RunJHC

Another vote of confidence for the Brierley. I booked with them about 13 weeks (think I was lucky to get a place so you should contact them as early as poss), planned a home birth and it all went to plan. They also have 2 teams - the birds and the bees - each has 3 midwives. You have a named one but meet the other two ante-natally. Midwives were lovely - I met about 4 during ante-natal checks and got on with them all. Luckily our named midwife was on duty when I went into labour and ended up delivering DS at home. During the labour she was very unobstrusive but made excellent suggestions of how to keep things progressing, how to push effectively etc. A very calming presence throughout. Post-natal care was excellent as well. I'll definitely be on the phone as soon as I can if I'm lucky enough to get pregnant again!

Also you could check out Whippersnappers music group (if the grandparents can put up with the noise!), their website has details. There's other music groups as well like Monkey Music, if your baby is that way inclined! You have to pay for most of them unfortunately but they're good fun and easy entertainment for an hour or so

Hi -we used Mr Jolly from Forest Hill and he's really nice - his number is 0775 2130577. He did a really good job with some sort of huge vacuum cleaner and cleaned up after himself etc. He also helped to remove the dodging blocking of the chimney which had been done by the people we bought the house from. He told me that you're only allowed the fires with smokeless fuel round here not a proper open fire.