Where to give birth

[user1479669774]

Hello!

I'm now at 32 weeks and have to do my birthing plan and I'm not sure which hospital to go to. I'm in Cornwall so can either go to our main hospital in Truro or to the birthing centre at Penrice.

Truro is the major hospital and I imagine will be total chaos and I don't think I will get much attention. However if anything was wrong they have the facilities there to handle anything. I can have an epidural. They also have no birthing pools

Penrice I am likely to be the only one there. I will have a room with a birthing pool. The downside is there are only midwives so if anything was to go wrong I would need to be transferred to Truro (about 20/30mins away).

My gut is Penrice as it will be much more homely experience but I'm worried about it going wrong and I cannot have an epidural.

Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts.

Thank you

Forgot to add I don't want to give birth in the pool so it's not a major part of the choice but I think it might be nice to bob around in

If it's your first I would go for Truro

Why do you think you won't get much attention at Trellis?

Just because it's going to be a lot more busy and they don't rank very highly

No experience of the actual places, but I would go for the main hospital with your first, there will be doctors on hand should you or baby need it and you can get an epidural if you want it. The midwife led centre just sounds a bit too far away from the main hospital.

I can't imagine that the hospital won't give you the attention you need while you're actually in labour.

Even though I had a very quick and straightforward labour with my first with just gas and air, I lost a lot of blood afterwards and needed quick medical attention (there was seriously a team of about 5 medics in the room about 30 seconds after the midwife called for help) and the midwife wasn't happy to stitch up my tear because of its position so the medic did it no problem. I know the midwives are highly skilled and trained and the majority of our care was done by midwives, but I was glad that the medics were on hand too.