Now no home births - options?

[RainMinusBow]

So my hb midwife informed me earlier a home births are suspended in my area. From the moment I was pg I decided on a hb for many reasons so this isn't just a knee-jerk decision.

I am not going into hospital for many reasons - a significant one of which is I refuse to put my baby and myself at unecessary risk of becoming infected with Covid-19.

Does anybody know what other choices are available to me? I have heard of freebirthing but don't know much about it?

How many weeks pregnant are you. Is the sickness anxiety related or pregnancy.

To reassure you my sister has just delivered in hospital. The visitor rules are very strict and she was lucky to be on a ward by herself before she went to the delivery suite.- she was a straight forward induction, which turned into an emergency c-section.

Its so hard, but your baby is 100% safer being delivered in a hospital then at home without help.

Please look after yourself x

I’ve just been on the phone to my hospital and they’ve said the MLU is still open for business as usual and one birth partner is fine to attend

Please check in your area as you really might be ok

It's anxiety honey. Just very little and often, download a mindfulness app and practice the breathing and just switching your mind off for a short while.

It's hard, it's hard for everyone at the moment but we're rooting for you and you need to pull it together to be strong enough to deliver that baby.

Which region are you in. Maybe someone can advise you if a private midwife they've used?

Phone round see if any MLU are open and see if it's possible if you can go there instead. It may be preferable to the service than you labouring at home without and qualified medical support.

You can do this.

@Wannabegreenfingers I'm almost 31 weeks.

The reason I chose a homebirth is because for low-risk women having second or more baby, it is as safe as in hospital. And with my anxiety I know it would be the best place for both myself and baby.

I'm just looking into the independent midwife option.

I am pretty sure they will send midwives to you if you refuse to go to hospital. But this is the case even for high risk women who refuse hospital births. At the end of the day, it is your choice, and if you choose home birth, midwives are obliged to support you at home. Though, not sure if this still stands in the context of COVID-19. It might mean they change the policy.

That's the whole point of the thread, OP's local service has suspended home births which is probably because they don't have enough midwives to attend.

@NameChange30 From what I understand they do have enough hb midwives currently, but they are putting them back into the hospital.

From my hb mw today:

Hi, I'm sorry to hear all this, try and eat whatever you can manage, there aren't any supplements that you can take, the baby will take all the goodness from you and leave you with what's left which will make you feel rubbish so try and manage whatever you can. The homebirth team have completely stopped service for now and based in the hospital permanently, sadly now includes homebirths. We wont have access to our phones from the end of today.

@123456kent where I live they are still offering home births. It varies from place to place. I think for someone suffering with extreme anxiety your post was a bit scaremongering, maybe unintentionally.

Well yes that means there aren't enough midwives overall because the home birth ones have to been in the hospital (because not all the midwives who would usually be in the hospital are there).

have to be

This is spot on though:
"On what planet is there the resource right now for 2 midwives to be sitting at my house for hours when they are going to be working at extremely limited capacity with sickness/self isolation/childcare issues among the midwives."

Hi RainMinusBow,

We've had few people get in touch because they were very concerned when you said that you're not eating but we can see now that you've explained that it's more that you can't keep anything down. As other posters have suggested, please do try to eat little and often, for your health as well as for your baby's.

We're sorry you're going through such a stressful time and we'd like to share some links to organisations which may be able to give you some support in real life.

First of all, there's a lot of information on pregnancy and birth during this worrying time from the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists - Information for pregnant women and their families.

Here's a link to the Mind website, which has some information on perinatal mental health and perinatal anxiety. There are also plenty of useful links provided here - NICE Guidance - sources of advice and support.

We'd also suggest that you take a look at the PANDAS Foundation which was set up to help support and advise any parent and their networks who need support with perinatal mental illness. They have a free helpline on 0808 1961 776 which is available on all landlines, Monday to Sunday 9am- 8pm. It's manned by a team of trained volunteers who will be happy to chat to you and direct you to the right support.

If you need help urgently, please go to our mental health webguide.

We can see that you're getting lots of good advice and support from other Mumsnetters, but please do get in touch with us at [email protected] if there's anything we may be able to help you with.

Sending good wishes.

Op i think in general you need to try and have a discussion with someone from your maternity team. Do they have a maternity helpline you can ring? You’re in a very stressful situation from many angles so perhaps see if a midwife can talk things through with you including ruling out any underlying reasons for not being able to keep food down.

Also please do not depend on a midwife coming if you just don’t attend the hospital. You say this is your second birth- they are often quicker in onset and progress than first births. If you ring in labour at a point when you are physically able to come in they will tell you to do so, probably by taxi or car unless you describe an emergency
If you ring in second stage (pushing and baby is coming) they will send an ambulance first not midwives. The ambulance staff will bring you into hospital as you have had an unattended BBA or birth before arrival. If the community team are all hospital based now there will not be anyone to come to you as they will all be essentially core hospital midwives for now.

If you can engage a private midwife that would be good but otherwise try and get a good plan made for a hospital birth. Although midwives and doctors will only carry out VEs and other procedures if they feel necessary you are within your rights to refuse them in the hospital too. If you can get hold of a midwife bro talk things through they might be be able to help to ease some of your anxieties xxx

Another thing to consider is the current shortage of ambulances - mainly because of all the cleaning and disinfecting they have to do after transporting a Covid-19 patient - which means that if you did have a home birth and need an ambulance it might not arrive in good time.

(I am usually very pro home birth btw! It's just that I have a family member who is a paramedic and from what he says I'd worry about an ambulance getting to me.)

@babypeach @NameChange30 Thank you. I've made the decision I will not be going into hospital so trying to see if I can have an independent midwife to help with my home delivery.

Hopefully you'll have another 9 weeks and then the crazy will be a lot calmer x

@TwinkleStars15 Sorry if it read like that. My mw told me last Friday the current situation was they were still offering homebirths too - it was only today she told me this had changed very recently.

Join the homebirth UK Facebook group... Much more supportive and offer lots of useful information.

I would strongly encourage you not to make that a final decision until you’ve spoken with your consultant or lead midwife.
You can put in place a plan that means you won’t have VEs. You always have to give your consent for those and you absolutely can say no.

Hospitals really aren’t taking this decision lightly. They’re thinking about what’s safest for women and their babies.

Free birthing is risky. But at this point so is every option. You have the right to a home birth. So when you go into labour your ask for a midwife. But they may not be able to send one.

I had a low risk second pregnancy, everything was normal and great all the way through.

Unfortunately my baby was born with TOF/OA which is very difficult to detect antenatally and became critically ill when I tried to feed him. I can unequivocally say that the midwife saved my son’s life with her quick reaction to this. I was also in the hospital, so he was ventilated and looked after immediately. I dread to think would could have happened.

I’m not saying this to make you more anxious but freebirthing isn’t something I would ever ever consider, even in the current situation.

I am a doula and in general we are quite pro natural birth and pro choice etc, there's a but coming....BUT I would say at this time where everything is up in the air, a freebirth could potentially be risky. You can not guarantee that if something went wrong an ambulance may get there in time, or if you were rushed to hospital there were adequate staff to help you efficiently. Of course you could free birth and everything go totally well, but at this time especially I'm not sure it's a risk worth taking. What are your concerns regarding a hospital birth?

Of course you could free birth and everything go totally well, but at this time especially I'm not sure it's a risk worth taking

No, it absolutely isn’t.

I’m a bit confused OP why you’ve decided on a blanket NO to going to a hospital without talking to the senior midwife about your concerns and what you want from your baby’s birth. It is completely within their gift to encourage an intervention free labour with no VE and where you can walk around freely in hospital. It blows my mind that without even speaking to someone who can actually help you and try and help you have the kind of birth you need, you’re considering a free birth.

If you go into hospital, there is a tiny, tiny, tiny chance that you will both get Coronavirus. If you do, neither of you would be high risk and its usually very mild for babies. The risk of either of you dying because you did a hospital birth are vanishingly small.

Free birthing is hugely risky. Your risk of death, and the risk to your baby is much higher.

I can appreciate how anxious you are about this, but your anxiety is clouding your rational thinking. If home birth is not available, then the safest thing you can do is go to hospital. Coronavirus or not.

But ateotd it is my right to have my baby at home if I choose to. Just as it is the right for others to choose to go to hospital.