Women may choose any birth setting and health care professionals have a responsibility to support women in their choice of setting wherever they choose to give birth.

Midwifery led units (freestanding or alongside) are particularly suitable for low risk women as the rate of interventions is lower and the outcome for the baby is no different compared with an obstetric unit.

For low risk women, planning birth in an obstetric unit is associated with a higher rate of interventions such as instrumental vaginal birth, caesarean birth and episiotomy compared with planning birth in a midwifery led setting.

This document aims to support women to make safe choices and to provide staff with a tool to assist in birth place planning.

All low risk women from 37+0 to 42 weeks are suitable to birth in the AMU’s in Glasgow and the CMUs in Clyde. Women should be risk assessed at each contact to ensure they remain on the correct pathway and to discuss recommendations for birthing in the AMU or CMU. Some women who have risk factors are recommended to birth in the AMU or CMU following a discussion with an Obstetric Consultant. This conversation should take place before 37 weeks, at the point of discussing birth plan and should be clearly documented under management plan on Badgernet. There are some differences for AMU, in unit CMU and outlying CMUs which are detailed within this document.