"Planned home birth with first baby"

We initially planned to have our baby at Princess Royal Maternity but after reading research about the benefits of planning a home birth we switched to the home birth team in Glasgow. 

Our journey from early pregnancy to birth was mixed. We had some unusual experiences with the community midwives at the New Victoria Hospital. I felt that some of the staff were judgemental made comments about race and gender that were inappropriate and suggested they had a personal bias about their patients' backgrounds. 

We decided to self refer to the home birth team at around 21/22 weeks of pregnancy. As soon as we switched, our experience dramatically improved. Kylie and the team were so welcoming and we felt we really benefited from having continuity of care from that point of pregnancy. We felt incredibly well informed about all of our appointments and what to expect from any checks/tests. Kylie was patient, compassionate and understanding, and very supportive when I felt concerned about anything during pregnancy. 

My labour started with my waters breaking and we contacted maternity assessment at Princess Royal Maternity and they said that we had to go in order to check. We are slightly disappointed as we have since found out that we could have waited at home for labour to start considering we were planning a home birth. The wait was quite long at Princess Royal Maternity and essentially in the 2.5 hours that we were there they just confirmed that my waters had broken and said that I would need an induction on the Saturday if I didn't go into labour by then (they booked me in for an induction without asking me). As I was already contracting at this point I didn't worry too much as assumed I would not need it. 

My labour ended up progressing quite quickly and we spent around 1 hour at home before we called maternity assessment up, expecting for them to contact the home birth team to come out to us. They were concerned that the colour of my waters was not clear (it was pinkish) and suggested that we need to come back to the hospital. In retrospect that was likely that this was my show and we feel that maternity assessment could have contacted the home birth team at this point. However, we ended up travelling to Princess Royal Maternity and were quickly transferred to the delivery room as I was ready to push at this stage. There was a slight concern with our baby's heartbeat and the team were keen for her to be born as quickly as possible. They set me up in a position so that if I needed an assisted delivery then they could step in, this was a little disappointing as I was wanted to be in a more upright position at this stage. Our baby was born quite quickly and there was no need for an assisted delivery. Our baby was born very happy and healthy and we had skin to skin straight away as we intended. Following my birth there I lost a lot of blood and the team were very quick to respond and manage it. I felt well informed and the staff were generally kind and supportive. 

Although everything looked fine I needed to stay in for a night of monitoring. The post natal care was somewhat lacking, especially on the ward. It's really disappointing that my partner couldn't stay and that I was left alone for the first night with our baby. On the whole the staff were kind and considerate, if a little rushed. 

I'm extremely grateful that once I was home our visits were carried out by the home birth team, I feel this continuity has been really beneficial. Kylie took the time to talk through my labour with me and help me to understand and process my experience and what it could mean for future pregnancies/labours. In terms of all of the postnatal checks for me and our baby, Kylie and the team have been so caring and patient and made us all feel really comfortable during a big transitional period! A special mention to Elsa, who carried out our newborn's heel prick test and was so gentle and kind that our baby didn't cry at all. The breastfeeding support has also been really helpful, with hands on practical tips that really helped me start to establish breastfeeding, and support to feel confident in feeding our baby. 

Overall, I'm really glad that we planned a homebirth. Although I'm disappointed that we didn't get to have our birth at home, I feel our birth outcome was more positive due to the continuity of care we received with the home birth team and we feel we received less interventions due to our planning and preparation for a home birth.