"UCH Bloomsbury Birthing Centre, London"

I gave birth in the Birthing Centre in June 2011. From beginning to end, the services and facilities were fantastic, and I felt very well taken care of.

My antenatal care had been at UCH, and I met several midwives, but they were not on duty when I arrived in labour. That mattered very little at that point.

The midwife on duty was enormously competent, her manner was very appropriate, reassuring and also unobtrusive. She put me into a birthing pool right away when I expressed my interest. The room was set up, we basically walk into the room, she examined me, and put me in the bath. 3 hours later the baby was delivered. The same midwife who had taken my phone call stayed with us until delivery (in the pool) and then afterward.

The postnatal care was good too. We were put into a room with a bed and a cot bed for Dad and went to sleep.

The paediatrician came around the next day and we were discharged. If there were any difficulties it was simply that the ward was very busy and we were left alone to wait for the paediatrician for several hours, and ultimately the neonatal hearing test that should have been conducted was not. This will be done by the health visitor, though, and waiting in our own room, with our own loo, was not at all difficult.