According to the Registrar I saw today, it's the Consultant who will decide where I give birth.

[CorrieDale]

Do you think he'll arrive at my house once I'm 3cm dilated, bundle me into his Jag, whisk me off to the hospital and tie me onto the bed so that the continuous fetal monitoring & 12 hour time limit can start?

LOL!!! I dont know your story, but wanted to say that you can give birth wherever you want! Don't listen to them!

Cx

what herts said !!! lol

prick.
your birth, your choices.

take it you are going for a VBAC?

Yes, it is a HVBAC, lulumama. Which I have thoroughly researched, and in which I'm not taking any daft risks - we're 20 mins from the hospital, if this baby is breech (like DS was), then I'll go into hospital, because although the MWs are very experienced with water/home births, they're not confident with breech births.

I didn't go into all this with the Registrar because there was no point - I lost count of the number of times she (yes, it was a woman ) said 'we will only let you do this if...' 'we don't allow...' I'm saving my ammo for the 38 week appt when I suspect the Consultant may appear in the flesh to whip me into line. lol.

Why even go to your 38 week appointment? You are never going to convince them to 'allow'(in their words) you to have a HBAC so unless there's another reason to see a doctor what's the point?!

If you do go though, you may be surprised by the consultant - I had this kind of crap from the registrars when I was planning my HBA2C but the consultant was wonderful. (In case you're wondering why I didn't take my own advice and not go to the appointments I had another medical condition that needed monitoring during the pregnancy)

Good luck with your HBAC!

glad to hear you are sticking to your guns and have researched this.......you know what your body is capable of ! best of luck !

There was an utterly brilliant article article published in the AIMS journal last year, written by Ruth someone (forget surname but she runs a water birth company somewhere in yorks I think and appeared on a tv prog about private schools). It's all about this 'consultant; who is going to make all these decisions about her life.

Great article, even better when she presents it herself.

Have a great birth

Liberating Birth by Ruth Weston think this is the article x

No offence but is this not always the case?

how do you mean , liesel?

if it is the hospital i think it is..they are not pro VBAC ....!

based on the experiences of some friends!

I expect the consultant will give birth for you as well.

stats for hospitals in that area

Just think if the Consultant says it then thats what happens - they do know best
IMHO

not always liesel....sadly....and if they are old school...then no....IMO..it is ok to question them ..

i think you have to trust them, and if you don;t , then get a second opinion !

my horrible hairy arsed consultant(and she was a she!) said i couldnt have a water birth as i was too overweight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, yes a lady a good 3-4 stones bigger than me was wading around in birthing pool as i passed for my induction

AH, thanks lulumama - I'll bookmark that page.

I do want to keep the 38 week appt because there's a scan before it and since DS was breech, I think it would be sensible to find out if this one is too. I know the chances of two breeches are pretty slim, but I reckon the more info (i.e. PROPER info, not just protocols and curt orders) I have, the better for all of us. Perhaps I could just have the scan and then do a runner....

My care is provided by Warwick Hospital (I don't think we've met MMJ - I haven't been to any meet-ups owing to non-sleeping child and then morning sickness). Their CS rate is about the national avg - their VBAC protocol is 'let the woman try for 12 hours, while being continuously monitored, then emergency CS' I was surprised when the Registrar put on my notes "Aware 1 in 200 chance of uterine rupture, 70% success rate for VBAC". 70%, I thought! How the f* do they get that????? Is this a national avg or the avg for this hospital, because I have no confidence that at age 40 I'd be able to push out a baby in 12 hours from being 3cm dilated. Especially not in hospital Obviously, I didn't say this because the Reg's answer to that would be: elective CS then!

12 hours is good ! our hospital has 6 hours from established labour !

there is no medical reason you cannot give birth vaginally is there? if baby was breech, it is not an issue is it? so as long as this baby is head down, then you are on the way!

stats for warwick

have you looked at the homebirth & AIMS sites?

6!!!!!!! Words fail.

I've been trawling the homebirth site, but i haven't looked at AIMS yet. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!