Brierley midwives

[srisky]

Sorry MM for digressing. I do hope I haven't confused the issue for you. It can be a difficult decision and should be between you, your partner and the midwife. Anyway, enough of that!

I was fortunate enough to be with community midwives but went into established labour on a Saturday and ended up with a midwife from the team that I hadn't met. It did not matter a jot, as in the end you don't care as long as they are caring, compassionate and competent. The main advantages of being under them is that you can have a home birth(!) and that they assess you at home rather than to-ing and fro-ing from King's.

[Belle]

Although I was with the Lanes, during my labour I had 2 midwives I'd never met, and much of my post natal care was shared out too as my named midwife was away. It really didn't matter at all! They were fab and I didn't care that I hadn't met them before. A friend recently had her baby at Kings with midwives she'd never met and had a very positive experience. I think for me the main advantage of community midwives is less the labour thing (since as I've said you could end up with a team member you've never met) but more the continuity of care between appointments, but even that is not a given or necessarily that important.

And sorry for getting into the pro/anti debate, recognise that's not what you were after. :-$

[Moos]

90% of women who give birth locally don't have one of the independent midwifery teams (source: senior midwife at King's, 2010). Sometimes it seems to my envious eyes that 90% of EDF mothers DID have one of the teams! but it's not the case. I registered for the Lanes the day I took a pregnancy test, and was first on the waiting list for my due month. I didn't get on.

I feel quite strongly based purely on my personal experience only that if more women could be familiar with their midwifery team they would be more relaxed and better prepared for birth, and fewer costly interventions would occur. My elder son and I cost King's (bless them, they were great) a lot of money wih our emergency C-section and subsequent 3-day stay. I got through 4 midwives, all strangers, hadn't a clue what I was doing and abandoned my idealistic, NCT-pushed, birth plan PDQ.

Not that I'm still bitter about it or anything. Goodness knows I shouldn't be, my son is a very healthy little boy, as is his younger brother, born by VBAC.

[sillywoman]

srisky Wrote:

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> The main advantages

> of being under them is that you can have a home

> birth(!) and that they assess you at home rather

> than to-ing and fro-ing from King's.

I'm afraid I think that this comment is too simplistic. Each of the local community midwifery teams operates under their own set of criteria. So for you srisky with whichever team you were with the assessing at home may have been the 'main advantage' whilst for someone else with another local team who does things differently the main advantage might be building a relationship through the antenatal period with the midwife pair that attends your birth; or not having to chose where to have your baby (home or hospital) until you're in labour and can see how you feel; or having a midwife with a specialism in PN depression; or your partner being able to build a relationship with those who will be helping the two of you through the crucible; or having someone who already knows you overseeing your health & the babies health in the first few days and weeks postbirth. Some of the teams can commit to being with you all through labour whether at home or in hospital, some can't - sometimes it depends on whether their team is at full complement or not. The 'main advantages' are as different and distinct as are the teams themselves & the women that they care for.

Moos :-$ about the 'NCT pushed birth plan' - I hope it wasn't me, but if it was let me know. I'm fairly 'positive' about the advantages of having a birth plan, but also know that they can just go right out the window depending on the scenario. I'd hate to feel I'd 'pushed' anyone & would clearly need to rethink my approach if that's the case :(.

MM: If you're set on a hospital birth then I'm not sure The Brierly Team will be the best ones for you. I'm very glad to hear that you're on the waiting list for Oakwood/Lanes as one of them might suit you better. Having said that if you're in labour with a community midwife in attendance & you want to go to hospital she might not stay with you. If she's got another Mum who's also in labour & who needs her at home she'll take you in & hand you over to the labour ward MW's before going to her homebirth woman. For the community MW's homebirths will always take priority. However, even if you do have your baby with unknown labour ward midwives, the relationship you've built with your community midwife can stand you in very good stead in the tricky first week after birth.

[Moos]

No, wasn't you sillywoman. From what you've posted I think your classes must be very good. But I do wonder how many first-timers can get through birth without pain relief unless they've been really well prepared and have tip-top support. Maybe it's just me! but I simply didn't realise how tough it would be.

I wish I'd known about natal hypnotherapy first time. Second time, the early hours of labour were really positive and quite exciting as I lay in bed doing my breathing exercises, waiting for morning so I could wake my other half and tell him we were having our baby that day. It was only when I got stuck in triage for ages with no midwife and felt a bit panicky and dizzy on the high couch that I lost that mental space.

[Moos]

I still think birth plans are a good idea, btw.

[srisky]

> I'm afraid I think that this comment is too

> simplistic. Each of the local community midwifery

> teams operates under their own set of criteria. So

> for you srisky with whichever team you were with

> the assessing at home may have been the 'main

> advantage' whilst for someone else with another

> local team who does things differently the main

> advantage might be building a relationship through

> the antenatal period with the midwife pair that

> attends your birth; or not having to chose where

> to have your baby (home or hospital) until you're

> in labour and can see how you feel; or having a

> midwife with a specialism in PN depression; or

> your partner being able to build a relationship

> with those who will be helping the two of you

> through the crucible; or having someone who

> already knows you overseeing your health & the

> babies health in the first few days and weeks

> postbirth. Some of the teams can commit to being

> with you all through labour whether at home or in

> hospital, some can't - sometimes it depends on

> whether their team is at full complement or not.

> The 'main advantages' are as different and

> distinct as are the teams themselves & the women

> that they care for.

Sillyoman - I wasn't try to simplify the role of the community midwifery team at all. I think they provide an excellent service and I was very fortunate to be under their care. I think it would be great if more women could have the option of using their services.

The reason I made the above comments were to reassure marvellous mavis, as she mentioned she was concerned about not meeting her midwife before going into labour. It was not to list all the advantages of being with a community team so she could feel bad if she doesn't get on their list!!

[sillywoman]

srisky Wrote:

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> I was fortunate enough to be with community

> midwives . . . The main advantages

> of being under them is that you can have a home

> birth(!) and that they assess you at home rather

> than to-ing and fro-ing from King's.

Your post read to me as very black & white srisky. Clearly you felt those were the main advantage for you, but there are many, many more & by stating your opinion as fact you gave no space for them to be aired. If it reads that way to me it may read the same way to someone who doesn't have an in depth knowledge of the what it means to be looked after by community midwives. My post was intended to clarify some of the many advantages of the service - nothing else.

[srisky]

My intention was not to misinform, just to reassure MM should she not manage to meet her midwifery team beforehand.

Sillywoman- we both clearly think that community midwifery services are a good thing, so i think we could end up going round in circles arguing about semantics when we're both essentially in agreement.

[simonethebeaver]

Mavis, I was with Oakwood and they were amazing. However most of the women I know locally who have given birth recently have not been with community midwife teams and did not meet their midwives beforehand, including all the other women in my NCT class, with the lovely Sillywoman (who was very good at talking about all sorts of birth!).

Moreover, I had only met one of the midwives who delivered my baby before. In fact, as I had a four day latent stage, of rather full on intensity, I saw every midwife in the practice other than my named one, who was on leave! At one point in that time, I would have been delivered by one I didn't know and one from another practice covering leave. I still felt confident that they would have the same approach.

There were loads of reasons I loved being with my midwives. We did build relationships to some extent, and I liked them all a lot, but your actual contact time with them through the pregnancy is limited. The home visits were lovely too, and I was lucky enough to have s home birth with them. But my favourite thing was that I was confident that they were best practice professionals, who knew the most recent research, helped me to make my own decisions, and who I knew would stand up for me if necessary. They treated me as an intelligent adult throughout. I'd hope you could find these things with the King's midwives too.