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Telegraph Birth Guide

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The Telegraph Birth Guide provides comparative information on how maternity care is delivered in the UK and gives details on the services offered by individual maternity units. It has been designed to enable expectant mothers at all stages of pregnancy to choose the birth unit most suited to their needs. This comprehensive resource provides detailed information on caeserean rates, the availability of specific scans, the rates for administering of specific pain relief i.e. epidurals, pethidine and pain relief options related to natural births.

Maternity units are dividied into two groups: those run by midwives and those with care shared by consultants and midwives. More information on unit types.

Select a birth unit from the alphabetical list, or search for your your local services by entering a postcode.

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More information on shared units Close

Shared midwife and consultant units: This is the traditional hospital-based maternity unit staffed with doctors and midwives which account for the vast majority of births in the UK. These units have consultant obstetricians on staff and are able to deal with both complex and straightforward pregnancies and deliveries. Many will offer a choice of being under the supervision of a doctor or a midwife, although if there are complications you will almost certainly be put under the care of a doctor. These units are capable of carrying out all medical interventions in childbirth and can offer a full anaesthetic service, including epidurals.

Midwife-led units: These maternity units do not have consultants working in them and offer services for women who show no signs of having any difficulty giving birth naturally. Most of them are staffed entirely by midwives although in a few GPs with training in obstetrics also provide care.

By and large these units offer a very different style of care compared with consultant units. In general there are no anaesthetists to administer epidurals and no surgeons to perform caesarean sections. Interventions are very limited. Midwife-led units can provide an environment in which women are given support to give birth without medical intervention or high levels of drugs for pain relief. However, if you do get into difficulties at one of these units, you would be quickly transferred to a large hospital.