or if there is any sniff of norovirus around to protect newborns.

Virtual tours will tell you everything you're likely to need to know in advance (except the smell!)

Don't forget to check route, fall back route, parking and fallback parking whilst you're thinking about the logistics of the day.

Edith Yep ours are suspended due to bugs - the main ward.
I guess the MLU families are more physically robust (hence allowwd to use ut) and leave within 24 hr so the risk is lower. So a supervised tour of empty rooms is OK.

No tours at my local hospital, but a friend who has gone in to be induced has just posted photos of her room on FB. It makes me MORE panicked about having to be in a hospital - looks like a public toilet. Urgh. I need to make it to 9cm at home, I can't be in that place for any longer than necessary.

My MLU you just called to let them know you wanted to look round on the day and they would confirm if it was quiet enough. For the hospital you called and booked onto a group tour one evening, but they only ran a few each month and you were given a date depending on when you were due.

The birth centre I went to encouraged tours. They showed all the room as then made everyone on them actually get in an unfilled birthing pool and take up various potential positions.

They believed that familiarisation and understanding of the environment and likely scenario was essential to a quick and pain reduced, less intervention labour.

It worked for me. I gave birth within an hour of arriving as my labour wasn't disrupted by orientation or anxiety.