First appointment with midwife today homebirth not allowed before 38 weeks was 37 in my old area

[IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern]

So booked in today chatting to the midwife about birth choices and my local hospital is a get you in and kick you out asap kinda place so all going well there is really no point in going in at all so booking a home birth.

Now the only thing is that here it is from 38-42 weeks they will do a home birth.
My problem is that dd only just made it into 28 weeks and ds was born 37 so if the same happens again for the sake of a few days I could end up being told to go in.
Is this usual now my old area would do home births from 37 weeks to 42.

In my area its 38 weeks too.

Oh and I did ask her if she knew if there were any independant midwives in the city and she said
"oooh no you'd only find them in London I think"

She was lovely over all but I can see something coming to blows at some point this pregnancy.

It's 37 weeks in my PCT. I think you could probably argue that if other Trusts are OK with it at 37 weeks, YOU are satisfied with the risks and YOU have decided to have a home birth, that they should support you. You might want to have a look at the home birth uk website too for advice.

Ooh yeah will take a look there.
She was very bleak about it with my history of early arrivals and I really don't want to go into the hospital get my ticket for the turnstile and shoved out the door again.

My area is 37 weeks.
You can always try to leave it until the very last minute then you would have to have it at home!

It would have to be the vry last minute the hosiptal is 5 minutes away from my front door because that thought did fleet through my mind

I thought that it was your right to decide where to have your baby. And what are they going to do if you tell them you are not coming into hospital - they'd have to send a midwife, wouldn't they?

Did she tell you why they only do it from 38 weeks onwards?

When I had my HB booked last time, I was told I could only have it if I got to 39 weeks - this was because we live in a rural area and the community midwife team cover a huge area (when I went into labour they were at a delivery 45mins away, luckily they made it to me just in time). Their reason for only offering it to 39wks+ mums is because not many people choose a HB it saves having to have a MW permanently on call at night. They only go on call once the patient is 39 weeks, this way it also helps to ensure that there is a likely chance that a mW will be available when you do go into labour - not called out to a 37 weeker instead.

Harsh if you labour early though - I was lucky that I was 2 days overdue but had been convinced she'd arive early. I was also lucky that my scan dates put me a week ahead of my actual dates too.

Yes she did weakly gibber a bit about babies being early and policy, full term yadda yadda without actually saying very much at all but giving the impression that it was more to do with prematurity rahter than logistics.

I'm prepared to dig a bit deeper and get my point across. ALthough there are no guarentees I will go early again this time I do have a history of it and I just canot face this in baby, here's a bed right that's your 6 hours up you're out now see ya thing that this hospital has.

I did make a point of asking her what the hospital policy was when you have it in hospital for this reason as in my old area even if they were packed to the rafters they found room for you if you wanted to stay in overnight. She did say they would want a mum unless first baby or any problems out within the 6 hours.

it might be worth speaking to the supervisor of midwives at your hospital. it is their responsibility to support the choices of women, such as for a home birth. and yes a midwife must come to you, you cannot be forced to go to hospital!!

good luck

You might want to talk to AIMS as well.

You cannot be forced into hosiptal to give birth against your wishes. If you choose to stay at home to birth your baby at 37+2 (or 43+1, or whenever!) then that is up to you. There is a duty of care for the hospital to support a woman in labour, but (as I understand it) they can choose to fulfil that duty of care by sending paramedics. That said, the experience of most women who've been through this first hand seems to be very much that if you (or preferably your birth partner) stick to the "Ineedacleaner is in labour. We are not coming into hospital - please send a MW" line repeated ad infinitum you will more than likely get a MW sent.

If you're not a member you may want to join the homebirthUK mailgroup, where there are a lot of women who've been through this 1st hand. At this point I'd be torn between not discussing it further but planning on staying at home, and writing to the HOM trying to get agreement upfront. Tricky.

If you want to have a look, you can search for an independent MW here.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.
I have spoken to DH about this and he fully supports me not going in if it happens. ALthough he is a little nervous the only experience he has of shidbirth is dss birth ending in a section but he trusts me and trusts me to know what is best and to do the right thing by me and the baby.

I have been pointed in the direction of a local home birth support group this evening as well.

There are no independant midwives in the area I suspected there wasn't. Right now i'm going to go down the say nothing at the moment and plan on just staying at home I will broach it with my Community midwife again and see how strict the team are going to be on it and go from there next time I see her.