Community Midwives Nunhead

[stellakis]

Hi,

I'm due to have my second baby in February and am considering a homebirth, I've been allocated my midwifery team - community midwives, east team in nunhead. Does anyone have any experience of home births with them?

I'm going to look into getting on waiting lists for the better known teams but I'm not sure if i've missed the boat. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

stellakis

[MJmoo]

Hi,

I used to live in Nunhead and had a home birth. We were on the border of Southwark and Lewisham where we were though so my midwife team was through Lewisham Hospital Community Midwives. My midwife was Denise who was lovely and really supportive of my decision to have a homebirth. The before and after care was really good.

Best wishes!

[The Nappy Lady]

Hi stellakis,

I live in Nunhead and have had two home births. For my first pregnancy I was with the Community Midwives out of Kings, back then I think they were team 1, 2 and 3, but now renamed East and West Team I think.....they were fine, I saw a midwife from my Doctors Surgery through my pregnancy, and then two of the team came out to my birth - I hadn't met either of them before, and didn't feel I had a bond with any of the professionals involved in my pregnancy and birth, but it did work OK.

Second time around, more informed I rang the Brierley midwives as soon as I found out I was pregnant. They operate out of the East Dulwich Hospital building and were truly wonderful from start to finish. The midwife who came to my house to book me in at 12 weeks was the same one I saw for every ante natal appointment bar two, and she was at my baby's birth, and didn't sign me off until about 8 weeks after the birth. I felt I had a deep bond with her, so much so that she was even at my daughter's 1st birthday! Whilst I was exceptionally lucky to have quite such a close bond it is normal with the Brierley for you to see all 3 or 4 members of 'your team' during your pregnancy, and to have at least 1 of those people at your birth. For me this was what made the experience far better than what I experienced first time around.

Whilst I don't think there is anything wrong with the East Team, if you wanted to see whether the Brierley have space to take you on all you have to do is call their office and ask whether they have space for you in their February births list. The office number is 020 3299 6163 and they are usually there in the morning - at other times just leave a message and they will call you back. Signing up with them does not mean that you HAVE to have a home birth, you can change your mind at any time, so don't worry about that. However, if you don't sign up now you're unlikely to be able to get on their books later as they are very popular.

I had two wonderful home births, one 'land' birth - i.e. kneeling on the floor in our bedroom, the other in a birth pool in our kitchen dining room. Heaven knows how we'd ever leave this house, too many happy memories! There is nothing better than being snuggled up in your own home an hour after the birth munching on tea and toast. You are very welcome to private message me, or come around for a chat (I'm on Harlescott Road) if you'd like to.

Good luck with it all.

Best wishes, Molly

x