Looking for North London home birth & birth centre experiences!

[Hannr56]

Hi everyone,
I'm exploring my birth options and would love to hear real experiences from anyone in North London who has had either:
A home birth (under any of the local NHS trusts)
A natural, physiological birth in a midwife-led birth centre
Specifically, I’d love to know:
Which trust/hospital were you under?
How was the continuity of care / home birth team availability?
How were your preferences for a low-intervention/physiological birth supported?
Anything specific to North London services you found helpful to know in advance?
Positive or honest accounts both super welcome—thank you so much for taking the time to share!

I had a home birth (not in North London though) and can’t recommend it enough! If your trust has a dedicated home birth team - I’d definitely explore it as an option.

Thanks for the response! Was it for first time pregnancy?

Thanks for the response! Was it for first time pregnancy?

How pregnant are you? I would hold fire for now until your birth appointment usually at 32 weeks. There is a looooooong list of factors which mean they declare you higher risk and decline to agree to a home birth or access to the birthing centre. It can be disappointing if until that point you’ve been convinced you’ll be able to do it.

I had a home birth (not in London)

They can't decline to attend - no matter how "high risk" you are please don't listen to misinformation.

There are obviously reasons you may want to be in hospital, however you can have a "high risk" birth at home if that is what you choose.

I had one myself - DD was measuring small but I declined a hospital birth and had her small, turned out she wasn't small at all!

Second pregnancy but I really wish I’d have one for my first!! I thought the birth centre would be a nice halfway house but it was closed.

My homebirth experience was that pre-natal appointments are pretty much the same (although much better continuity). The actual Homebirth discussion only came much later once it was established I definitely still wanted a Homebirth (ie baby not breech etc)