Giving birth

Choice of place of birth

Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals Maternity Service proudly offer choice of place of birth to women and birthing people.  Sometimes this choice changes through pregnancy and our Maternity Team, made up of midwives, obstetricians, anaesthetists and support workers, come together to plan your birth with you in the safest way  whilst looking to support your choice where possible.

It is important that we are open and transparent about our services and how we provide care as there have been a number of recent enquiries regarding what we offer.

We offer the following choices of place of birth:

At home

If you are having a low-risk uncomplicated pregnancy, we have a dedicated Home Birth Team who will offer antenatal, birth and postnatal care to you in your own home to women who live within our community boundaries.

The team provide care as part of the whole Maternity Service and will have support for care planning when this is required through additional input from Consultant Midwives and Obstetricians.

Birthing options will be discussed with you gathering all the clinical evidence and your personalised preferences to support your informed choice and birth plan in the safest way possible; the recommendation may sometimes advise you to be within the hospital environment.

The team provide an on-call service and aim to attend all births with two midwives being required for a single pregnancy, one for you and one for baby.

If the team are attending another birth then you will be invited to the hospital birth centre; if there is only

one midwife on-call then you will be invited to the Birth Centre with your on-call midwife supporting you to provide continuity of care. If there is no midwife on-call then the Home Birth service is considered ‘suspended’ and you will be invited to the Birth Centre to receive care from our dedicated Birth Centre team.

Birth Centre

Both Epsom and St. Helier Hospitals have dedicated Birth Centres to support you during your labour and birth.

This ‘home-from-home’ environment offers midwifery led care within the hospital setting and support is provided by a dedicated Birth Centre midwifery team. Care is provided in line with your preferences, with both hospital site Birth Centres being co-located with our delivery suite should any support be needed.

If your care requires planning, this will be done with the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) during your pregnancy to support your choice to birth here, bringing all the available evidence to you for your informed choice.

Delivery Suite

Our delivery suites offer a full range of birth care, led primarily by midwives working alongside obstetric and anaesthetic colleagues.

A full range of pain relief is offered along with a dedication to providing care in line with your preferences, where safe to do so. If there is a need to recommend a change to your birthing plan, this will be fully discussed with you.

Both sites now have two theatres easily accessible should they be needed along with a dedicated recovery nursing team to support you.

Further information can be found at:

NHS Choice Framework - what choices are available to you in your NHS care - GOV.UK

 

We believe that it's important for you to make informed choices about the sort of care you would like and where you would like to give birth. These choices can be discussed with your midwife beforehand and will be incorporated into your birth plan.

We can offer expert advice tailored to your individual circumstances and needs at every stage of your pregnancy. 

Our midwife-led birth centres are dedicated to providing safe, individualised care from a core team of experienced midwives in a friendly home-from-home environment for women without complications.

Women whose pregnancies need more specialised obstetric care or closer monitoring in labour will be advised to labour on the labour ward with the extra reassurance this provides. All women will receive 1:1 midwifery care in established labour, with input from the obstetric and anaesthetic team as required.

The 'home from home' environment of the birth centres at both hospitals provides birthing rooms equipped with birthing pools, mood lighting and specially designed couches. These give mothers to be the opportunity to give birth naturally in a relaxing environment.

 

Take a look around

Watch our virtual tours below for an inside look at our units.

Who can use our birth centres?

We welcome all women who would like to give birth in a natural, relaxing environment, although there are certain criteria you need to meet:

• Full-term pregnancy between 37- 42 weeks
• Healthy woman with no known medical conditions
• Singleton pregnancy (only one baby)
• Uncomplicated current pregnancy
• No previous pregnancy or birth complications
• Baby in head down position
• Spontaneous onset of labour

What pain relief is available?

• Massage
• Breathing / relaxation techniques
• Water (hydrotherapy)
• Mobilisation
• Hypnotherapy will be supported
• Entonox (gas and air)
• Pethidine injection

If an epidural is requested, a transfer will be necessary to one of our labour ward rooms. However, it is known that the need for epidural anaesthesia is significantly reduced when one-to-one care is provided by a midwife.

For more information about our birthing centres, read Birth Centres At Epsom And St Helier - 2017 [pdf] 816KB.