"A wonderful experience at the Birth Centre"

This is a review of the Birth Centre at North Middlesex University Hospital.

Even though we live in Walthamstow, we chose to give birth at North Middlesex, as we had heard about the brand-new Birth Centre and were also impressed by the Centre's statistics on the 'Which' review website. We were keen to have an natural a birth as possible.

At my 38 week appointment, I met with the head of the Birth Centre, who gave me a tour of one of the rooms and answered all my questions about giving birth there. They made me feel relaxed and confident about the upcoming birth.

When I went into labour, it was hard to know when to go to the hospital. We eventually headed in after contractions seem to get closer together. The atmosphere in triage was very calm. I was examined and found to be 3cm dilated. We were accompanied to the Birth Centre, where a lovely midwife settled us into a room and encouraged us to go for a walk and relax in the room as I was not yet in established labour. Their manner was very gentle and encouraging, and I didn't feel under any pressure to progress. Four hours later, I was 4.5cm dilated. I explained to our midwife that I preferred to labour without any drugs. They saw that I was coping well and that my partner was very supportive, so they left us to get on with things, coming in to check on us and the baby periodically. The level of support and monitoring felt just right for us. At 7 cm, I got into the pool, which felt wonderful, and that's where I gave birth to our baby boy.

Our preferences for after the birth were respected, including delayed cord clamping and a natural third stage.

We were so impressed by the way we were looked after in the hours following the birth. We were left to enjoy our baby and then helped to relocate to a clean room, where we were able to shower and sleep for a glorious few hours. Staff were attentive and supportive, offering food, drink and advice. We had no sense of staff being overly busy or pressed for time.

We highly recommend giving birth in the Birth Centre. The facilities are great and the staff are amazing.