Kelly, Jon and baby Goldie

Kelly and Jon chose to use My Independent Midwife because they wanted to guarantee that a midwife would be available for their homebirth. Kelly also enjoyed the convenience of care at home and full continuity. Goldie is Kelly and Jon's third baby and she arrived at home following a very quick labour. Jenny was their lead midwife.

Kelly had her first baby, Teddy, in hospital and found the experience quite traumatic, her second baby, Buster, was born at home supported by the NHS and was a much more positive birth. As Kelly is now over 40 the NHS were less keen to support a homebirth, also the homebirth service at her local hospital wasn't guaranteed to be available. Having this baby at home was extremely important to Kelly and Jon, they wanted to enjoy a stress free pregnancy and reduce all anxiety around the birth. Kelly and Jenny really enjoyed getting to know each other, especially as their children were all a similar age. Jenny even brought her little boy's pet snake (at the families request) to meet Teddy and Buster (which turned out to be a big hit with Jon as well)!

Kelly had a very straightforward pregnancy with no complications. On the day of Goldies birth, Kelly started having surges at around 3:30am that were initially every 8 minutes but by 5:30am they were every 4 minutes. Jon and Kelly asked Jenny to join them. When Jenny arrived, Kelly was clearly in established labour, having strong, regular surges. Jon had already prepared the pool and Kelly got straight in and immediately felt the benefit of the water. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly coped wonderfully, Teddy and Buster were present throughout the birth, mostly watching television in the next room, but popping in to check on their mum whenever they wished.

Goldie was born just before 7:45am into the water. Teddy helped her daddy to cut the cord and enjoyed early skin-to-skin contact with her baby sister. Buster said he was really happy he was there when his baby sister was born.

 

 

A message from Kelly.......

 

 


When I fell pregnant with our 3rd, I knew instantly I wanted a home birth. Unfortunately, due to my age (42) and history of sizeable babies, I realised I'd have a battle to do things my way. As it happened, there was no home birth provision in my local area so I set about finding an alternative. I'd had my 2nd baby at home so thought I knew what to expect but honestly, the care I received from Jenny was INCREDIBLE. We spent literally hours working through the trauma of my first birth (NHS, Consultant-lead); discussing what i wanted to replicate from my second birth (NHS, at home) and how I was going to achieve that with our 7 and 6 year olds present. 
I was shooting for the stars in terms of my birth plan but thanks to Jenny and Sarah, our beautiful Goldie arrived at home, weighing 9lbs 15oz, to an audience of her adoring daddy, big sister and big brother. 
The labour was wickedly intense in the moment and magical in retrospect. It took everything I had but the moment Jenny walked through the door and kissed me on the head, I knew I would be ok. I was safe.
You can't teach what Jenny has. Her expansive knowledge in all things birth, breast and baby would have been enough. But it was her generous, heartfelt, sincere, empowering and nurturing delivery of this knowledge which will stay with me for the rest of my days. I feel so privileged to have had her by my side throughout this pregnancy-birth-tongue tie-breastfeeding journey and would urge anyone contemplating booking in, to just do it.