Home birth

Yep unfortunately it's just a bit of a gamble. If the number of women who go into labour on the same shift outnumber the midwives there might not be one available. Did they talk through the options if this happened is there a birthing centre you could go to rather than hospital?

They say that to everyone to prep you just in case as the homebirth team are generally the "on call" team. It all depends on a availability and time of day. Still aom for a homebirth if that's what you want as they will try their absolute best to get someone out to you

Yeah we are hoping for a homebirth any day now. There’s always a chance of that scenario, so better for them to be honest about it so you can prepare for that possibility. I would ask how often that happens, you may find it’s quite rare.

I was told I wouldn’t be able to have one due to the lack of midwives in my area, there isn’t a designated home birthing team and also no birthing centres open 🥺 my only option will be to stay at home as long as I’m able and then into the hospital

@Samantha they just tried to sell the hospital birth to me tbh, saying it’s still homely and I can still have music and fairy lights 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

@Maeve I did and she was quite dismissive couldn’t give me an answer basically just said it was luck of the draw 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Phoebe oh no that’s not fair! Have you looked at doulas or private midwives?

I think it depends on the services provided in your area, it's worth still exploring and meeting them, and looking into a birth centre/ midwife led unit as plan B if homebirth isn't likely for you in your area.

I’m not a candidate for home birth but I am a student midwife and unfortunately they’re correct, they need to inform you of all possibilities and it is possible that the homebirth/birth choices team may be needed at the hospital, off sick, on annual leave, off duty etc. They have to let you know just in case and would likely offer you the birthing centre instead

This happened to me with my first baby. They were already at another birth so I had to go to the hospital x

They said the same thing to me tbh, does sound like a bit of a gamble! In my area they're still recovering the home birth service after covid, it only restarted again in April this year

I am planning a HB. Luckily we have a dedicated team in my area. I was really concerned about this happening as I’ve seen lots about it but they reassured me it’s extremely rare (not impossible though) we also have a great midwife led birthing unit which is my plan B. If you don’t have a specific team for HB it is quite common for them to say there is no one and then when you refuse to come in they magically make someone available… but obviously you don’t want to have the stress of that at the time. I saw someone else recommended the home birth Facebook group and I echo this - it’s been really insightful!