alt text: painting of a heavily pregnant woman kneeling in a blue inflatable birthing pool. A midwife is listening in to the fetal heart with a doppler. The words Nation Homebirth Day are painted on the side of the pool. Image credit Midwife and artist Christie Higginbotham-Jones for #Nationalahomebirthday 2020
Tomorrow is National Homebirth day.
This year the objectives of the day are to:
▪️Address health and birth inequalities #FiveXMore #ContinuityOfCarer
▪️Build a support next work for homebirth providers
▪️celebrate your positive home birth stories with the #IThank campaign
▪️listen to pregnant people from BAME communities, be their advocates and empower them to make their own birth choices #MyBodyMyBaby
Check out the hashtags #NHBD20 and #NationalHomebirthDay2020 across your social media platforms for posts to inform and inspire.
alt text: white speech bubble graphic sitting on a watercolour style green background. The speak bubble contains a quote from the post’s main text
“Hello home birth team,
Just wanted to write to say a huge thank you to all the home birth team ladies I was cared for by throughout my pregnancy. Although I had a few changes throughout due to Anna going on maternity and Covid I felt so well supported by every member of the team that I came into contact with…which I think was pretty much all the team in the end!
Following my positive Group B Strep diagnosis I had a difficult decision to make as to whether to continue with the home birth, and felt Kirsty helped me, in a completely impartial way, to understand my options and decide on a course of action that was right for me.
It all worked out for the best as I had a really special birth experience in the pool at the Royal Surrey though ended up losing quite a bit of blood after the birth so no doubt would have had to transfer in if I had of given birth at home.
The calls with Caroline and Lucy after bringing my baby home were really valuable for me to just be able to check in that everything was on track.
There weren’t homebirth team clinics running for my five and ten day appointments so I saw two different midwives for these. Though they were lovely midwives, it made me realise how lucky I had been to have considerable continuity of care during the antenatal period and how valuable this is.
Thank you to all the team for all that you do – we are very lucky to have you!
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Kirsty to the role of Homebirth Team Leader
alt text: photograph of team member kirsty with logo that reads “Hello my name is Kirsty, Surrey Hills Team, Team Leader”
Hello my name is Kirsty and I am excited to take on the role of leading and developing the homebirth team.
I have four children of my own and through my fourth pregnancy I was fortunate enough to receive one-one care with the same midwife from Booking through to Discharge. This made a huge impact on me, and although I had always wanted to become a midwife, this positive, empowering experience gave me the nudge I needed to undertake my training, enabling me to replicate this to those in my care.
Being a member of a case-loading team, providing true continuity of care, enhances the perinatal experience for those we care for, as well as enabling me to support women in the choices they make, empowering them to birth their way. I love building these relationships with women and their families and I am passionate about working within this model of care.
If you would like to learn more about the team and birthing your baby in your own home contact the team at rsch.homebirth.referrals@nhs.net or ask your community midwife for a referral
surreyhillshomebirth.org 