Read about Shelly’s fight with the NHS to be supported in her choice to birth her 2nd baby at home after her local trust had suspended their home birth service. The trust agreed to commission the services of Independent Midwives to support Shelly. The amazing Kat Cotterrall all the way from Wales and myself as the 2nd midwife, had the pleasure of supporting Shelly during her HBAC ❤️

As Shelly herself writes, “Don't ever back down for what you believe is right!”💪🙌

I can't believe it's my turn to write my birth story. I fought the NHS for my right to birth at home💪 It's a long one!

💙 Second-time mum - Suprise baby boy

📅 NHS EDD- 12/11/2024 / My EDD 16-18/11/2024

📅 Born on NHS date - 12/11/2024 @ 1.23 am

🏠 Planned and actual HBAC in the birthing pool

💊 2 paracetamol & comb

❤️ First baby planned section for breech presentation 5 years ago

❌️ Nonspecific antibodies in blood at 28 weeks

❌️ Late diagnosis of obstetric cholestasis at 39+3

To find out I was pregnant was a bit of a shock, to say the least! Once I was over that I knew I wanted to birth this baby vaginally and I started my research which led me to a water birth at home. I knew then that my best chance to have a VBAC would be doing this at home. I had 1 friend who had birthed at home but this was one of my 'way out there' things to my close friends and family, however, my sister supported my decision. I went in search of my tribe and found some great online groups.

My first booking in appointment with the community midwife I made clear I was going to birth at home, the HB service was running and she advised me I'd need to have "the talk" with the consultant as I'd be birthing out of guidelines!

This midwife seemed to take great pleasure in making unnecessary remarks regarding my homebirth at every appointment and by 38 I refused to see her anymore, I should have done this a lot sooner!

Not very far into my pregnancy, the HB service was pulled with the hopes it would be up and running in time for my birth. August approached and being part of the MNVP I knew that nothing would be sorted in time for my birth so I reached out to birth rights for help. I also hired an amazing doula to support me and help me navigate the unknown, her help and support were invaluable.

I emailed the HOM & Community Matron asking them to provide me with assistance while birthing at home, either NHS or independent midwives, or asking a neighbouring trust to cover me.

I was put in touch with a consultant midwife who was wonderful but what I was asking just wasn't feasible. I listened to consultants explain the risks of scar rupture, that if I needed a blood transfusion while birthing at home they might run out of blood for me due to needing a specific blood type and all the other 'risks' they are obliged to tell me.

After not getting far with the consultant midwife and no acknowledgement from the HOM, I then wrote to my local MP and sent a formal complaint to the Chief Executive of the Trust. My complaint was shut down pretty quickly by an 'acting director' stating they are committed to providing choices (but not giving any) and that as the NHS they don't provide private care (which is an absolute lie). I sat on this for a couple of weeks as it was my daughter's birthday and the fire in my belly grew, I wasn't going to let this go.

I knew trusts up and down the country were able to facilitate HB so there is no reason my trust can't!

At 37 weeks pregnant, I went back to the Trust complaints department stating they weren't to close my complaint as nothing had been sorted, I asked them to support me at home like many other trusts do by utilising their own midwifes and/or independent midwives. I also copied in the Chief Midwife of North East and Yorkshire - this email was sent about 9pm and by midday the next day there was an email from the Chief Midwife stating she would be looking into this and she'd copied a lot of people from the ICB into this email! Was something was happening....??

However my due date was fast approaching, the ICB were pushing my local trust to pay for an independent midwife but they were refusing as I'm "high risk". The trust were perfectly aware that I was making a fully informed decision and I'd be birthing at home regardless. I was also prepping myself / researching so I was confident enough to free birth and I'd use the hospital for what it's there for - an emergency.

As I was quickly approaching 39 weeks I sent further emails to the trust pushing for answers, it seemed they were just dragging their feet as once I'd given birth my complaint wouldn't be relevant!

At 39 weeks exactly, my hard work paid off and it was confirmed that an independent midwife would be funded to support me at home. I couldn't believe it.

The next day I was on Zoom with 2 independent midwives who were going to support me, one was actually going to travel up from Wales to support ME in the North East, little old me, I was so happy!

The hospital had also managed to find cover to support my home birth from their NHS midwives until my IM arrived in 2 days time.... which just shows things can be done!

I also started to become very itchy......

39+3 I received a call from the hospital as my bile acid levels were 128, I was diagnosed with obstetric cholestasis (ICP) and they wanted to induce me. I was absolutely devastated and felt like the months of fighting were all for nothing. I decided to sleep on it and take each day as it came, research and explore my options.

39+4 I met with my amazing independent midwife, Kat, for the first time, it felt like I'd known her forever. I knew at this point I was safe and I was going to be looked after well, my body and mind started to relax. Due to the diagnosis of ICP, I agreed to a sweep.

39+5 I met with Kat again and I decided I'd have my bloods redone, I was looking for research/ stories about obstetric cholestasis but I couldn't find anything for 39+ weeks as all the data showed that women had already been induced by this point. I also had start / stop contractions during the day.

39+6 I decided to have another sweep and started to have a bloody show. My bile acids had come down to 98, I spoke to a consultant on the phone and I said I would sleep on it again and decide what to do the next day, I ended up sleeping most of the day but kept getting woken up with contractions.

By tea time I realised I hadn't felt the baby move and went for CTG monitoring where all was fine. The NHS midwife wanted me to stay for the induction talk with a doctor.... while I was contracting 🫣- I declined and went home.

Things ramped up when I got home. I took 2 paracetamol but I was still in denial this was the real thing, it was my first labour and I thought I had a long time to go. I had a bath and asked my sister to come over and support me. I coped quite well believing I was in it for the long haul, breathing and using my comb. I got out of the bath, put the tens machine on, told my sister not to dare press that button, took the tens machine back off, was sick and decided to have another bath.

My midwife must have arrived about 12am. My sister sorted the pool which took a while and when it was ready they asked me to go downstairs. Once downstairs, I had a VE and I was 6cm, something I was adamant I didn't want from the NHS as I knew they would use VE as my 'clock'. Before I could get in the pool another contraction came and my waters went on the floor. I'm told I was then dragged into the pool, I can't actually remember getting in! But as soon as I was in the pool I felt the need to push. God that was sore and all those breathing techniques went right out the window. Less than 20 minutes of being in the pool the head was out, I felt them wiggle their body while waiting for the next contraction, such a surreal feeling. I then got to pick my baby up out of the water and found it was a boy 💙 During my labour, something was telling me I was going to meet a boy, so strange!

My little girl was upstairs with my mam so they both came down to meet him.

At that point, my second midwife also arrived with the gas and air, which came in useful for stitching!!

The cord was quite short and cut after about 6 minutes, it was making things difficult and I was sore. I waited about 20 minutes and accepted the injection to get the placenta out.

I couldn't actually believe I did it. I got my HBAC and I got to crawl into bed with tea, toast, and my 2 beautiful children. Exactly what I had hoped and worked so hard for!

I spent the whole of my pregnancy researching, fighting, blocking out the negative noise, ignoring all the remarks about my decision and I got the best outcome I could have imagined. I'd do every single part of it again as it led me to exactly the right people who I couldn't be more thankful for. Saying goodbye to the independent midwives was hard and I cried a lot! They'd done so much for me and I'll be forever grateful to them for walking into my life exactly when I needed them.

My postnatal care was passed back to the NHS and I saw a new lovely community midwife who sat there and listened in awe to my birth story.

I'm still on an absolute high with it all and I'm not sure I'll ever come down from it.

Don't ever back down for what you believe is right!