Less than 12 weeks pregnant club! Part 3

mysecretalias

I know I should be on the other thread now but I haven't quite plucked up the courage yet.

Just lurking to say I feel utterly YUK today sick, tired, bad back, a bit dizzy bleurgh.

Lara44

At my first appointment with the GP at 7 weeks, I was asked to choose which hospital to give birth in. I was quite surprised, but I guess they manage the maternity care throughout. I opted for our local hospital which unfortunately does not have a very good record on maternity services and was criticised in a recent report. But then the next nearest doesn't have a very good record either! It's much of a muchness in London.

There is a midwife led birthing centre that is available a few miles from the hospital and I'd like to use that. They involve partners throughout which I think is cool, and they have big double beds so you can stay there as a couple. But I'm not sure about looking too far ahead yet.

It's interesting the options available, and at the end of the day you should certainly choose what's best for you, or best for you and your partner.

catloverbex

Ooh I'm glad to see there has been some chat today about where to give birth! Hubby and I have been discussing that this morning as I have to let the midwife know on Wednesday.

Mrs TM - I really hope that you manage to get the home birth that you want....like you say, it's your choice and they can't prevent it based on your size. I would say just be prepared for it not being possible at the last minute as that happened to one of my friends and she was devastated poor thing.

As for me, a home birth isn't right for us. My husband is an OCD neat freak and I know he wouldn't be able to cope with the mess of labour in our house! Also, it would upset my cats too much as they wouldn't understand what was going on.

I'm currently leaning towards a midwife led birthing centre. There are no doctors and no epidurals. But every room has a birthing pool and I'm really keen to try to ease contraction pain with a water birth. Hubby is worried about being so far away from a hospital (nearest is about 18 miles from the birth centre) in case something goes wrong though. Such a difficult decision!

I'm also not sure how I'll cope with the pain and I may regret not having the option of an epidural!

I also feel very yucky and poorly

Hope everyone else is well X

Mrs_T_M

Lara44 wrote: »

It's interesting the options available, and at the end of the day you should certainly choose what's best for you, or best for you and your partner.

Exactly! :T

claire16c

catloverbex wrote: »

Ooh I'm glad to see there has been some chat today about where to give birth! Hubby and I have been discussing that this morning as I have to let the midwife know on Wednesday.

Mrs TM - I really hope that you manage to get the home birth that you want....like you say, it's your choice and they can't prevent it based on your size. I would say just be prepared for it not being possible at the last minute as that happened to one of my friends and she was devastated poor thing.

As for me, a home birth isn't right for us. My husband is an OCD neat freak and I know he wouldn't be able to cope with the mess of labour in our house! Also, it would upset my cats too much as they wouldn't understand what was going on.

I'm currently leaning towards a midwife led birthing centre. There are no doctors and no epidurals. But every room has a birthing pool and I'm really keen to try to ease contraction pain with a water birth. Hubby is worried about being so far away from a hospital (nearest is about 18 miles from the birth centre) in case something goes wrong though. Such a difficult decision!

I'm also not sure how I'll cope with the pain and I may regret not having the option of an epidural!

I also feel very yucky and poorly

Hope everyone else is well X

My friend had her baby in a mid wife led unit like that. If she needed an epidural or an emergency were to occur they put you straight in an ambulance. But I think for her the ambulance journey would have taken about 30 mins and that would make me too nervous, so I would have opted for the hospital. Luckily where I live the midwife unit is in the hospital so you'd only need to go down a corridor!

I've seen too many episodes of OBEM where a baby gets stuck and the have to do an emergency c section or something and it just scares me too much! However I'm a big worrier and my friend had a great labour and it went just as she wanted.

sunshine81

Forgive me of this sounds a bit daft, but how can you even accurately find out where you can give birth? My midwife asked me when I saw her at 8 weeks and when I said I didn't know my options she just said oh well I'll put you down for the nearest we only put somewhere else if you've a specific preference, well how can you make a preference if you don't know the options? The more I think about it, the more I want to make a choice of place based on my desire to labour and if possible give birth in water, I don't want to go to the nearest hospital if there's only minimal facilities for water births, I'd hate to turn up and they say sorry we only have one pool and it's being used when I could have chosen somewhere with several pools?

This sounds a right rant, my obsessive thoughts are bad today and nothing is chilling me out! This is my first baby and I want it to be the best possible experience x

Mrs_T_M

sunshine, the AIMS website is a wonderful resource for anyone pregnant (or thinking of becoming pregnant) in the UK. Their links section is awesome as well.

http://www.aims.org.uk/

That's where I would start, and you can branch out and do more research to your hearts content. Midwives are supposed to tell you ALL of the options for your birth, not just assume you'll be going into the nearest hospital.

catloverbex

Sunshine I got given a brochure outlining the 5 choices I have in relation to where to give birth. It is quite good in that it truthfully outlines the pros and cons of each option.

The choices I can have are:

1. Home birth
2. Midwife led stand alone birth centre
3. Midwife led birth centre attached to major hospital
4. Consultant led care at major hospital per 3 above
5. Consultant led care at a different major hospital

I really like the look of option 2 but suspect we will probably opt for option 3 as we could be wheeled down the hall if I needed an emergency c section or epidural.

Claire thanks for delurking! Hope you are well X

becca0417

catloverbex wrote: »

I would say just be prepared for it not being possible at the last minute as that happened to one of my friends and she was devastated poor thing.

Just delurking to say this really.. I had my heart set on a home birth & now not allowed due to GBS. I cried for ages & am still gutted but baby comes first.
I'm probably not even allowed in the midwife led unit either!

claire16c

catloverbex wrote: »

Sunshine I got given a brochure outlining the 5 choices I have in relation to where to give birth. It is quite good in that it truthfully outlines the pros and cons of each option.

The choices I can have are:

1. Home birth
2. Midwife led stand alone birth centre
3. Midwife led birth centre attached to major hospital
4. Consultant led care at major hospital per 3 above
5. Consultant led care at a different major hospital

I really like the look of option 2 but suspect we will probably opt for option 3 as we could be wheeled down the hall if I needed an emergency c section or epidural.

Claire thanks for delurking! Hope you are well X

That's good you have option 3 too, I think it's the best of both worlds.

At least then you have no worries about being transferred to hospital as you're already there!