When I was pregnant with my daughter, Nancy almost 5 years ago, my midwife told me I’d be a perfect candidate for a home birth. I was intrigued, I’d never heard of anyone have a home birth! My husband completely dismissed the idea, with it being our first baby we didn’t know what to expect with labour. I knew I wanted a natural birth if possible, but was open to the possibility of pain relief.

When the time came, I took one contraction at a time and managed to remain in control. I stayed at home for as long as possible, chilling out in the bath and eating toast. I enjoyed being in my own environment; just me and my husband. I was only at the hospital for 90 mins before our beautiful baby girl entered the world, with only the use of gas and air.

Fast forward 2 years when I fell pregnant with my little boy. I knew I wanted my home birth this time! I bought myself a book about home birth and educated myself and my husband. It wasn’t long before he was completely on board, too.

At my first midwife appointment the first question I was asked was where would you like to give birth… it threw me. There were options? My response was ‘well its my first baby so hospital’.

I didn’t think much more of it but as my pregnancy went on I started to research home birth, and it sounded like a good option. I really dislike hospitals & avoid medical intervention where possible. I was determined that i would have a natural birth and thought it would be more achieveable at home. Of course no one else seemed to agree! My husband was concerned for my saftey & my Mum even more so. Luckily as we attended midwife appointments my husband started to see the benefits & we made the decision to go for it.

I’m not going to lie here, I did worry, course I did. Baby was back to back which added to my worry. But the minute I went into labor & the midwife arrived at our house all worry went out the window – they made me feel safe.

I laboured and gave birth to my first baby in a pool at the now sadly closed Jubilee Birth Centre at Castle Hill Hospital. Everything was so relaxed, calm and non-clinical, I knew that I wanted the same experience again for any other children I had. Although it had been on the cards on and off for quite some time, I was gutted when it was closed for good. When reading a local newspaper article regarding Jubilee’s closure, I saw that there was a Home Birth Group for Hull and the East Riding so I joined their Facebook group and began to attend the monthly meetings as I knew that I wanted a home birth for my second child.

We only have a small house, so after re-jigging the furniture and dismantling the dining table we inflated the birthing pool on my due date so that we were as prepared as possible. Labour began five days later after a long late morning walk; my son was being cared for by his grandparents on the day.

It was a shock to find out I was pregnant at the end of October 2015 with my 4th child, I hadn’t been with my partner long, we decided to keep the baby. I suffered awful bouts of morning sickness, extreme tiredness, and many weeks not been able to eat properly. Then my partner decided he didn’t want a child with me and when I was 11 weeks – a week before Xmas 2015 he upped and left and I dealt with the pregnancy alone. I then lost my job due to being pregnant at 5 months… I knew from that point this child would be so special to me and my other children.

My midwife mentioned I was the perfect candidate for a home birth, as I already had 3 children with no complications and all 3 births were straight forward. I was apprehensive as I didn’t know the ins and outs of a home birth. 32 weeks pregnant came and after much thought and research I decided to go ahead with my home birth – mainly due to the fact I had no birthing partner, no family, no proper friends.  I was so scared… scared of being pregnant and alone, scared of giving birth alone, scared of having a baby alone. My due date was 4th July 2016 – Independence Day!