Hull & East Yorkshire Home Birth Group Volunteer sets up a Home Birth Merchandise Shop.

Melissa who gave birth to both of her sons at home set up the Redbubble shop after noticing there was very little Home Birth Merchandise available to buy.

Melissa comments ‘When I had my first home birth, my sister had wanted to buy me a ‘born at home’ baby vest and struggled to find one she liked, in the end she got one personalised.’

Our Local Maternity System (LMS) announced last week that they are piloting a subsidised birth pool hire scheme.

The scheme is available to those living in the Humber, Coast and Vale area, which includes both Hull and the East Riding.

I have always loved and found the long birth stories really inspiring and totally amazing during pregnancy so ‘Sorry not Sorry’ for the really really really long post… it will take a while to read so put your feet up!

Pregnancy overview; I found out 9DPO, burst ovarian cysts at 4 & 8 weeks, hyperemesis-gravidarum from 5 weeks, PGP, 2 lots of reduced movements and a history of surgery making me consultant led until after 20 weeks when I made my case and he made me midwife led.

After 2 weeks of latent labour preparations, once early labour started, things progressed quicker than we realised at the time, and almost without the midwife.

This is my home birth story. I wanted to make this; as whilst planning my own home birth, it surprised me how many women don’t know that this is an option for them too. My goal is not to belittle hospital births in any way, as I had a hospital birth of my own. If a woman wants or needs to have a hospital birth, then that is certainly the perfect place for her to be. My hope is just for women to know they have the capabilities of making the choices they wish. Every single pregnancy is different, so this is just my experience.

I am not promoting the act of going against medical advice, but rather listening to the advice given by your medical professionals, and understanding it is still your choice to make. It is always advised to do as much research as possible to support the decisions you make throughout your pregnancy.