Can I choose to give birth in a hospital out of my area?

[BA2021]

Hi everyone

I am 8 weeks pregnant and just had my first midwife appointment under East Kent Hospitals. I was considering home birth as, to be honest, I am worried about the awful service at William Harvey and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital. Now I am going mad with worry about what to do, this is my first baby. I am not sure I am choosing a home birth for the right reason.

There is a hospital out of my area about 1hr away but I know they have great reviews. Am I able to go for this hospital. I should add the hospitals within my area are still 40 mins away.

Please help this first time mum

Honestly 1hr away just sounds very far to me. What if you have a quick labour and it is rush hour? Or you need to get in quite quickly for an emergency appointment if something has gone wrong?
Not to mention if covid visits aren't much better and your partner needs to drop things to you if you end up being in longer than anticipated.

Hi OP, so it was 5 years ago but I did this with my second child. My closest in area hospital was 25-60+ mins away (dependant on rush hour) and the one I chose was always 40 mins away with several routes, so not that much further. It was easy to do, I think I just asked my gp to refer me to that hospital instead and they got in contact pretty quickly.

The pros for me was that I preferred that hospital, I knew of several friends who had given birth there happily. I had an 'out of area' midwife team, so always saw the same midwife for my prenatal care, and always on the same day of the week. During birth I didn't see her but I wasn't expecting to.

I would say that you feeling comfortable with where you're going to give birth is the main thing. I was induced for mine so in the end the driving time didn't matter! But The fact that i liked the hospital was very reassuring. Good luck!

Can't comment on the distance but I'm at an out if county hospital (but its no further than my actual closest one). Most appointments are still with my community midwife where I live and its been no problem.
I'm very happy with my choice but in your situation just think about the drive during labour and covid restrictions. If your partner can't come in until active labour he can't just nip home etc. But if you'll feel more comfortable you'll have a better experience. Good luck

The is a hospital around 30 mins from me and a stand alone MLU also around 30 mins away from me, but the MLU ‘parent hospital’ is an hour from me.
I went with the MLU and don’t regret it at all. It was like going to a hotel for my appointments, I always saw my named midwife (have seen her totally out of context since giving birth and she remembered me) and just felt totally looked after. I had to go to the ‘parent’ hospital for my 12 week scan and then subsequent growth scans. I was quite happy to do this as the ‘parent hospital’ also houses the NICU that prem / sick babies go to from my ‘local’ hospital so I felt that IF something did go wrong there was actually more expertise at the hospital further away.

You could ask, but I think you need to remain flexible, as an 1hr journey could be quite stressful for you and the person that is driving.

I had really strong contractions every 2mins, whilst being driven to my local hospital, then once your baby has arrived the drive home from the hospital is scary, not sure we would have liked an hour in the car then either.

Good luck with your pregnancy, and try not to focus to much on the birth would be my advice.

My first child was born too fast to have made it to a hospital 1 hour away. I do think you need to be closer than that. That’s a long way to travel for last minute appointments and far to far when in Labour. You’ll be so uncomfortable to be in a car that long.

I planned a nice water birth and wanted to sample all the lovely pain killers, as it was my son arrived in the hospital car park after the worst 20 mins drive you can imagine. The car seat upholstery will never be the same again. Try not to hold on too much to a specific idea of how the birth will be. Babies tend to have their own plans.

Yes, I'm going to a hospital in another county and also under their midwife team who I see at a local surgery. It's 50 minutes away where as my local is 25.

I used to live there and was happy with my care last time so I chose to go back. My local friends never see the same midwife, where as I do and the local hospital is huge and busy where as mine is big but not as busy. Plus I wanted to see the same consultant as I felt they have a good knowledge of my particular condition.

I'll be discharged to the local midwife/HV who have already called to check on me and said they'll see me when my baby arrives.

It's completely your choice.