Hi girls, Im hoping for a homebirth (if my dad stays away-long story lol) I had one with my son 6 years ago but it was totally unplanned! It all happened so fast really. I had started labour and a midwife came out to me to check me over and said to me "if you don't feel like moving,you could always stay here and have your baby" I was like ok whatever JUST GET THIS BABY OUTTA ME!!! So she went away and came back abit later with gas an air but I don't remember her bringing a doppler or anything to monitor me or the baby with!? I thought homebirths HAD to be pre organised,and a homebirthing pack was delivered to your house a few weeks before your due date?

Not so Helz, you can decide at ANY point where to have your baby. Most HBs are planned, but not all and some people have precipitate labours (very fast, usually traumatic) so have no choice but to just get down on all fours wherever they happen to be when labour starts. A good friend of mine on here had a history of this and was strongly advised by her MW to plan a HB for her third because of it!

My SIL's 2nd was a planned hospital birth but her labour was intermittent and she was planning to stay home as long as possible before going in, as is usually recommended by hospitals these days. By the time she was sure it was really happening it was too late to move her. She called the hospital and they sent a MW to her.

www.mybirth.tv

thres a few homebirth vids on here

xx

Good on you for standing your ground, angelae!

Sorry for a rant, but the last couple days I've actually been very very pissed off at myself, and my midwife, me for not pushing more for my homebirth and her for coming up with bollocks reasons why she didnt sort it out in time.

I feel really upset now that I didn't get my homebirth, and that she left me so uninformed on who to ring when I did go into labour, I ended up letting the hospital talk me into going in to hospital to get checked to see if it was my waters that had gone, when thinking about it now, I had no reason to go to hospital and god knows why I did, I just didn't have the energy at the time to argue with them whilst breathing my way through bloody labour.

After I had Halen my midwife at the hospital gave me my discharge notes which my community midwife took away with her when she discharged me on Tuesday last week. It had a section on the back for comments and I just never got round to writing it in about how I felt my homebirth was purposly made impossible by my midwife. She also said I could write a complaint but I can't remember who she said I should right it to??

Sorry this has got a bit long, but I now feel like I bloody well should of stood my ground and not gone to hospital and I should of written a complaint and in the comments bit, but it sounds stupid but I was afraid of offending my midwife and didn't want to have an arguement with her days after giving birth

Does anyone know who I should write a complaint to? I was thinking the supervisor of midwifes but I don't know how to find out who this is?

You'd be better off writing to the head of midwifery. I can't seem to find an address at the moment but for Leicester it's Jane Porter. x

Thats all I could find but wasn't sure if it would be her, I found an email address for her so will give that a shot

I think this is what many mw's/doctors rely on, tbh - whi ch is why they don't present us with the standard disclaimer until we're 37 weeks plus - because we won't have it in us to fight or object.

Sorry you're not feeling happy - definitely pass it on.

I've written my 'I'm having a homebirth' letter to the Head of Midwifery at the local hosp, plus the CE of the trust at the same hosp, plus my MP, if that helps.

It's not on is it, why they feel it ok to stress out heavily pregnant women I don't know

I will pass it on once I've eaten my dinner.

I would suggest getting in touch with AIMS as they should be able to help you draft your complaint and tell you who to send it to.