Birth Planning

They offer tours of the birth centre and labour ward every Saturday at 12:30. They also have an ante-natal course you can take through the NHS (free of charge) the same day but since we are paying for our own classes we decided not to go to the free ones.

I really wanted to see the birth centre so me and Nick trooped down there just to see what parking was like etc for when I go into labour (if my desired home birth isn’t what I feel like having on the day.)

Lots of parking which is good but will have to find a quicker route depending on time of day because of lousy traffic.

So we basically ring the buzzer to let us into the birth centre and a trainee midwife answers and we ask her about the tour. She kind of didn’t really seem to know but said she would just show us around since we were about 10 min late and the only ones there.

We saw a couple of rooms which looked absolutely fine. I think I was expecting it to look like my bedroom but it is just a basic hospital room with a birthing pool. And of course mood lighting over the pool which might be kinda nice.

So we had a good chat with the midwife and told her we were thinking of a homebirth and that our midwife was encouraging one. She asked who our midwife was and when I said Aylish, she immediately knew her and said she was probably the best midwife to have for homebirths and shes had so many successful ones!

Thats good news and a confidence boost.

Ill want to try for a homebirth but if I feel the need for a pool then I can always change my mind at the last minute and go to the birth centre.

So we finished our mini tour and on our way out we passed about 14 people that were coming in for the tour of the birth centre!

That was lucky.

Also, passing the labour ward we saw a tour of about 18 couples going in so we jumped in line with them and got to see one of the rooms. That also didn’t look too bad if I have to end up in there for some reason or other.

I guess I always imagined the rooms to look like the movies. 6 beds in 1 room, screaming women laying on their backs, feet in stirrups, swearing at their husbands....not very pleasant.

Im really glad we got to see that and we even got our own little tour which I was pretty smug about.

My birth plan is pretty basic as you never know what to expect no matter how educated you think you are. I see the midwife this Wednesday so can go over a couple of things with her. I would like to think I can do it without pain relief but the main thing is, I don’t want anyone to offer it to me. I know its available, I know it will be relief, so don’t suggest it at my vulnerable time. (Thats highlighted in bold on the plan.)

The homebirth or birth centre sounds like they do things exactly how I want them and its only if I end up on the labour ward because of complications that I have specific requests for like:

· If a tear occurs I would prefer it to happen naturally, I do not want an episiotomy.
· I do not wish to be separated from my baby unless absolutely unavoidable. If my baby needs to be taken away from me for medical treatment, Nick will accompany him/ her.
· Feeding the baby -I do not want my baby to be given a soother. I do not want my baby to be given anything but breastmilk!
· Unexpected situations - If my baby has to go a special care unit, I want to be allowed to care for him as much as possible myself.

Baby is full term at 37 wks (so just another 2 ½ to go for me). Any time before this and baby is premature and I would have to go to labour ward.

They also say not to write a birth plan because if things don’t go as you had planned you could get seriously disappointed. But Im doing it anyway, mostly for myself and Nick so that when events happen out of my control at least I can voice my opinion (or get Nick to). My midwife didn’t seem like a big fan of them so maybe Ill just show her the important bits and ask her questions on UK protocol.


Really starting to feel the weight now and need to learn how to take it more easy and not stand around the park or sit on the ground with a tight waistline for 5 hours because its really really painful. I almost needed Nick to carry me from the train station to our house coz I could barely walk!

You’d think Id have gotten used to this big belly business by now.