I had Ceri in a birth centre (Angliss Family Birth Centre) and was super super happy with everything. I got there just in time for her birth (12 minutes after arriving) but they still had time to run the spa and I had a gorgeous waterbirth. My midwife was very hands off and relaxed which was fantastic. For example, I practically had to beg her for a VE before I jumped in the spa (just to reassure myself I was good to go!), and given most women hate VE's, well, they'd probably love the birth centre!

From what I hear, there's only about ten different midwives working there and they're all trained for the birth centre, opposed to normal midwives on the labour ward who may not be so patient or helpful if you're after a natural birth.

Given only 2% births occur in birthing centres (maybe even less), I wouldn't think they'd be hard to get into.

Birth centre policy is that once a complication arises you must go to the labour ward so you have access to the equipment and obs, so I'm guessing your freinds all had complications and had to be moved accordingly?