"Excellent experience at the birth centre"

We had our little boy in the birth centre on 31/12/16 and have only positive things to say about our experience there. The experience in triage wasn't as good. We were placed we were placed in a bay with no available staff to assess me for a while. After an hour my partner managed to find a member of staff and I was assessed and informed I should stay in triage until labour progressed and I would be reassessed in a few hours. My contractions progressed very quickly and so my partner went to go and find a member of staff as I felt I needed to push. Once someone saw me again they took me straight to the birth centre without any questions which we were happy about. The midwives in triage that we did meet were friendly, professional and caring.

Once in the birth centre, the environment was calm, peaceful and I felt safe in the hands of our midwife. The pushing stage look a long time but the midwife remained calm and gave me the time I needed to push him out without intervention. He was delivered safely in the pool in exactly the calm and positive way I had hoped for. Miswife was fantastic and I'll be forever grateful for their supportive, hands-off approach and for giving us the time to have an intervention-free birth. Thank you!! We stayed in overnight in our own double bedroom and were well looked after by all of the staff.

We were under the Sunflower community team but had all of our antenatal appointments at the North Mid. The midwives were all nice and professional, but the experience was nothing special. It was a shame to always see different midwives and led to some confusion as we were often told different things by different midwives. We had our last two antenatal appointments with the community team in the birth centre (due to them falling over Christmas) and the care was so much more personal, friendly and calm.

Unfortunately due to our postcode our postnatal care moved from the Enfield team to Barnet. The Barnet midwives have been great but the transition between teams was not straightforward. We did not receive a visit on our first day at home as expected. It seemed predictable that transferring care between teams on a bank holiday would not happen promptly as was needed. The care we have received from Barnet midwives has been great although it does confuse care as we remain open to triage in Enfield (who apparently still have our antenatal notes).

In summary, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the North Mid birth centre. Our baby was delivered safely, calmly and without unnecessary intervention. Thank you!