Choosing a hospital or home birth

Our aim is to help you make an informed decision about where you give birth, whether you'd like to give birth at home, or in one of our hospitals.

Giving birth at home

Our homebirth service is currently suspended as a result of staffing pressures but we are putting plans in place so that we can once again offer women the opportunity to give birth in the comfort of their own home if they wish and their birth plan allows.

As part of plans to reinstate this service, we have recently recruited some new midwives who are undergoing refresher training so that we can support women in the community to give birth at home. Other improvements have been made including new homebirth bags and collaborative working with community ambulance services to ensure the journey from home to hospital can be supported in a timely manner.

We know that staffing challenges have made it difficult to offer a consistent service for expectant mums in the past and we want to reassure you that when we are in a position to offer our homebirth service, it will be a sustainable service, with the patient's needs and preferences a priority for our midwives.

Giving birth in hospital

For low risk women we can offer the birth centre as an alternative to birthing at home.

Women who planned birth in a midwifery unit had fewer interventions, for example starting a drip, and were less likely to have a Caesarean section in labour (Birth Place Study 2014).

We recommend that women who need consultant care during their pregnancy have their baby in the maternity unit labour ward. You may live near more than one maternity unit. Please discuss this with your midwife, who will be able to give you information about the different units to help you to decide which one you would prefer to attend.

Your midwife will be able to give you information about the facilities available to you.

Find out more about choosing your birth location (opens in new window) >