Home birth team

What we offer

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital offers a home birth service which covers 24 hours, 7 days a week. The service is provided by a team of Midwives called Juniper Team. The team accepts referrals after 28 weeks of pregnancy via your community midwife or a doctor. The Juniper Team aims to provide care in pregnancy and during the birth at home and for the first home visit following birth, after this the local midwifery team will continue care.

The Juniper team are supported by the midwives in Community in daytime hours and the hospital midwives out of hours and, depending on the stage and circumstances in labour, care will be provided by one or two Midwives. If a transfer into hospital is required in labour or following the birth, this will happen via ambulance and a midwife will accompany you into the hospital.

The Juniper Team aim to plan care before you give birth so will visit you at home around 34 weeks to carry out a home birth preparation visit. Whilst the team and accompanying midwives endeavour to attend all home births there are rare occasions when the team may be at another homebirth, the Trust will explore alternative options with you but on occasion you may be offered to attend the hospital for birth.

How do I make this choice?

If you are interested in choosing homebirth speak to your Community Midwife at your antenatal appointments. Home birth is recommended where it is likely that all your labour needs can be met by a Midwife. If you or your baby are likely to need care from a doctor or other specialist, we would recommend birth in the hospital environment. You community Midwife can discuss your individual circumstances.

Women have the right to choose their place of birth and we are committed to support this decision making in an individualised way.

Location

The Home Birth Team provide an on-call service (Via CallEEast). Clinics are provided from Bowthorpe Health Centre, Wendene, Norwich, NR5 9HA.

The service is provided to those in the GP catchment areas associated with the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. The service cannot be extended to those in the catchment area for other local NHS Trust who will provide their own care.

Contact details

The Home Birth Team can be contacted via CallEEAST 01603 481222 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Or via your Community Midwife in non-urgent circumstances – this phone number will be provided to you individually.

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