EXPECTANT mothers can be assured of a comfortable experience whether giving birth at home or in hospital, according to Bournemouth’s chief midwife.

Speaking following the opening of Bournemouth Hospital’s new £860,000 purpose-built centre, its head of midwifery, Pauline Hawkes, heaped praise on the new facility – which boasts two rooms with birthing pools and a third room for overnight stays.

Ms Hawkes said once a woman in labour enters one of the rooms, they will have no need to leave again until the baby has arrived – with pull-out beds for the father, en suite facilities and emergency equipment all tucked away within the large space.

“The majority of our women use the pool for labour,” she added.

“We have a lot of water births, but some women do get out the water before the birth and either have their babies standing up or on all-fours.”

However, the midwife-led unit also supports home births, and Ms Hawkes said this is something more people in the area are electing to do.

“Giving birth is such an intimate experience,” she added. “To have that experience at home they feel more control. As a professional going into their home you are their guest, so essentially, the woman has the control.

“A lot of women have children already and choose home birth because they do not have someone to look after them, and birth is unpredictable – they don’t know exactly when they are going into labour.

“Some women like the children to be at the birth too, which is really nice.

“It gets children used to birth. When I was a child, birth was like a secret thing, so it’s nice to get people used to it and understand that it’s a normal physiological process.”

In the event of a complication during a home birth, Ms Hawkes pointed to the new access point for ambulances and how quickly patients can now be transferred.

She said: “By the time you have put the phone down the ambulance is at the door.

“We have got a really good service in Dorset and an excellent relationship with the paramedics.

“They know if we request an ambulance we need it really quickly and not a few minutes late.”