where to birth.?

there seems to be so many choices of places to birth in auckland and it is quite confusing.
How have others chosen where to birth?

i am confused about where to go - i live in sth auckland but am reluctant to go to botany as it is just as far as town really but so far away from middlemore if anything went wrong. i know middlemore has a mixed reputation but they will be opening their new maternity unit in october so will that make a difference? and even tho nat womens in town is cool when i stayed there after the birth of toby i had to share a room with another lady and we were at the end of the corridor by the janitors closet and had to put up with the cleaners fighting and yelling every morning. and i dont fancy transfering to brithcare after with a small baby.

oh, its all so confusing and annoying and everyone keeps telling me i am runnign out of time if i want to find a midwife.... grrrrr.

i feel like just hibernating for the next 7 or so months and just ignoring the whole thing.

Birth at Birthcare! If I ever get brave enough to do this again I'd give it a go. And it's so close to the hospital if the need arises. And if you birth there you get a free private room.

a home birth would be happening only by accident. I like the idea that help is only a corridor away in hospital.

so if i birthed at birthcare i need to find an independent midwife right?

arohanui they were discussing the fleas at middlemore here too - but i would hope that the new unit wouldnt have the same problem and that maybe they have a problem because of all the construction and stuff going on around there disturbing all the fleas and their eggs. pretty yuck tho.

so am i allowed to go and check out the hospitals and birthing units while only barely pregnant?

I think they recommend waiting til you're over 12 weeks or something like that? I haven't actually "seen" birthcare as such, only brochures. Maybe you could ring the places and ask them to send brochures out to you?

Yeah only the midwifes on the list can deliver at Birthcare... it's on the website:

Birthcare LMCs

she did middlemore for both her kids then went to botany after. but it was so long ago - they got to transfer by ambulance when she birthed there.
i remember her first birth at middlemore. she had a huge room that fit the whole family in, in fact we all slept there.
and erana birthed there too and i remember being in the garden when the call came for action stations. but that was even longer ago, before botany.

GandT wrote: i feel like just hibernating for the next 7 or so months and just ignoring the whole thing.

I know someone who did this for her 4th and at the last moment rang her MW she had for her prevoius 3 and she took her on at the last minute. Might be a bit hard to do that up in AK thou.

I am pretty sure they won't let you see Nat womens till you are 24 weeks - you have to book their tours. Birthcare might be more lenient.

one of my antenatal friends gave birth at birthcare and loved it. If you do the Nat womens then transfer to birthcare it is so close that it isn't as scary as you think (the rest of the antenatal group did that except those of us with c sections).

I would have loved to birth at birthcare, but you have to be pretty healthy for that. Oh, and have a baby that wants to come out!