In terms of where to have the baby, I remember vividly the very first encounter with my midwife didn't actually characterise what the relationship was going to be like at all, in that I walked in and the first thing she said to me was, “Where do you want to have your baby?” And I was totally thrown because, [laugh] because it made me feel as if I ought to know what the options were and so on. And, and I quite remember that, sort of feeling, “Oh my word, you know, I'm not sure”. It didn't set a very positive tone for, for the relationship, but it actually proved to be a total one-off. So she was, she was the one who explained that I could go here locally within the city, or I could actually go across, across to the next authority if I wanted to. So I knew those were options and home, home birth was also discussed. It's been, it's been raised with me sort of proactively by my midwife this time in terms of whether I actually want a home birth and she said that she would happy to support me in that this time if I want to, given that I had a straightforward water birth last time. So I know, I've, I've been clear what the options are. So that's in terms of place.
And are you thinking about home birth now, or are you still planning a hospital delivery again?
I'm, no, we've, we've decided to use the hospital facilities, because I would very much like to have a water birth again if possible, and just in practical terms having a water pool in the house for maybe up to 4 weeks doesn't really feel very, very realistic. And although the environment where I gave birth was clearly clinical, the actual process in terms of who was there and how it happened was that essentially my husband and I gave birth. I gave birth with his, primarily with his support, and the midwives were in the background. And, and that was absolutely fine. And I suppose I, you know, I just feel given that the facilities, should anything go wrong, are 10 minutes down the road, I'm not sure how I would feel if anything went wrong, I was at home, and the 10 minutes it took to get there made a difference to the outcome of the birth. I don't feel strongly enough about being in my own environment to desire a home birth.
Do they have just the one pool?
They have two, although there was one out of, out of order last time. But they tell me that they're not used very much, so the chances of actually getting there and finding someone else is using it are fairly low. So it seems to be under-utilised. |
