Homebirth and midwife availability

[Nicky_Jones]

I have just had my 36 week checkup and meeting with the midwife. I have been hoping to have a homebirth all the way through my pregnancy and thankfully nothing has occured to stop this medically. However, she was going through reasons why I may not be able to have a home birth and 1 was not enough staff. Apparently there are 4 midwifes on call over ours and surrounding area - Reading, Newbury, Ascot ... can't remember all the areas but it was a very large (and heavily populated area). If the midwifes are all busy or have had to be called into Royal Berkshire hospital then I will not be able to have a home birth. To give you an idea of how busy Royal Berks get - they have closed the maternity ward several times over the last few weeks due to not having enough staff to take anybody else on and people are being sent to hospitals ~1hr away. Is it true there is nothing I can do if this happens? Are there private midwifes you can pay for (kind of like paying for private treatment to save a 2 year wait on the waiting list)? I really, really do not want to have to go into hospital unless something goes wrong.

Thanks

 

[Vicky]

yer therer is private midwifes but i don't know how you go about getting one hun. the only thing i can suggest is asking your midwife

 

[Nicky_Jones]

I asked is there anything I can do about that (thinking there might be private ones), but she said "Nothing". My next appointment is with the GP at 38 weeks, but that is probably cutting it a bit fine.

 

[Hypnorm]

have a look at www.cotswoldmidwives.co.uk i know they do the cotswold ares but they might be able to advise you on others available.
Bloody expensive though!!

 

[Nicky_Jones]

I am starting to really stress out about this now. All the independant midwifes I could find prices go from £2750 upwards. That is a complete package (ie all the antenatal and postnatal care which TBH I am not interested in). I just want to be sure that if there is no medical reason not to, that I have our baby at home.

Failing that I am sure I have heard that there are birthing centres which aren't hospitals but I had a search on the internet and through the yellow pages and couldn't find any mention of them.

Are there birthing centres around which I could goto if there are not enough midwifes? Where can I find a list of them to find out which are closest to where we life (Wokingham, Berkshire)?

Thanks