Did anyone's personal midwife ever deliver their baby?

[AlwaysBelieve19]

First time mum here and just curious if anyone's midwife did deliver your baby as I really have a good connection with my midwife and would love for her to deliver my baby

Mine did! I had a home birth and she asked that she be contacted when I went into labour so she could attend as the second midwife.

It was lovely having her there and the subsequent visits. She did express her surprise at my potty mouth!

Yes but only because I had a student midwife who was caseloading - she was lovely and it made a huge difference seeing the same person every time.

No, my midwife was lovely too, I had my first DS in hospital, very easy natural birth. Same midwife for DS2, she suggested a home birth as she wanted to deliver him, as it happened DS2 put in an early appearance, while my midwife was on holiday.

Both my births were c-sections so obviously not but through coincidence the community midwifes I seen throughout my pregnancy (different for each baby - was in a different area) were both on hospital shifts the day after I had mine so they done all their hospital checks which was nice.

Honestly though, after 9 months of horrific pregnancy I couldn't care less who was seeing to me and my babies as long as they knew what they were doing!

Yes, mine did. I had a home birth.

When I delivered in the local Maternity Unit yes, it was the same midwife who'd done all my antenatal checks. She even came in when she wasn't on shift to deliver!

When I delivered in hospital no, it wasn't.

No, I saw different midwives for every antenatal appointment, and in the end baby was late (so I couldn't go to the local low-risk midwife led unit), and gave birth at the high-risk central hospital. It didn't matter at all.

My labour was also over shift changeover so 4 midwives took care of me throughout the birth. They were pros and I was in good hands.

I've seen 8 different midwives so far as the community team has had people off sick or has been short-staffed, so I've seen a few hospital midwifes at my GP so there's a good possibility that one of them could be on shift when I go into labour but that's not how it would be usually.

I have been moved the ‘continuity of care’ team so I have a named midwife and a back up who see me for antenatal appointments and I call them rather than the main delivery suite when I go into labour. I am planning a hb, but even if I were planning on a hospital birth the named midwife or her named back up would be with me.
This is unusual though, and this team only takes on a limited number of women per month. I qualify for this care due to a previous traumatic birth and a subsequent hospital phobia. I believe other women looked after by the team have mental health issues, are vulnerable is some other way or don’t speak English as their first language.

I became really close with my midwife aswell and I was so happy when she walked through the door in time to deliver my baby. I think it depends on your trust, in my area our midwifes try to deliver all their babies themselves, but in another area 10 minutes away they dont. My friend just got a hospital midwife and she lives just out of my catchment area

No, sadly not. It's not the same
as the 'old' days. My mum had the same midwife deliver all of us over a 15 year period, they became really good friends too. My personal experience I had 2 different MW for antenatal appointments then for actual labour, I had 2. The first midwife change shifts about 4hours in ( I had a very long labour). I was abit disappointed as she was really good. The 2nd Midwife made a couple of errors ( I won't go into) and didn't seem as confident.

I think there's a chance mine will as she works at the midwife led unit where I'm hoping to give birth so she does deliver babies there. She works part-time so not sure how likely it is though!

Yes by complete chance, I saw the same midwife for all of my appointments then she delivered my DD as she was doing a bank shift. I had already been in labour 16 hours when she arrived and I think having someone I trusted really helped me relax as I delivered pretty quickly after she came on shift.

My midwife from DC1 showed up to deliver DC2 was a great surprise and a lovely experience

I hope so! I'm 10 weeks today and have a lovely mental health specialist midwife who seems really lovely. I will have all my appointments with her and a consultant and she spoke before about being on call one night so I assume that means she does deliveries too.

Yes, and I am in the UK and had NHS care. I was very fortunate to be cared for by a caseloading team.

This thread is really interesting because it shows how far away we are from the ‘Better Births’ targets set out in recent years. Pretty much all our continuity of care teams have been put on the back bench (or at least modified in some way) because of Covid. But it sounds like many trusts hadn’t even started to implement them.

Reading about Better Births and the continuity of career mode here if anyone is interested: www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/implementing-better-births.pdf

OP it’s worth asking your midwife if she would like to care for you in labour. When a community midwife has built up a particularly good rapport with a woman (especially if that woman has additional challenges) she may consider going ‘on call’ for them but it does depend on her circumstances and trust policies obviously.

I haven't given birth yet but as my midwife us a community midwife and doesn't work at the hospital I assume she won't be present at the birth.

Yes but this was almost 17yrs back and I was a teen.

I nearly did! Arrived at the birth centre and she was there so was pure chance. I eventually had to be blue lighted elsewhere so she couldn’t but if things went well, she would have.

First time around no, I don't think I saw the same person twice. But with my second I had the same midwife throughout and she delivered her! We're in a small town quite far away from the hospital but with a small maternity unit - literally two beds and a midwife or two on duty at any time. I went overdue and went in for a sweep at 41 weeks, she was all 'I'll see you tomorrow!' And she did!

lol, I’ve never seen the same midwife twice.

@sarahc336

No community midwives don't work on delivery suites xx

I wonder if that's changed. When I had my second (21 years ago) all the midwives worked some days in the local health centre or doing home visits and some days in the hospital. There weren't any midwives who never went to the hospital.

It completely depends whether your local trust offers "continuity of carer", most don't. Even if they do, your usual midwife might not be on call / on shift when you give birth.

My local trust is in the process of introducing a "continuity of carer" system one team at a time, and I was lucky to be looked after by one of the teams, but I didn't get the same midwife for the birth as she wasn't on call (she was actually on annual leave). I did have a postnatal visit from her which was nice.