Where to Give Birth in Bromley?
If you're pregnant and wondering where to give birth in Bromley, Orpington or the surrounding areas, you have several options to consider. Where you choose to birth can influence the environment you labour in, the type of maternity professionals caring for you and the pain-management and medical facilities available.
For many families in and around Bromley, the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) in Orpington is the main local NHS maternity hospital. PRUH is part of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and offers three environments; the Oasis Birth Centre, the Delivery Suite and a home birth service.
Where is maternity care provided at PRUH?
Knowing where you're going before labour begins can make the experience feel less stressful, particularly if this is your first baby. The main inpatient maternity facilities are located on Level 3 of the South Wing at PRUH. This includes the Delivery Suite, Oasis Birth Centre and Maternity Ward.
I highly recommend touring the maternity facilities that you might want to use for your birth. You can ask your midwife about arranging a time to go and have a look around and ask all your questions!
Watch this video to tour the PRUH maternity services: Maternity at Princess Royal University Hospital
For the most current information about maternity services, always check the official PRUH information and speak to your maternity team, as services and arrangements can change.
PRUH provides 24-hour maternity telephone support. Its Maternity Assessment Helpline is available for urgent clinical advice, while the Labour Line is available for people over 37 weeks who think they are in labour or whose waters have broken.
Phone numbers:
Oasis Birth Centre
Delivery Suite (labour ward)
Maternity Ward
So, let’s look at these options in more detail.
Home birth
Is available through the PRUH home birth service for people living in Bromley or Bexley. The community midwives all support home births and they provide antenatal and postnatal visits. When the time comes, you will have two midwives to support you at home who will come fully prepared with all the kit that you would find in the midwife led unit. Even if you don’t stay at home for the entirety of your labour, staying at home for as long as possible has significant benefits for you and your baby.
There are many benefits to home birth; you don’t have to travel into hospital, you’re in your own private space which allows you to relax and get that essential oxytocin flowing. You can move around freely, eat, rest, and change positions as you like. You can hire a pool if you want a water birth and you can decide who is with you and have as many or as few people as you want, including your other children if you desire!
Birthing at home often reduces the need for stronger pain management. You can trust your body knows what to do, allowing you to get into your zone and out of your thinking brain. Home births generally have lower rates of interventions and unnecessary procedures which means physiological birth is more likely with low or no interruptions. Midwives are fully trained to deal with emergency situations and will care for you in the same way as if you were in the midwife led unit.
There is unfortunately a culture of fear in our country around birth, especially for first time parents which means many people won’t even consider home birth. After looking at all your options, you might decide that home birth is not the right choice for you, but it is important to know that birthing a baby at home is safe! Studies show that the main reason why people transfer into hospital isn’t for emergency reasons, but because they have requested an epidural, which is something you can’t get at home so transfer to hospital would be needed.
If you’re interested in having a home birth, discussing your preferences early on with your midwife is essential so you can plan, talk about your options, discuss the benefits, risks, limitations, and transfer arrangements before you make your decision. Make sure you discuss what happens if there are no midwives available to come to your home when you need them and what options are available in that instance. Discuss with your birth partner and have a plan for what you want to do if circumstances change so you are not trying to make decisions in the moment that you’re unprepared for. Even if you’re undecided, it’s better to have planned for a home birth and transfer into hospital on the day than decide you want to stay at home when you have no plan in place.
Oasis Birth Centre
Is the midwife-led unit at the PRUH that offers a calmer, less clinical and more personalised environment intended to be a ‘home from home’. It is run by midwives which means there are no doctors or obstetricians onsite. They offer 6 spacious birthing rooms, with plenty of room for you to move around. Two rooms have birth pools and all of them have ensuite shower bathrooms. There is also a four-bed postnatal area with room for your partner to stay with you afterwards.
The Oasis Birth Centre is set up to support physiological birth which means less intervention. It has less medical equipment, it’s quieter, more relaxed, with less staff, lower lighting and more freedom. The midwives are very supportive of hypnobirthing and will do whatever they can to accommodate your birth preferences, taking your lead to help you stay calm and in control. You will also have access to birth balls, birth stools, slings, TENS machines, combs and gas and air. Other pain management options are available, but epidurals cannot be provided and if you need additional medical care or decide you would like an epidural, you can be transferred to the Delivery Suite, which is located very close by. Studies show significantly fewer interventions, such as epidurals, instrumental birth or episiotomies, and substantially fewer abdominal births in midwifery led units.
For most parents a midwife led unit is their preferred option. Discuss with your midwife if you think this is where you’d like to birth and have a plan for what you want to do if circumstances change. Also find out if the Oasis Centre has ever had to close and what’s in place if that were to happen.
If you are high risk that doesn’t mean that you can’t access the birth centre, and there is some great information here on your rights around accessing care: https://birthrights.org.uk/factsheets/choice-of-place-of-birth/
Tours of the Oasis Birth Centre are available and they run every Monday and Thursday at 5pm. Prior booking is needed. To book go to http://bit.ly/pruhoasis
The Delivery Suite
This is a consultant-led ward where doctors are available 24/7 and you can have any type of pain relief including epidurals. Although your care is led by the doctors you will still have a midwife looking after you directly.
There are 8 private rooms in the PRUH delivery suite, all with ensuite bathrooms, a shower, hospital bed and chair along with facilities for additional monitoring and other equipment. None of the rooms have birth pools. However, there are birth balls and birth stools available on request and the lights can be dimmed in all the rooms. You can also adapt the room, move the furniture as you wish and bring in items from home to add some comfort. The recovery room has 5 bays, and you will be transferred to the maternity ward for postnatal care where you might stay for up to 48 hours if no additional care is needed for you or your baby. There are also two obstetric theatres for planned and emergency caesarean births, together with theatre recovery facilities.
If your pregnancy has medical or obstetric considerations and you’re ‘high-risk’ it will likely be recommended you birth here. Your maternity team should explain why this setting may be recommended, providing risks and benefits of all options as well as alternatives. You’re much more likely to have interventions such as monitoring or induction in a delivery suite which can cause more interruptions to your birth, restrict your movement and ultimately make your birth more challenging.
However, it is ultimately your choice where to birth, no one can make you go to hospital, but you can also choose to birth there if you wish. For some people, having these medical facilities immediately available provides reassurance. It’s good to remember you can make the environment feel more like your own with things such as fairy lights, pillows, blankets, photos, affirmations, scent and music, which can really help.
Again, some great information here on your rights: https://birthrights.org.uk/factsheets/choice-of-place-of-birth/
For the most up to date information on maternity services and restrictions, follow PRUH Maternity Voices Partnership on instagram and Facebook @PRUHMVP.
Hospital birth or home birth: what should you consider?
There isn't a single right answer when it comes to choosing where to give birth.
Instead, think about the things that matter to you and discuss them with your maternity team.
You could consider:
Do you want access to an epidural?
Would you like to use a birth pool?
How important is being able to move around during labour?
Would you prefer to be at home or in hospital?
Are there medical or pregnancy factors affecting your options?
How important is immediate access to obstetric and anaesthetic care?
What would make you feel most comfortable and supported?
Your answers may change during pregnancy, and that's completely normal.
What if my birth plan changes?
Choosing a birth setting doesn't mean you have to follow one particular plan from start to finish. Pregnancy and labour can be unpredictable. You may plan a home birth but later decide that hospital is more appropriate. You may plan to use the Oasis Birth Centre but require additional care during labour. Or you may begin labour expecting one type of experience and find that your preferences change. That’s why learning about your options, doing your own research, asking questions and looking at how it relates to you is the best way to prepare for your birth and understand what’s the right path for you.
That’s where I can help you, through my antenatal education, hypnobirthing and postnatal doula support, I’ll provide evidence-based information with consistent and personalised support to help you understand your options, discuss any recommendations, answer your questions and signpost you to further information so you can make the choice that is right for you.
If you’re interested to know more about what I offer or you have any questions about our maternity services in Bromley, or anything else just send me a message and we can chat.