In November 2006 we started up a local support group in Glasgow for women who felt the maternity services in the city were letting them down. As the AIMS Homebirth contact for the area, I had encountered many women who felt they were being cheated out of the opportunity to have a good birth experience. This coincided with meeting Cassy, a local Independent Midwife who was providing the gold-standard in maternity care for women - midwifery-led continuity-of-care, where a woman engages the services of just one midwife who cares for her throughout her entire pregnancy, stays with & supports her throughout her birth & cares for her after the baby has been born.

Together we formed BirthChoices Glasgow, in order to provide women with the level of researched-based information they needed to make better informed choices about their maternity care. We knew women weren't receiving this information from Glasgow's maternity services & they were directly suffering as a result.

The idea of the BirthChoices meetings is simple - each month, we discuss a different topic related to pregnancy & birth, often inviting along a guest speaker. The meetings are always very informal & we cover subjects such as waterbirth, pain relief, routine interventions, VBAC, breech birth, home birth, caesareans etc.

We also dedicate a section of each meeting to any problems women have been experiencing so we can offer advice on how they might go about remedying their situation, plus, we act as a good sounding board for anyone who has had an awful experience with their care in previous pregnancies. The meetings are free to attend & we also issue factsheets of research-based information that we have compiled ourselves.

BirthChoices Glasgow has been so successful, we're now looking to expand the format to local groups all over the UK. Perhaps you've thought about starting a local support group yourself, but didn't know how to go about it? Well, we can provide you with all the information & hand-outs you'll need & it won't cost you a penny.

We will be using this website as an information hub for all local Birth Choices Support Groups - each group will have its own dedicated webpage offering information on where they meet, the subject they'll be discussing at their next meeting, any local news, plus information on local maternity services.

So if this is something you'd be interested in organising, please don't hesitate to email us for further details - there's no obligation to commit yourself & we're very casual, informal friendly types, so don't feel shy about getting in touch.

Look forward to hearing from you,

jayne@birthchoices.co.uk + cassy@birthchoices.co.uk

I Just wanted to thank you and Cassy for the information you gave last night. I spoke to the community midwife team at the Royal Alexander Hospital this morning and have arranged to go and see them tomorrow morning about transferring to their care, so I'm already feeling better about the whole thing!
- Claire