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Due to the fact I was made to wait, I nearly had my baby in the lift on the way up to the room. I don't know if it's the same on the midwife led ward but I was also then ushered out of the room and moved down to a recovery ward literally as soon as I'd been stitched up and had breastfed my baby for a few minutes. Overall I don't know if it was just me being unlucky for being made to wait or what, but I do believe I would have preferred to be on the midwife led unit, especially since there is a pool in every room!
I was consultant led and I personally thought that it was quite disorganised. I had a different consultant every appointment and it wasn’t until I was referred to a senior consultant that I started seeing the same one. My senior consultant was lovely and he had a plan straight away, I.e he wanted me to have a C-section at 37 weeks however due to further complications it was decided that it was better to do it at 36 weeks and he was really understanding about my concerns and took the time to discuss it. If you are lucky enough to have just one consultant leading your care then it’s worth it.
Basically there are no Dr's on the midwife unit so if you needed and epidural you would need to go up yo consultant led for 1 example , I was told I could be midwife let but then I wasn't induced within the 24 hour window of my waters breaking so ended up in consultant led and to be completely honest it was a great experience the midwives and Dr's I had were so lovely
Also it's worth noting if your consultant led you can't change to midwife led but if your midwife led you can change to consultant led
@Amber interesting about swapping. Midwife we discussed with implied we could swap either out of cjoice or if consultant didnt think we needed to be CL
So due to my age and bmi I was told I would be consultant led , I was led to believe midwife led is better so as I'd lost weight (unintentionally) they asked me what I'd like , I said midwife led, but as above due to being at risk of infection it was then taken out of my hands .
I was referred to be consultant led and after an appt to discuss my risks they referred me back to midwife led. It’s just if you’re actually in labour you can’t switch back to midwife led if you’re on the delivery suite x
@Rebecca thank you. Good to know
With Rebecca’s point that will depend on hospital and potentially timing too, I was midwife led then had to be consultant led due to baby pooping inside me and his heart rate being low, when he arrived. When he was born I was able to go back onto the midwife unit - it was just me and one other they’d had in that night and I was the grange as I’m anuerin bevan. I also believe swapping and changing would depend on the hospital and your circumstances, the morning I was in labour we were in triage with reduced movements, I requested to be put back into midwife led as I wanted a water birth (the grange don’t have on the labour ward only in midwife unit) the doctor said they can’t recommend it but they also cannot force you to stay under consultant led…
I visited both wards during my labour and felt very cared for by both teams, generally if you go consultant led if something were to go wrong you’re in the best place for it, most will have a labour ward where you stay with other women after leaving the delivery suite. You get checked up on more frequently and your partner usually can’t stay with you. Midwife led is either at a birth centre or on a maternity unit, you’ll have a private room where you will (for most places) give birth in also, if something were to go wrong you’ll get blue lighted / moved to a consultant led labour ward. Usually your partner can stay with you and most will have birthing pools available (most places do have a limited number of pools and so a water birth will depend on if they are available at the time). It’s worth asking your midwife about both and asking if you can have a tour of both so you can see what they are both like.
@Jess thanks this is super helpful Had no idea i could request tours - will pop that on my "to ask" list for next apt :)
Yes sorry I was at the heath - all the midwife led rooms have pools but there’s only one if you’re consultant led. You can have a midwife led unit tour from 37 weeks but every time I tried they were too busy. Both are private rooms & partner can stay with you in labour x
If you follow cavmidwives on insta/ Facebook they post about clinics that are running eg RSV vaccine and antenatal classes and respond to messages most days. I found it really helpful. But yes as people have said mlu is just midwives no doctors, it's super relaxed and lovely and low risk births happen here and there's pools available if you want a waterbirth. If you need any anaesthetic / procedure for getting your babba out it's normally delivery suite you go to where the consultants (Dr's) are and it's more of a ward environment. Partners don't stay with you overnight afterwards but on mlu they can 🙂
I was consultant led, I didn't have a bad experience as such, but the more I think about it, the more I feel slightly let down by it. I'd wanted a water birth and there's only 1 pool available, luckily for me it was available however I was unable to have a water birth due to having 1, actually having my baby so quickly, and 2, to wait for a midwife to be available on the consultant led ward. I was also only able to have cocodamol and gas and air as pain relief, I started on the induction of labour ward as my waters had broken 24 hours prior and I hadn't gone into active labour, but again because there wasn't a midwife available upstairs for me I was fully dilated and needing to push before I was even allowed gas and air as they can't leave you alone with it.