Today at 30+3 I saw my midwife for the first time since 20 weeks. At 28 weeks I was released from consultant care back into the community.

I was a bit nervous about being discharged from the hospital but now I am feeling much more positive about it all.

The midwife is keen for me to aim for a delivery on the Midwife Led Unit in our local hospital. I have to admit it does sound lovely but I am worried that something might go wrong.

The unit has single rooms with ensuite bathrooms. There is a kitchen where you can help yourself to drinks and snacks. Your husband is allowed to stay with you all the time and there is a reclining chair for him to rest on.

They have birthing pools for water births, birthing balls and bars on the walls for you to hold on to if you want to labour in an upright position.

I would like to try for an active birth and this seems like the best way to achieve that. I am quite concerned though that the only pain relief available to me would be gas and air and pethidine. I am happy to have gas and air as it is what I had with Esther and William but I do not want pethidine as I know that it passes to the baby. I think I would prefer an epidural to pethidine?

Apart from the pain relief though the Midwife Led Unit does sound lke the best place to give birth after a pregnancy without complications. I am blessed to have got so far withthis pregnancy and I just want to do the right thing for the birth.

The midwife really did sell the unit to me. At first David, my husband, was keen for me to go to the labour ward, just in case anything should go wrong but I think that he is now coming round to the idea. I think we have a lot of research to do. I am hoping that NCT classes will help and we do not have to make a decision for another 6 weeks.

One other point that makes me favour the midwife unit is that I would be able to go home 4 – 6 hours after giving birth, meaning that I would not have to leave Esther and William for too long.

The midwife had a good feel of Matilda Bump today. She is measuring perfectly for 30 weeks and is presenting head down. She is curled on her side we think and is lying mainly on the right side of my body with her back to my front, which I believe is good?

So with a little under ten weeks to go we have some thinking to do and a birth plan to prepare.

I am liking the idea of a water birth.

Would you?

Any excuse to share this shot!