A woman in a red dress smiling up into warm light

Linnea Birth House

Birth that keeps your rhythm

Book a visit See the rooms

Midwife-led birth centre · Leith

  • Midwife-led
  • Your own room
  • Water birth
  • One team, start to finish

Six rooms, one team

For anyone with a straightforward pregnancy, booked from eight weeks.

No wards. No strangers at the door.

Linnea is run by midwives, not a hospital rota. You meet your team of four at booking, you labour in a room that is yours alone, and one of those four faces is there when your baby arrives.

Your visits

From booking to the six-week goodbye

12 visits

All with your team

A newborn's feet resting in a parent's hands
A hand with a wedding ring resting on a red ruffled dress over a pregnant belly

Six rooms, each named for the light it keeps

Every room has a door that closes, a pool or a deep bath, a low double bed for afterwards and a light you can dim to almost nothing. Choose one at your 34-week visit; we keep it ready for you when labour starts.

  1. Milk

    Room 1 · the deepest pool

    • Birth pool
    • North light
    • Garden door

    The palest room, with the pool under a tall north window. Most first births here begin in Milk.

    A white freestanding bath under a tall window with sheer curtains

  2. Blush

    Room 2 · low bed, warm walls

    • Birth pool
    • Double bed
    • Birth stool

    Late sun comes through the west window. The bed stays low, so you can kneel and lean against it.

    Warm evening light across white pillows on a low bed

  3. Coral

    Room 3 · the quiet one

    • Deep bath
    • Sling and rope
    • Linen blinds

    At the back of the house, away from the street. Linen blinds soften the morning to a glow.

    Linen curtains with soft sunlight falling across a floor

  4. Ember

    Room 4 · for long nights

    • Birth pool
    • Lamps only
    • Partner’s bed

    Lit only by lamps. A fold-out bed lets your partner sleep beside you through a long labour.

    A table lamp with a yellow shade glowing beside a bed

  5. Cornflower

    Room 5 · opens to the garden

    • Birth pool
    • Garden doors
    • Own shower

    Glass doors open onto the walled garden, for walking through early labour in the fresh air.

    Open glass doors leading from a quiet room into a green courtyard

  6. Plum

    Room 6 · the darkest room

    • Deep bath
    • Blackout blinds
    • Red night lamp

    Kept dark for anyone who labours best with no light at all. Your midwife works by a small red lamp.

    A dark room at night with deep blue curtains and a chair

In every room

Choose yours at a tour
  • A door that closes, and only your people inside
  • Warm water, massage, TENS, and gas and air
  • A midwife you have met, and a second one for the birth
  • Tea, toast, and a double bed for your first night together

Twelve midwives. You get four of them.

Linnea’s midwives work in three small teams. At booking you are given one, and those four do every visit, answer the labour line and come to your birth. One of them is always on call for you.

Meet them at a tour
  • Team Rowan
  • Ama
  • Isla
  • Morven
  • Priya
  • Team Alder
  • Rafael
  • Kirsty
  • Joanna
  • Leah
  • Team Hazel
  • Sinead
  • Ewa
  • Catriona
  • Thandi

Your team is chosen by the area you live in, so the midwife who visits you at home lives nearby too.

Ama, a midwife of Team Rowan, smiling among olive branches

“I met Sorcha at ten weeks, and I was there when her daughter arrived. That is the whole idea.”

Ama, Team Rowan

Your pregnancy with us

From the first phone call to the day labour starts, the same four midwives look after you: at home, or here with the kettle on.

Refer yourself

  1. From 8 weeks

    Call us, or fill in the form

    No doctor’s letter needed. We ask about your health and any earlier births, and tell you which team will be yours.

  2. 10 weeks

    Booking visit, at home

    Two unhurried hours with one of your four midwives, on your own sofa.

  3. 16 to 31 weeks

    Four checks at the house

    Blood pressure, growth, your baby’s heartbeat and whatever is on your mind, in the front lounge rather than a clinic.

  4. 34 weeks

    A birth-plan evening

    You, your birth partner and your midwife, in the room you would like, talking through what you want and what you don’t.

  5. 37 weeks on

    Ready when you are

    Call the labour line at any hour, and a midwife who knows you answers.

On the day

A gentle view of where you are

On the day, one rhythm

Labour moves in phases. This is what happens in each one, where you are, and who is beside you.

  1. Phase 1 of 5

    Early labour

    Stay at home while it feels right. Call the labour line: your midwife listens to a few contractions with you and helps you judge when to come in.

    At home, on the phone

  2. Phase 2 of 5

    Active labour

    Your room is warm and the pool is filling as you arrive. From now on your midwife stays in the room, quietly checking on you and your baby.

    Your room, the pool filled

  3. Phase 3 of 5

    Transition

    The hardest stretch, and usually the shortest. Expect doubts, and expect your midwife to tell you that you are nearly there, because you are.

    Low light, steady voices

  4. Phase 4 of 5

    Birth

    In the water, on the stool, kneeling at the bed: wherever your body chooses. A second midwife joins quietly for the birth.

    Your position, your pace

  5. Phase 5 of 5

    The first hour

    Skin to skin, and nobody rushes. Your baby finds a first feed, the cord is cut when it is ready, and someone brings tea and toast.

    Skin to skin, tea and toast

A father holding his sleeping newborn up against the window light

The first six weeks, at home

  • Day 1
  • Day 3
  • Day 5
  • Day 10
  • Feeding café, Thursdays
  • Week 6 goodbye

We come to you. On the first day, the third and the fifth, a midwife from your team knocks on your door, weighs your baby, watches a feed and asks how you are, and really asks.

On day ten we check the weight again and do the heel-prick test. Then the visits thin out and phone calls take over, with the feeding café on Thursdays if you want company.

At six weeks we say goodbye, hand you to your health visitor with everything written down, and hope to see you at the café anyway.

A house, not a ward

A stone house on the Water of Leith, with a family kitchen where partners can cook, a walled garden, and a room where older brothers and sisters can wait with their own toys.

A white front door in a stone wall framed by green leaves and red flowers
The front door, Example Walk
A wooden table in a calm kitchen with a glass door to the garden
The family kitchen
A gravel path between flowering beds in a walled garden
The walled garden

Classes and groups

Free for families booked with us, apart from baby massage. Partners are always welcome.

  • A pregnant woman sitting cross-legged on the grass with tiny shoes in her lap

    Active birth yoga

    Mondays, 6.30pm, from 20 weeksFree

  • A couple sitting together on a blanket, his hands on her bump

    Partners’ evening

    First Wednesday of the month, 7pmFree

  • Light rippling across clear blue water

    Pool evening

    Fridays, 7pm, try the pool firstFree, by booking

  • A mother smiling down at her baby as it feeds, outdoors in the sun

    Feeding café

    Thursdays, 10am, drop inFree, cake included

  • A baby’s feet held gently in an adult’s hands

    Baby massage

    Four Tuesday mornings£25 for the course

Families who began here

Shared with their permission, in their own words.

Two parents by a window holding their newborn son
“We came in at two in the morning and Morven had the pool filled before we had parked. Nobody ever made us feel we were in the way.”

Hannah and Ross, parents of Fraser · Room Cornflower

A mother in a bright red and orange sari cradling her baby
“My first was born on a busy ward. My second was born here, in the dark, with a midwife I had known for seven months. I didn’t know birth could feel like that.”

Anjali, mother of Mira · Room Plum

A pregnant woman in a pale green dress laughing in a garden
“When my labour stalled they took me across to the hospital, and Isla came in the car with me. She held my hand until the very end.”

Grace, mother of Theo · moved to hospital, then home

Questions we hear at every tour

Ask yours on a tour, or call us on 0131 000 0000 during office hours.

Who can give birth at Linnea?

Anyone expecting one baby, head down, between 37 and 42 weeks, with a straightforward pregnancy. If something changes, we plan the next steps together and you keep your team.

Does it cost anything?

No. Care at Linnea is free for families in north Edinburgh, funded like any other maternity service. Only baby massage has a fee.

What pain relief can I have?

Warm water, massage, movement, TENS, and gas and air. If you want an epidural, we take you across to the obstetric unit, and your midwife comes with you.

What happens if I need a hospital?

The obstetric unit is ten minutes away. About one in five first labours here move across, mostly for a long labour or an epidural. Your midwife travels with you and stays.

Can my partner stay overnight?

Yes. Every room has a double bed, and Ember has a fold-out bed for long labours.

Can I bring my older children?

Yes, with another adult to look after them. The siblings’ room has toys, books and its own door to the garden.

How soon do we go home?

Usually four to six hours after the birth, once you have fed, showered and rested. You are welcome to stay the night.

Come and see the rooms

Tours run on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings and take about forty minutes. Partners and children are welcome. You can refer yourself on the same form.

Labour line, any hour

0131 000 0001

Everything else, weekdays 9 to 5

0131 000 0000hello@linnea-house.example

Find us

1 Example Walk, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 0ZZ. Buses 16 and 22 stop at the end of the lane.

Linnea

Birth House · Leith, EdinburghFrom the first call to six weeks after