What if you needed an assisted delivery – forceps or ventouse?
In the past, family doctors would sometimes perform assisted deliveries at home births. However, assisted deliveries involve increased risks to the baby (eg injuries such as head trauma, or complications like shoulder dystocia) and the mother (severe tearing and/or bleeding). For these reasons, assisted deliveries are not performed at home in the UK nowadays. If you needed an assisted delivery, eg for lack of progress in the second stage, you would have to transfer to hospital. Sometimes women transfer in this situation and then go on to give birth spontaneously in hospital, while others do go on to have an assisted delivery. It is not usually an emergency situation, but transfer for slow progress in second stage can of course be uncomfortable and disappointing for the mother. Here are some birth stories from women who transferred for assisted deliveries: Sarah (forceps), Nikki (ventouse), Karen (forceps), Sam (forceps).
