Midwife-led unit and how to access this birthing space

birth pool and birthing partner in pool at QEQM St Peters Midwife Led Unit taken by Kent birth photographer Naomi Gale

How to access a midwife-led unit depends on many factors many of us may not even have considered. Perhaps we wouldn’t have had to consider in the years before. Essentially, accessing a midwife-led unit such as my local one, QEQM St Peters Midwife Led Unit in East Kent Hospitals Maternity space is a challenge.

Are midwife-led units safe?

Having a midwife-led unit is safer than going into the labour ward as you are likely to have a birth with fewer interventions. If a midwife deems there to be a complication or a mother wants an epidural they can easily transfer to a labour ward for this kind of intervention.

What is the difference between midwife-led and consultant-led birth?

A midwife-led care unit is where midwives are responsible for maternity care instead of doctors. This is how it would always have been in the years before medicine heavily and forcefully got involved. However, to have a midwife-led birth you must have what would be deemed a low-risk pregnancy. And in 2024 as we share this information, to be deemed low-risk is a challenging title to hold onto with more scans and more medicine taking away a woman’s autonomy. A consultant-led obstetric care space is more likely and they take responsibility for a woman’s care and their autonomy. Though necessary in a small minority of cases, it’s mostly unnecessary.

What are the benefits of a midwifery-led unit?

There are many benefits including a quieter space to give birth as it should be, less intervention and trust in a woman’s ability to birth, more likely to access a birth pool.

The referred to unit below is St Peters Midwife-led Unit

This East Kent Hospital Midwife-Led Unit is located within the hospital (St Peters) close to the consultant-led ‘traditional’ labour wards. It’s an example of what is available whilst being a small example. It has just two beds.

The concern is why and how access to MLU spaces is so limited proven by current stats. As a great example, here are St Peters Midwife Led Unit’s monthly stats. This was for January 2024 and it mirrors their usual monthly stats.

East Kent Hospitals Maternity Stats January 2024 Image with 4% QEQM MLU births shown

In the video shown here, I run through some of the challenges we may see to gain access. We also discuss some ways you can support your pregnancy and yourself. How to access to midwifery-led units like QEQM St Peter’s Midwife-Led Unit shown above.

For more support, you can peruse the Kent doula page. Explore how a doula can support you on this journey into the MLU. You can also find a local doula for you via Google maps.

For further support or questions, you can email: hello@thisisnaomigale.co.uk.