Birthing Centre ...Anyone tried it?

[Mosschops30]

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[Tessiebear]

Has DS2 at a birthing centre and it was FANTASTIC - couldnt rate it enough. From when i arrived i went straight into the water pool, had gas and air and delivered in the water. Only two midwives and DH present. Very calm and quiet centre, went straight into our own side room after delivery - with a double bed - DH was allowed to stay the rest of the night. Stayed 3 nights in all (could have stayed 3 weeks) Am having no.3 next summer and plan to go back there again

[Mosschops30]

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[thedame71]

For my first son I booked with a birthing centre, like yours a reasonable distance from a main maternity hospital.

It was a great experience during the labour, wonderful midwives, birthing pool, no drugs, music etc...

Unfortunately when it came to pushing him out - after 3 hours he got distressed and I was transfered to hospital by ambulance, flashing blue lights, then crashing through doors into a delivery room. Very shortly afterwards after episiotimy and ventouse he was born. I was in shock basically, I believe alot to do with the extreme change of environment and how completely out of control I was. As soon as I got into the hospital environment I was demanding drugs (which I didn't get by the way!) even though I had laboured for 15 hours without!!!

I do not regret my decision to choose a birth centre for my first birth as I really did have a wonderful labour - it was just the end that was totally awful.

I decided with my second son to have him in hospital, had an epidural - 6 hours from start to finish. A good experience and I am now expecting my third in March, will be at hospital again.

I just could not face the chances of another ambulance transfer journey and the panic and hysteria I felt.

I don't want to put you off, but first time round I was aware that this could happen but I really didn't think it would happen to me!

Good luck with your decision. xxxx

[winterdolly]

mosschops if I could birth at home with SPD no reason why you can't at a BC.

Perhaps this list might convince dh that the hospital is a bad idea, not the BC:

Risks of a Hospital Birth

MRSA
Unnecessary interventions
Increased risk of caesarean section
Less likely to labour well
Loss of privacy/control
Mental trauma
Partner being treated like a surplus idiot
Harder time bonding with baby
Harder to establish breastfeeding
Infection
Cascade of intervention
Having to labour against the clock
More likely to need pain relief
Risk of being left unattended while overworked midwife deals with six other
women
Lack of support

[Mosschops30]

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[winterdolly]

mosschops I hope mears sees this but mabe its worth chatting to your own mw too? if after that you don't feel 100% ok with birth centre and still ahve worries I would say don't go. You MUST feel safe for labour to progress and for your baby to be born normally. If you are unsure it might affect you in labour. Some women feel safe at home, some feel safe in a hi tech delivery room and some will feel safe in a birth centre, but if hospital is where you feel safest maybe that is where you should be - and as you can see from my post below I am not a great fan (for normal birth) of hospitals!

[Mosschops30]

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[motherpeculiar]

Hi there

not sure what you should do but just wanted to add my tuppence worth in support of BCs and maybe give you something else to consider

with DD I booked in at a BC an hour or so drive from home, and about 15mins from my designated hospital in case of emergencies.

I ended up delivering at the hospital because DD was back to back and the labour took ages to establish properly so I needed some help. However I knew this in plenty of time and we drove to the hospital ourselves so no shocking emergency ambulance ride involved, thankfully. However, I did pre-labour at the BC for the best part of a day where the staff were just fantastic and very very supportive.

The point I thought possibly worth considering also is the antenatal care - I had all of my antenatal appts at the BC and it was really lovely - no huge waits at hospital, saw the same one or two mws each time, felt like a person and not just a number. It meant tonnes to me.

So, even though I ended up not delivering at the BC I felt I still got a lot from the experience.

More practically, the BC should have stats on how many women are transferred during labour - I think in the case of the BC I attended it was around 11%

good luck with your decision

[Mosschops30]

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[Thomcat]

Wonderful, loved it, really lovley room, one midwifeuntil the stage where head was out and another midwife came in and panted with me so i didn't push and therefore didn't tear.

My birthing centre was attached to a hospital as well which turned out to be a good thing for us actually.

I loved the birthing unit though and if you're not planning on taking the drugs on offer I'd go for it.

[bonym]

Mosschops - I am also booked into a birthing centre as I didn't want to go into hospital with no, 2 - I felt exactly the same in hospital with dd - completely out of control. I chose the birthing centre as it has a wonderful birthing pool and very relaxed atmosphere, single rooms etc. However, in the last few weeks I have made the decision to have a home birth instead (all being well) and to hire (or buy an inflatable) birth pool. I felt that for all the reasons I had chosen not to go to hospital I might as well be at home as there was no real advantage to the birth centre (apart from pool, which could of course be in use when I want it) and at least at home I would be in my own environment. Also my home is actually about 10 minutes closer to the hospital than the birth centre