Where to birth your baby in East Kent…
Room 8 in the labour ward at QEQM Margate
Congratulations! You are having a baby! This blog post is about where you can choose to birth your baby if you live in East Kent.
Your main options for birthing in East Kent are: At home, in a labour ward, in a midwife led unit, or you can travel slightly outside of our trust to access maternity services in Medway. Let's look at what each of these offers in more detail…
At home:
Thanks to our country having a very strong fear culture around birth many parents, first time parents especially, don’t even want to consider homebirth as they think it is unsafe. Now there are many reasons why home birth might not be the right choice for you, but it is important to to know that birthing a baby at home is safe! The number one reason why people transfer into hospital isn’t for emergency reasons its requesting an epidural, which is something you can’t get at home. Midwives are fully trained in emergency situations, and have all the kit that you would find in the midwife led unit. Home birth is lush because you get one-to-one care from a midwife who comes to you, you can move around freely, eat and drink what you want, and use your own bathroom and bed. You can hire a birthing pool if you want one. Oxytocin levels are high! However, as I mentioned you can't have an epidural, so you would need to transfer into hospital for that.
Currently less than 5% of births a month in East Kent happen at home, and our home birth team is stretched, I don't want to sugarcoat it. It doesn't mean that a homebirth is completely off the table, and there are so many benefits to planning a homebirth even if you do transfer into hospital, but you do need to have a frank and honest conversation with your midwife and also your birth partner about what your plan will be if there are no midwives available to come to your home when you want them to. You're not legally required to have a midwife attend your birth, but this pathway isn't right for everyone - do reach out if you want to talk about this.
In the midwife led unit (MLU)
These units are run by midwives only and are designed for you to birth your baby without medical intervention. The environment feels a little less clinical than a hospital ward, there are more birth pools than the labour ward, larger rooms so you can move around more during labour. You can get all pain relief apart from an epidural in the MLU, and if complications arise or you request to move to the labour ward you need to transfer. Our MLUs are very close to the labour wards in East Kent so transfer doesn’t take a long time. For most parents this is their preferred option understandably, and whilst our trust aims to keep our MLU’s open at all times it is sometimes closed, and if you are high risk you might have to be assertive to get access - some great information here on your rights around accessing care: https://birthrights.org.uk/factsheets/choice-of-place-of-birth/
In the labour ward
This is your consultant-led hospital ward where doctors are available 24/7 and you can have any type of pain relief including epidurals. If you have a high risk pregnancy it will be suggested you birth here. However, you're much more likely to have intervention (monitoring, suggested induction) which can cause many many interruptions to your birth, restrict your movement which can make birthing your baby more challenging. The environment is more clinical, and you're more likely to be cared for consultants who you haven't met before. You might also experience some of your labour in a bay on a ward before you are moved to a private room. For some of you this might be your preferred place to birth your baby, either medically or because you feel safest there, it’s good to remember you can make the environment feel more like your own which can really help. Another blog post to come on that later!
Let’s talk about our hospitals:
QEQM Hospital, Margate
Here you have the Labour Ward with St Peter's Midwifery Unit alongside - same floor so very quick transfer from one to the other.
If you're birthing on the labour ward and want a pool, always ask for Room 8 (main pic above!) This is a large room with a birthing pool, and please do speak up if a water birth is what you're wanting because they won't automatically allocate you that room unless they know water is important to you.
The MLU is smaller at QEQM which does mean once you've birthed your baby and had some recovery time it is likely that you'll be moved to the labour ward so they have time to get the room ready for the next family. Do take your own birthing balls to QEQM - I’ve been up there a couple of times when they have not been able to provide any - William Harvey has plenty though, see pic below!
QEQM Contact: 01843 292494
William Harvey Hospital, Ashford
You have the labour ward with Singleton Unit MLU - these are close but on different floors, so you might have to take the stairs or get in the lift. They have a bigger MLU with more pools, but unfortunately at the moment no pools on the labour ward, which is something to know when making your decision about where you'd like to birth.
The MLU has quite recently had a refurbishment, the rooms are larger and designed to encourage movement and oxytocin, plus there are more of them so there's a higher chance that you'll be able to stay in your room longer (and maybe even until you go home) after your baby is birthed. There's also a kitchen where you can make your own tea and snacks! This is important!
William Harvey Contact: 01233 616124
Travel outside East Kent - Medway Option
Some families choose to birth just outside of East Kent to access Medway Hospital's Birthing Centre. You can transfer your care to Medway if you want to access these facilities which you can find out more about here: https://www.medway.nhs.uk/services/where-to-have-your-baby/ Pics below - looks amazing!
Take a tour!
I always suggest that you take a tour of the maternity facilities that you might want to use for your birth. You can call them directly at 36 weeks and arrange a time to go and have a look around and ask all your questions! Seeing where you'll be in labour and birthing is so good for your birthing brain, even if you only step foot inside there once before it can help you feel familiar with the environment which then feels less scary on the day. Let's face it, hospitals make most of us feel anxious, so this is a really important part of your birth prep. Quite often my clients visit all three and then make a decision! Makes sense!
Independent Midwives
You also have a choice to birth outside of NHS maternity care with your own fully trained and insured midwife present, which is now becoming something more and more families are choosing. This level of care is exceptional, being looked after by one or two midwives who get to know you personally and who are with you throughout. We know that continuity of care improves birth outcomes in so many significant ways: reduction of caesarean births, episiotomies, birth trauma. We have some incredible independent midwives here in East Kent, the wonderful Frances https://www.ourvillagemidwife.co.uk/, who I'm lucky enough to have worked with supporting births, and Natasha and Sophie who together make Juno midwives: https://junomidwives.co.uk/
A final note on continuity of care - Doulas can give you this too
Unless you're able to access private midwifery care, regardless of where you choose to birth it's likely you'll be speaking to and seeing a few different midwives and sometimes consultants throughout your pregnancy and birth. This can feel impersonal, frustrating and can make you feel anxious. It's another reason why having a doula support your pregnancy and birth can make a huge difference, someone who is consistently with you, to help you digest and process information, signpost you and give you more time outside of those appointments which quite often feel rushed.
If you have any questions about our maternity units in East Kent, home births in East Kent or anything else just drop me a WhatsApp and we can chat - 07880368104
I offer Birth Power hours on zoom for £35 - these can be amazing if you have anything you want to work through in your prep.