Having your baby at a birth centre

A birth centre offers care to healthy women with straightforward pregnancies where midwives take primary professional responsibility for care.

They can be separate from the hospital’s obstetric unit (standalone) or alongside the obstetric unit. Both our birth centres are standalone.

NICE guidelines recommend that for women having their first or subsequent babies who are healthy and experiencing a straightforward pregnancy, giving birth in a birth centre is a safe choice for them and their baby.

At a birth centre the rate of intervention is lower and the outcome for the baby is no different than at an obstetric unit (delivery suite).

Women’s experiences of care have been shown to be more positive when they choose to birth and are cared for at a birth centre but there are many ways you can achieve a positive birth experience regardless of how your baby is born. Visit labour and birth for more information on birth optimising.

Find us 

Maidstone Birth Centre,  Hermitage Lane, Maidstone, ME16 9QQ

Crowborough Birthing Centre, Southview Close, Crowborough, TN6 1HB

Birth centre facilities

Our birth centres offer midwifery-led care with the support of maternity support workers. They are comfortable and furnished more like a home, to allow women to spend time with their families.

Active birth is encouraged with birthing balls, bean bags and birthing stools. There is a kitchen-diner for easy access to drinks and snacks and plenty of room for women to move about.

The postnatal rooms have double beds for partners to stay.

The birth centres also offer:

  • Pool rooms and postnatal rooms
  • Antenatal and birthing sessions
  • Breast feeding support and drop-in sessions
  • Newborn infant physical examination (NIPE) – midwives are trained to complete this examination for your baby before you go home.

Choosing a birth centre

We encourage all women and their partners to attend a tour of the birth centre of their choice. This can be arranged with your midwife or by calling the birth centre.

We offer a birth place assessment at around 34 weeks of pregnancy. If you are already receiving antenatal care with us, this can be booked through your midwife.

If you are having your antenatal care with another trust, but wish to birth at one of our birth centres, please complete our maternity self-referral form when you're around 30 weeks pregnant, and choose the option for birth centre referral.

The birth place assessment allows time for the midwife to assess your pregnancy and make sure you are suitable to birth with them. You can plan your birth and you will have the opportunity to ask questions.

More information on birth centres can be found on the NHS website.

Pain relief

There are many options available for pain management in labour including TENS machines, water births and complementary therapies. The birth centres also offer:

  • Hypnobirthing
  • Pools for waterbirths
  • Aromatherapy and acupuncture
  • Natural methods to support your birthing for example sterile water for injections
  • Pethidine for pain relief.

Epidurals are not available at birth centres. This requires a transfer to the hospital delivery suite.

Pain relief during labour

Crowborough Birthing Centre

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has completed its review of what would be required to reintroduce intrapartum (birth) services at Crowborough Birthing Centre (CBC).

This work has considered staffing, service sustainability and the safe delivery of care.

We have shared this assessment with NHS Kent and Medway and NHS Sussex, who are responsible for commissioning maternity services. They will now consider this as part of their wider planning for maternity services.

While this work is ongoing, the suspension of intrapartum services at the centre remains in place.

We know this will be disappointing for people who care about this service and we recognise the strength of feeling locally. Antenatal and postnatal services continue at the centre, and women and families continue to be supported through our maternity services, including midwifery-led care at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.

We will continue to work closely with commissioning colleagues as they consider next steps.

About the centre

Crowborough Birthing Centre is on the borders of East Sussex and Kent and has been part of the Trust since 2016. It is part of the Crowborough War Memorial Hospital and has been in the hospital for 20 years providing midwifery-led care. 

The Birth Centre team can be contacted on 01892 654080 and 664643.

 

Maidstone Birth Centre

Maidstone Birth Centre is a purpose-built unit, which opened in 2011 in the grounds of the Maidstone Hospital. It is a modern and homely, offering a calming birthing environment.

The Birth Centre has two spacious birthing rooms and four postnatal bedrooms with en-suite facilities.

The birthing rooms have large pools, comfortable home-like furnishings and equipment to help you in labour.

There is active birth equipment including birth balls, birth stools, a sling and beanbags in the birth rooms that will help and support women to achieve a physiological birth.

The birth rooms also have air conditioning, dimmable lighting and televisions. Most of the bedrooms have double beds so partners can stay.

A kitchen diner means you are able to help yourself to drinks and snacks whenever you want.

There is a garden room and small garden that provides a special place for you to walk around or just relax in labour.

The Birth Centre is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and is staffed with two midwives and one maternity support worker.

Tours of the birth centre run Monday – Friday at 7pm and Saturday – Sunday at 12.30pm. Contact the team or book a tour on 01622 220161.