Help with Decision-Making

If you are still not sure where to have your baby, try the following:

1. Do you know what you are hoping for? What do you truly want your birth experience to be like? Where will you feel most relaxed? Revisit our Plans for your birth page to make sure you know what you want.

2. Make sure you have found out all your options. Have you visited all your local maternity units, including community units, and asked them questions about what will happen if you give birth there? Have you put aside any prejudices you may have about home birth and looked at the real facts?

3. Once you are fully informed of all options, you will need to think carefully about each one:

• How likely is it that you will get the birth you want by going there?
  
  
• Is it actually possible to have the maternity care you are considering - for example, if you are thinking about a particular hospital, is that hospital already overbooked? If you are thinking about private care, can you afford it? If you are considering a home birth, is your home suitable to give birth there?
  
  
• How do you feel about each of the options? Do you feel comfortable with the idea of giving birth there? Are you resisting an option you like because it seems an unusual choice, maybe not a choice that any of your family or friends would choose?
  
  

4. Be aware that there may not an ideal place for you to give birth in your area. If that is the case,

• you may need to think about going to the best place there is, even if it is not ideal, or
  
  
• you could think about paying for the care you need (see Independent Midwives)
  
  
• you could consider going out of your local area. If you feel this is an option for you then you should think about all the practicalities - travel, someone to stay with, what happens if your baby arrives early. If you still think it is possible, you will need to start the process over again! Go back to the Checklist and start at Point 2.
  
  
• you could phone up the Association for Improvements in Maternity Services (AIMS) on 0870 765 1433 to discuss your birth options.

5. Hopefully, by now you will have chosen where to give birth. Return to the Checklist to complete the process.