"Home birth experience"

I recently had my daughter- my second baby. My first baby was born at the MLU at Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, and that was a lovely memorable experience. So I was saddened to hear that MLU is now closed due to staffing issues. As I wanted to avoid all unnecessary interventions and hospital stress and was lucky to be considered low risk, community midwives asked if I had considered planning a home birth.

I transferred to the home birth team just after halfway through the pregnancy.

The experience was immediately positive. Up until then I was seeing a different midwife at each appointment, and appointments were rushed, impersonal and formal. As soon as I was seen by Gil, my named midwife from the home birth team, things changed. We built a more personal relationship, there was always time for questions, she was good at reassuring me about any worries. I saw her at all of my antenatal appointments, had advice about preparing for home birth, practical suggestions about the birthing pool and similar.

Gil was on holidays just before my due date so I was seen by her colleague Caroline, who also reassured me about many things, including my worries about breastfeeding.

A day after my due date I went into labour very quickly. Unfortunately the triage phone line at QEUH that we were meant to phone for them to dispatch the home birth midwife, was not picked up for 15 minutes. My partner was pacing listening to hold music aware that I was labouring on my own in the bedroom.

By then it was evident that the labour has progressed very quickly and my partner hung up the triage line and phoned the ambulance. The call handler talked him through some steps and our daughter was born into his hands at home. Thankfully both myself and the baby were ok, if a bit shocked. Ambulance crew arrived 10 minutes later to find us snuggled up in bed.

Only then my partner got through to the hospital and asked for home birth midwife to be informed, and let them know that the baby was here. An hour later a community midwife and then Gil, my named midwife arrived. It was morning rush hour so that affected the traffic. After some checks we transferred to the hospital in the ambulance, only for some stitches followed by tea and toast and a nice shower. We were back home that afternoon.

My postnatal care was mainly done by Caroline., who again was excellent. Her breastfeeding advice was the best I have received, and due to her support we managed to establish exclusive breastfeeding.

I was genuinely a little sad to be discharged from their care. The continuity, the attentiveness, the friendliness of the team was outstanding. It’s a shame I ended up birthing without them, and it’s a shame that maternity triage at QEUH doesn’t answer their phone line (an emergency line!), but it wasn’t the fault of the home birth team.

The BBA birth is something that needs processed mentally and I am still waiting to see if I can receive any counselling or support for this.

Home birth team care is a standout experience amongst all the other services with long waiting times, lack of communication and continuity. Every pregnancy should have this level of care, whether birthing at home or in hospital.