I’m still in awe at how my body and my baby knew exactly what to do and I’m so grateful I got the birth I had hoped for

We were asked by our Local Maternity System (LMS) to make a Home Birth video for a virtual carousel.

For the last few years we have regularly attended the monthly carousel at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital, to promote home birth as an option to local families and answer any queries.

Since the corona virus outbreak, these have been unable to run and have been greatly missed by many.

We have put together a simple video featuring real local home birthing families and their reasons for having a home birth. We hope you enjoy watching!

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.