Acorn birth centre - anyone given birth there recently?

Tried for the same 18months ago in June and they didn't have enough staff to keep it open. Interested to know if anyone's had a water birth there at all!

I was told I could and was so looking forward to it but didn’t even make it to the hospital 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️ gave birth at home with only my fiancé there to catch our son! I will say I went for postnatal check up there 2 weeks ago and all the birthing rooms were open with no one to be seen inside 🤔 was confused as to why it was completely empty. The rooms were beautiful though

@Natalie I agree, I doubt there’s been many! The midwife said I could have a water birth, assuming everything is ok in the normal delivery rooms but it just doesn’t have the same feel to it 😩

I gave birth there 5 weeks ago, had a water birth and it was the best experience! I didn’t go into it thinking I wanted it though, in all honesty I didn’t have a birth plan at all as I know how unpredictable birth can be and was told by my midwife that the birth centre can’t always be staffed. To be honest a water birth wasn’t even something I thought about but it definitely eased a lot of the pain so even if you can’t use the birth centre I would still say ask to use the pool in the labour ward! Fingers crossed there’s enough staff for you to have the birth you want though! ❤️

@Brooke Hurst haha oh wow!!! Hope everything went ok?? That’s crazy!! And they are, it has such a calming feel to it, fingers crossed they will be in the next few weeks 🤞

I'm really not sure what they mean by "if everything is ok" - perhaps they mean if you leave it as late as you can before coming to hospital. I didn't as I was in too much labour pain to sleep for days, started off in acorn, it was very nice, but they moved me out fairly quickly when they checked how dilated I was (not enough). Maybe they just can't have you in there for 7+hours due to staffing but if you're almost ready to go it might be ok? Not sure

@Charlotte awww that’s amazing! I think you’re the first I’ve ever heard say you’ve given birth there! Water birth is definitely in my plan but I need to stop fixating on it I think because I know it can go sideways very quickly 🤣 congratulations by the way xxx

Thankyou! Yeah I didn’t want to make a plan as I get quite bad anxiety with change and knew I couldn’t be stressing about my birth plan not going right whilst I was in labour 😂 I think it just depends how long your labour is, I’ve heard people say they were allowed in there for part of their labour but had to move to labour ward when the midwife finished her shift. I was at hospital by 10:30, 4cm by 12:30 so taken to the birthing centre and then was 8cm an hour later, gave birth by 6 so a pretty quick labour and birth. Get taking some raspberry leaf te when you’re 36 weeks and plenty of long walks, that worked for me 😂 xx

@Chloe I really hope you get to have your birth there lovely! And my waters went at 08:05am then gave birth at 08:19am to my massive 9lbs 9oz baby with no pain relief😵‍💫 I also got a 3rd degree tear so needed surgery soon as I got to hospital 😢 gave birth on the 5th and stitches have healed so well so all is good now. Despite the tear it was a beautiful home birth and a memory to cherish forever. Just enjoying my 2 boys 🩵

Hope you get your water birth! I had my heart set on one in the acorn birth centre but ended up getting induced so wasn’t allowed in there. I could have still had a water birth on the ward but I was in that much pain & that tired that I was begging for an epidural 🤣 ended up with a c-section anyway haha x

@Natalie yeah they’ve said if I’m too late I won’t be able to have one and I think if I need extra monitoring though they did say they have monitors that can go in the water! And aww that’s a shame you can’t just stay in there if you’re already in there but you’re probably right, probably all to do with staffing

@Brooke Hurst thank you! And what?? 😱 I think that’s the craziest birth story I’ve ever heard 🤣 14 minutes later?? Was you having any contractions beforehand? Oh the tearing is what scares me but glad you’re healing well and congratulations! 💗🥰

@Charlotte aww that sounds like a dream birth! I’ve been on the raspberry leaf since 32 weeks, currently trying to get 6 medjool dates down me now 🤣 also just bought a big pineapple I’m going to try and eat and went on a big walk with my dog but still literally 0 signs!! 😩

@Megan labour is so unpredictable isn’t it! That’s why I’m trying to calm myself down from being obsessed with my birth plan as I know anything can happen! But as long as your baby got here safe and you were ok, that’s all that matters in the end! 🙏🏼

@Chloe thank you 🥰 & yes contractions woke me at 5am then became every 10 mins at 7:30 so rang triage but they said labour at home for some more???? Then it all happened too fast to even move and his head was literally coming out 😅😂 couldn’t believe it!! My mum & paramedics made it into our house minutes after he arrived ❤️