Home birth is the heart of my work. When I was pregnant with my second baby, I had booked a home birth and spent much of my pregnancy worrying whether the service would be suspended. That experience is why Rise Midwives exists.
Having one midwife who knows you from the start of your pregnancy has some real benefits. You are more likely to have a physiological birth and a shorter labour, less likely to need a caesarean section or forceps, more likely to breastfeed successfully, and more likely to enjoy your birth and remember it as a positive experience.
The research on home birth looks at where women plan to give birth when labour begins, not where they end up, so these outcomes include women who started at home and later transferred to hospital. You can read more in my post, Is homebirth safe?
A companion review in the same journal, covering a similar number of births, found no difference in risk to the baby between home and hospital births for women with low-risk pregnancies.
A study of over 1.2 million Australian births found that the odds of a normal labour and birth were nearly six times as high in planned home births, with no significant differences in stillbirths or neonatal deaths.
Your care begins with a booking appointment, where I take as long as you need to explore your wellbeing on every level, your hopes and plans, your full medical history and an individualised care plan. After that, appointments last around an hour, monthly until 24 weeks and then fortnightly until 37 weeks, all in the comfort of your own home.
At every visit I check on your physical health and your baby’s, and we go as deep into your emotional wellbeing as you want. I can help with common pregnancy imbalances through complementary therapies, refer you to trusted colleagues if you wish, and help you navigate your choices within maternity care. I recommend you also book with your local NHS maternity service, so you can access screening bloods, wellbeing bloods and ultrasound scans. If you prefer to. have everything privately, I can help arrange that for you.
In the third trimester, you and I start to think about your birth, with plenty of time to talk about the labour blueprint, long labours, fast labours and everything in between, the phases and signs of labour, and the anatomy and physiology of birth.
Together we explore pregnancy alignment and your baby’s position, whether to push or not to push, mantras, meditations and visions for birth, spirituality in the birth experience, undisturbed placenta birth, and the sensations and power of labour. We also plan for the fourth trimester, including attachment, feeding your baby, babywearing, meal planning and what you need to enjoy your babymoon.
You can read my guide on how to prepare for a homebirth, and download your free homebirth checklist.
From 37 weeks, I am on call for you around the clock, together with a second midwife. When you step into the spiral of labour, I come to your home and stay until a few hours after your baby is born, until you feel ready for me to leave. I bring everything in my birth bags and take care of the clean-up afterwards, so you can enjoy the golden hours with your baby.
If you are thinking about water for labour and birth, I bring the pool and look after everything from setting it up to clearing it away. For comfort in labour I offer Entonox, aromatherapy, biomechanics, gentle touch and massage and a TENS machine, along with many other skills to help you stay grounded and relaxed. I am fully equipped and trained to handle emergencies for you or your baby before an ambulance arrives, and if you choose. If you need to transfer to hospital, I will come with you, offering non-clinical support and helping you navigate the new environment.
It’s not just about avoiding unfamiliar spaces. A hospital filled with strangers, noises and distractions can disrupt the flow of physiological birth, because your body and your labour thrive in safe, calm environments, where you feel at ease and your hormones work best.
It’s not just about reducing unnecessary medical interventions, though home birth significantly lowers the chances of them. Even when plans change and you transfer to hospital, the cascade of interventions tends to be smaller if you started at home.
It’s not because at home you decide who is part of your birth space and journey, whether that’s your partner, your children, your pets or no one at all. Your space, your comfort, your choice.
It’s not because you can heal, rest and bond with your newborn in the comfort of your own home, surrounded by your own friendly bacteria and familiar surroundings, which isn’t just cosy but supports your baby’s developing microbiome.
It’s not because breastfeeding often starts more smoothly at home, when you’re relaxed and free from the pressures of an unfamiliar environment. Less stress, more success.
Oh well, yes, it’s all of the above and MORE.
But the biggest reason to consider a home birth? Choices.
You have more choices, not fewer: more freedom, more autonomy and more say in how your birth unfolds. If you plan a home birth but feel the intuition to head to hospital in labour, that’s your call, with no judgment and no stress. Your birth, your terms. Planning a home birth keeps all the doors open.
Choosing home birth: a revolutionary act of trust
Modern midwifery is shifting. We see it, we feel it, and we must be the change. Birth isn’t a medical event; it’s a physiological process. Our bodies are not broken; we are capable. We trust and RESPECT the process, and we deserve to be supported, not managed.
When we reclaim birth, we reclaim power. When we choose to birth at home, we plant seeds of confidence and trust that ripple through generations. We teach our children what is normal, and we remind them that birth belongs to us. This is how we change birth culture, not just for today but for the future. It starts with trust. It starts with you.
I support home births across East Sussex, Brighton and West Sussex, Surrey and Kent and South London. If you have had a caesarean before, you can read more about home birth after caesarean.
Reitsma A, Simioni J, Brunton G, Kaufman K, Hutton EK. Maternal outcomes and birth interventions among women who begin labour intending to give birth at home compared to women of low obstetrical risk who intend to give birth in hospital: a systematic review and meta-analyses. EClinicalMedicine (The Lancet). 2020;21:100319.
Hutton EK, Reitsma A, Simioni J, Brunton G, Kaufman K. Perinatal or neonatal mortality among women who intend at the onset of labour to give birth at home compared to women of low obstetrical risk who intend to give birth in hospital: a systematic review and meta-analyses. EClinicalMedicine (The Lancet). 2019.
Homer CSE, et al. Maternal and perinatal outcomes by planned place of birth in Australia 2000–2012: a linked population data study. BMJ Open. 2019.