Where to have your baby
We are happy with your choice of where you want to be; in hospital, at home or in our Birth Centre. Fifty percent of the women we look after give birth at home, but there are conditions for which we always advise a hospital birth. If you are in hospital, we ensure that it is made as comfortable and home-like as possible and that your privacy is always respected.

Our Birth Centre combines the best of both worlds; a comfortable, home-like environment, next door to a modern high-tech Maternity Unit and a Regional Intensive Care Baby Unit. In our Birth Centre everything has been designed for your comfort and safety during labour, and after your baby is born you can stay until you are ready for us to take you home.

Access to Doctors
As midwives we can look after you throughout a normal pregnancy, labour, birth and new-born period. If however you develop worrying symptoms indicating developing complications, we must refer you to a doctor. With our very high standards of care we hand-pick those obstetricians whose practice we admire and respect, obstetricians we have chosen for their ability to communicate clearly and with respect towards pregnant women.

If you are entitled to care under the NHS you will not be charged for going into hospital - you will be accepted as a regular NHS patient but one who has brought her own midwife with her. Obviously if you want us to take you into a private hospital there will be extra charges for that.

The Birth
When your labour starts we come to you as soon as you need us. As your labour progresses you will have all the support you need and the reassurance of an experienced person with you. When the time is right we accompany you into hospital, or into our comfortable Birth Centre, or we look after you at home, whichever you decide, or is best for you and your baby.

Our experienced midwives know that women's bodies work smoothly in labour so we try to avoid unnecessary interventions. We observe the progress of your labour very carefully so that we can take immediate action should any complication arise. Being with someone familiar you can relax and concentrate on your labour, assured that your interests are being looked after. In hospital we act as intermediaries between you and the medical and midwifery staff who don't know you or your needs as well as we do. We are always treated with great respect and are given a warm welcome by the staff, who value the extra help in the labour ward and who respect high quality British midwifery care.

Having helped you through the demanding hours of labour - maybe with an epidural, maybe with no pain relief and with you standing and squatting, maybe in a birth pool - finally we help your baby out into the world. We hand the baby to you and your partner and you are able to get to know the baby, able to examine every dimple and every crease, able to become familiar with this new person you have brought into the world. We believe these early moments are very precious and important; we would never disturb them or take the baby anywhere else, unless some overwhelming medical necessity arose. This time is for you, the new parents, to really get to know the little person who has lived with you for the past nine months.

Sometimes it is a time when the baby wants to suckle, and we can help you fix the baby at the breast but equally you will be surprised at how efficient your instincts are when you are given time and space. Most parents know exactly what they need or want at this time - it is the instinctive behaviour seen in all mammals; the cat licking her kittens to stimulate their breathing, the mare guiding the teetering foal towards his first drink, the same knowledge is deep inside you and it only needs to be given respect and the opportunity to emerge for you to be able to act as parents from the first moments.

After the birth, we check you, we make a cup of tea and (in the Birth Centre) we usually make a celebratory meal of toast plus scrambled eggs, mushrooms, bacon, marmalade, croissants and tomatoes. We are renowned for our all day breakfasts!

We help you to the bath or shower and then we encourage you to have a nap if that's what you feel like, or you may want us to take you straight home and settle you in your own bed. We can usually fit in with whatever you want.

Easing the pain
The way a labour progresses seems to be very dependent on mechanics - the way the baby is lying. If the baby is in a position whereby the baby's head lies against your cervix and stimulates it efficiently, the labour progresses smoothly and easily and the labour, although painful, is manageable. However, if the baby is lying slightly out of kilter, the labour is often more painful and less effective.

During pregnancy we encourage you to sit in ways which will help encourage the baby to take up the most efficient position. We suggest how you might adapt your life-style so that the baby is likely to adopt the best possible position.

During labour we encourage different pain-relieving positions, we use warm towels on your back, we help you to use deep warm water, we ensure that your blood sugar is normal with tasty snacks and drinks (hungry women feel pain much more strongly), we have available TENS, pethidine, entonox (gas and air) and many pain-relieving techniques such as rubbing and massage and encouraging and soothing words - if the pain is too intense for you we are well versed in the use of epidurals and 17% of the women we care for have these.

Your baby's story
You will have copies of all your documentation and our notes have plenty of space for parents to write in; for the baby it is a wonderful document of the pregnancy, labour and the first few weeks of his or her life. Children are absolutely fascinated by this very personal record of before they were born, their birth and early weeks of life.

For this very personal diary we also provide pictures of your baby's birth and of your brand new baby - but only if you like them!