Where can I give birth

If you are booked for maternity care with us, we offer three birth options:

• home birth
• hospital birth in our mother’s suite (midwife-led unit)
• hospital birth in our delivery suite (obstetrician-led unit)

Your options will depend on you and your baby’s health and your own preference. Be prepared for more than one option: some of your circumstances may change during pregnancy and this may affect your options.

We are expanding and renovating our delivery suite and expect to open our new state-of-the-art centre for mothers and babies in December 2009.

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Birth plan

We encourage all parents to write a birth plan. Your birth plan is a way of sharing you and your partner’s wishes for your labour and birth with the midwives and doctors caring for you.

Please discuss your birth plan with your midwife between 26 - 32 weeks of pregnancy and make sure you add a final copy of your birth plan to your maternity notes (blue folder) so that it can be consulted during your labour by the midwife or doctor looking after you.

Further information on how to write a birth plan can be found here and also here. 

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Home birth

If you are healthy, are having an uncomplicated pregnancy and live in Hackney or the City, you may want to consider homebirth as an option. See our leaflet for more information about homebirth.

We have 6 dedicated home birth lead midwives working as part of our community midwifery teams, who will provide antenatal care for women booked for a home birth. If you would like to book for a home birth, please tell your midwife.

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Hospital birth

Depending on you and your baby’s health, you have a choice of where you can give birth in hospital: in the delivery suite or in our mother’s suite. Our delivery suite is currently being expanded and renovated; we expect to open our new mother and baby centre in April 2010.

Delivery suite has a multidisciplinary team approach to caring for women and babies. The team is made up of midwives, obstetricians, maternity care assistants, neonatologists, neonatal nurses, student midwives and ward clerks.
 
Your partner, family or friends are welcome to come into hospital with you. However, we advise you to have only one or two people in the labour room with you.

Key staff and contacts
Delivery suite (including midwifery-led birth centre)
tel: 020 8510 7351 / 7352 / 7353 (24 hrs, 7 days a week)

Delivery suite and birth centre midwifery matron
Janet Bradley

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Midwifery-led Homerton birth centre

The Homerton birth centre is a midwifery led birthing unit for women who want a natural birth but do not want to be at home.

It is situated close to the delivery suite.

The birth centre is designed to offer a relaxed, friendly and home from home experience.

There are four individual birthing rooms with ensuite bathrooms.

There are two pool rooms where women can have a water birth if they choose. We also have pools that can be set up in the rooms that don’t have a permanent pool.

Women can opt to have their baby in the birth centre by speaking to their midwife. It is suitable for healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies fulfilling the following criteria:

• uncomplicated singleton pregnancies
• labour from 37 – 42 weeks
• cephalic presentation.

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Delivery suite

Our delivery suite provides care for women during labour and birth. We have 8 delivery rooms and an area with 3 beds for admissions or induction of labour. We aim to provide a relaxed and friendly environment, which promotes privacy, maintains dignity and is sensitive to your individual needs and preferences.

We have a dedicated maternity operating theatre that is located close to delivery suite, and Homerton hospital has a level 3 neonatal unit to provide special care for babies if needed.

Delivery suite and the obstetric assessment unit (OAU) assess all admissions to the maternity unit, so if you are advised to come into the hospital at any time during your pregnancy you may be asked to go to either delivery suite or OAU.

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Induction of labour

There are various reasons why an obstetrician may recommend that you have an induction of labour, which may include:

• Post dates induction (usually booked for when you have gone 10 to 12  days over your due date).
• If your waters have broken (spontaneous rupture of membranes/SROM) for over 24 hours and you are over 37 weeks pregnant. If your waters break before 37 completed weeks then the doctors will discuss the management course with you depending on your gestation.
• If your waters have broken and you are known to have Group B Streptococcus (GBS).
• If you are developing signs of pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure and there is protein in your urine) or other medical conditions related to pregnancy.
• If there are concerns about the growth or well-being of your baby.

Outpatient induction of labour
If your pregnancy has been uncomplicated and you are overdue (usually 10 to 12  days) you may be offered an outpatient induction.

You will be asked to come the Obstetric Assessment unit (OAU) to have the baby monitored and if all is normal you will then be given the medication to start the process of induction. Your baby will then be monitored again, and if all is well you can go home afterwards with clear instructions as to when you need to come back to the hospital.

Inpatient induction of labour
Inductions of labour are either carried out on Turpin Suite (antenatal ward) or Delivery Suite, depending on the reason for your induction. You will be asked to come to the designated area at 8 o’ clock in the morning for monitoring and to start the induction process, which may take in excess of 24 hours.

Once you are in established labour, or if you require a hormone drip to stimulate the contractions, you will be transferred to a room on the delivery suite. You can have up to two birth supporters with you on the Delivery Suite. You will also have a designated midwife to provide you with care, support and advice.
 

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Elective caesarean section

Your doctor will discuss the reasons why you have been advised to have an elective Caesarean section, at your antenatal clinic appointment.

Your doctor will ask you to sign a consent form and will explain the risks and benefits to the procedure. You will be given a date for the planned surgery. All women going for elective surgery require swabs to be taken for MRSA screening.

You will be asked to have some blood tests before the day of surgery; to check that your blood count and ensure there is a recent blood group sample in the laboratory.

You should be given a packet of tablets with an antacid and anti-sickness with clear instructions as to when you need to take them prior to surgery.

You should arrive on Templar ward at 07.00 on the morning of your operation. It is very important that you have had nothing to eat and drink from midnight except a little water to help you swallow the tablets, as it can be dangerous and your operation will have to be postponed.

When you arrive on the ward, you will be greeted and shown to your bed to be prepared for theatre(consent form and blood tests checked, shaved across incision site, nail varnish removed, listened to fetal heart and checklist complete). Once all is ready the anaesthetist will come to see you.

For caesarean sections (unless you require a general anaesthetic) you can have one companion (partner, relative or friend) to accompany you in theatre.

You will be informed at approximately what time your operation is planned, but that is always subject to change if there are emergencies.

If you have a caesarean section, we would normally hope that you will be able to go home on the third day following your operation.
 

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Birth options clinic

Philippa Cox (consultant midwife/ supervisor of midwives) holds a birth options clinic to facilitate women’s choice, for example, if a woman who has had one previous caesarean section wants to discuss having a vaginal birth.

Please contact by telephone (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) - tel. 020 8510 7046

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Birth Buddies

At Homerton, we offer women who would like to have extra support during their labour and the birth of their baby the choice of additional support by a trained volunteer birth companion (Birth Buddies).

It has been proven that having a birth companion present during labour can improve a woman’s birthing experience and will enable her to have a more natural birth. We have trained and dedicated volunteers who are happy to support women during pregnancy, delivery and after the birth of their babies. Birth Buddies are not midwives and will not take the place of a midwife. The service is free: having a birth companion will not cost you anything.

To find out more, please contact our midwife coordinator Carol French

email: carol.french2@homerton.nhs.uk
tel: 020 8510 5235
mob: 07771 940 982

We encourage women to contact the Birth Buddies service in the antenatal period, but you do not have to do so to use the service. However, as this service is provided by volunteers, we can not guarantee that it will always be available on the day of your labour.

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What to bring to hospital

For a full list of what you will need to bring to hospital for yourself and for your baby, please click here.

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Your stay in hospital

Find out more about your stay here 

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Birth pool for home births

Homerton hospital has a portable birth pool available on loan for women who would like to use a birth pool at home. There is no charge for this service, but there is a £100 refundable deposit against damage or breakage (payable by cheque).

You will also have to purchase a separate, disposable liner for the pool from an external company (cost approximately £30; details available when you book the pool).

You can book to have the birth pool from 2 weeks before your due date until 2 weeks after your due date, and you may place your booking as early in your pregnancy as you like. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

Contact
Community midwifery secretary
Tel 020 85105761 (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm)

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Visiting arrangements

9am – 12 pm: one adult per patient (no swapping)
4pm – 7pm: two visitors (including the partner) per patient

Children of the patient on the ward may visit during this period

Maximum visitors per bed:  one adult and two children of the patient on the ward.

Children under 16 cannot visit unless they are the brother or sister of the new baby

Restrictions to the numbers of visitors apply to minimise the risk of infection and ensure the health and safety of mothers and their newborn babies

No flowers please.

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Directions

Delivery suite is located on the first floor of the hospital. From the main entrance of the hospital, go straight down the corridor until you see stairs and a lift on your left hand side (just before the corridor ends). Take the stairs or lift up to the first floor.

As you come out of the staircase/lift, enter the long corridor and turn immediately right (follow the signs for delivery suite). Delivery suite is at the end of the corridor. Please ring the bell and wait to be admitted.

Click here for more information and our site map

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