Welcome to Juniper Birth Centre

Many women choose to have their baby in a birth centre. Birth centres are away from the Labour Ward but are in the hospital. The care you receive in a birth centre will be from a midwife. 

The Juniper Birth Centre has 6 birthing rooms, all of which have en-suite facilities and 3 of which have birth pools. The rooms are furnished to support your choice of natural birth and create an atmosphere that will help you and your family to feel as calm as possible.

The birth Centre offers a range of traditional and alternative methods of pain relief, including aromatherapy, massage, gas and air (entonox), pethidine, birth pools and TENS machines. The Birth Centre encourages active birth, and there are birthing balls, mats and cubes available to ensure that women are given every opportunity to labour and birth in the way they wish.

Three of the rooms have fold down double beds, so that you and your partner can stay comfortably  after you have had your baby. Our aim is to keep you on the birth centre, giving you postnatal care and feeding support until the appropriate time for discharge home.

If any complications arise during labour or if your labour does not progress as expected we can organise a quick and easy transfer to our labour ward to complete your birth where the full range of medical intervention is available. If this happens, wherever possible the birth centre midwives will continue your care, or it may be necessary to transfer your care to one of the midwives on the labour ward.

What the experts say:

The Birthplace Study (2011) has evaluated the evidence relating to hospital maternity and states that:

• Having your baby in a birth centre is very safe for women without existing conditions or pregnancy complications that require additional support or monitoring.
• Women who plan to birth in a birth centre have fewer interventions, including less caesarean sections, less instrumental births and less episiotomies, and more spontaneous vagainl births when compared to women who give birth on the Labour Ward. 
• 40 out of 100 (40%) women having their first baby transfer from the birth centre to the Labour Ward during labour or soon after the baby is born. 
• 13 out of 100 (13%) women having their second or subsequent baby transfer from the birth centre to the Labour Ward during labour or soon after the baby is born. 

Birth centre criteria

The birth centre is an environment that is suitable for women who have an uncomplicated pregnancy and women who do not have existing fetal or medical conditions that can impact on their pregnancy, birth or immediate wellbeing of their baby. The criteria listed below are not intended to limit your choice but to promote the safety of you and your unborn baby. If you have any further questions please speak to you midwife or obstetrician.