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?

6 hours! what a load of old baloney...
have you thought about getting a doula CD (sorry if you have been into all this before)

and the YAHOO VBAC/HBAC support group

as it happened, i delivered 3 1/4 hours after getting to 3cm, but it was an unnerving thought !

Hello all this is my first time on a chat site - wish I had stumbled on this site earlier.

I get so frustrated with the dam system here and the consultants. I have had on and off unexplained bleeding through out my pregnancy so have had to see a consultant a few times already. As I never see the same consultant I am constantly asked what my plans are for the birth as I have had a previous c-sec. They have been trying to force me to have a VBAC from day one and nalthough I have decided to keep my C-sec date on the 29 March I have told my midwife that if baby arrives earlier on her own I would like to try for a VBAC.

Now at 31 weeks I am considering VBAC only to be told I can not have the water birth I so longed for and cant be as active as I want to be due to constant monitoring.

This crap that how you labour and birth is a womens own choice does not seem to be that way if you stick with the NHS! It does seem that the consultants have the last say!

I would like to look at possibly going private to have a water birth now, can anyone tell how I can find out the info I need? sorry for the long message...

MistieK , welocm

would probably be best to start your own thread in the childbirth section, and ask the question that way, as you will get a bigger response !

also, if you do stay with the NHS.. you can decline constant monitoring,and remain active...you are more likely, INHO, to have a better chance of delivery, if you remain upright, mobile and active as long as you can....and stay at home as long as you can ! so you have the opportunity to listen to your body and labour on your terms

you can , as CorrieDale is doing, request a home birth, as it is your right to do so

i would also recommend you look at the AIMS & Hombirth websites, and the yahoo group for HBAC and VBAC to get some support in this..

Thank you for that Darrell (I just love your name BTW!). As it turns out, Mr Jackson is my consultant too. Perhaps I was just unlucky with the Registrar - to be fair, she did talking about VBAC straight away rather than CS, but in terms of 'you will have to' follow the protocol or else 'we won't let you'. When I explained that we were going for a homebirth, the atmosphere became really quite frosty!

Anyway, I am in the throes of hiring a doula (worth thinking about Mistiek - I know it's another outlay when a new baby can be pricey enough, but I think it's money better spent than, say, splashing out on a new nursery). And I am also booking a 36 week (private of course) scan of my uterine scar.

Can I just say now that no matter how the birth eventually turns out, I am soooooo grateful to Mumsnet for opening my eyes to the huge importance of being an active participant in my labour and birth. Last time, I was pretty passive and this was a mistake. But now, thanks to Mumsnet, I have learned about doulas, HBACS, uterine scar scans, Ina May Gaskin and the empowerment of knowledge. Now, I just have to start holding icecubes for a minute & breathing through the pain...