"Disheartening experience"

I first gave birth at The Edinburgh Birth Centre in February 2021. I had a 10/10 birth experience and I couldn’t fault the facilities or staff.

I most recently gave birth at the Birth Centre in March 2024 and it was disheartening to see how much the facilities and the service had deteriorated in three years. Both my labours were straightforward 5-6 hour, unmedicated with hypnobirthing.

Good points:

-Our midwife read our birth preferences and honoured our desire to be left alone as much as possible.

Issues:

- When we asked the midwife questions they didn’t know the answer to them and didn’t follow up with anyone else.

-The birth pool wasn’t working. We weren’t told of this until I was in active labour. Not having access to the birthing pool is the factor which had the biggest negative impact on my labour.

-Our midwife seemed uninformed about hypnobirthing which surprised me in the Birth Centre. When my husband accurately identified that I was in transition he wasn’t believed. This meant for example that I wasn’t undressed until the baby had crowned and when midwives rushed in to deliver the baby, I didn’t have a chance to see the faces of the people who were touching me in such an intimate place and delivering my baby. They then left so I still don’t know the identity of those who were involved.

-After giving birth, I was keen to return home after 5 hours like my first labour. However, there were numerous breakdowns in communication between staff and delays which meant we were there for 12 hours after giving birth. We sat in the room fully packed and ready to leave for the last 2 hours, in the end we just walked out as we were so frustrated that no one was giving us the green light to leave and we wanted to ensure our room was available for someone else.

I hope improvements can be made to the service in the Birth Centre for women in the future.