Planning a home birth when there’s no nhs home birth team….
planning a home birth when there’s no nhs home birth team…
If you've been following the news lately, you'll know that home birth services across the UK are under immense pressure. Here in the South West, Gloucestershire has just suspended their home birth team - making national headlines. Closer to home, Exeter's service is patchy due to staffing shortages, and both North Devon and Plymouth don't,currently, have dedicated home birth teams at all.
If you're pregnant and dreaming of a home birth, this news might feel devastating. You're not alone in feeling scared, confused, or even angry about the shrinking options for birthing at home.
But here's what I want you to know: the suspension of NHS home birth services doesn't mean your home birth dream is over.
Why Are Home Birth Services Being Suspended?
Let's start with the reality. Midwifery staffing is in crisis. When trusts are short-staffed, they have to make difficult decisions about where to deploy their limited workforce. Inevitably, midwives get pulled to the "front line" - aka the obstetric units and specifically to the labour wards where the demands are relentless.
Home birth teams are often the first service to be suspended because they require dedicated, experienced midwives who can work autonomously. The truth? There are no longer enough midwives to be on-call when they've just worked all day. They're exhausted, stretched beyond capacity, and the system is broken.
Your Right to a Home Birth (vs The Reality)
Under NHS guidelines, every woman in the UK has the right to choose where she gives birth - including at home. This is enshrined in NICE guidance and supported by the Birthplace Study, which showed that for healthy women with straightforward pregnancies, home birth is as safe as hospital birth (and actually has better outcomes for second-time mothers).
But here's the harsh reality: having the right to a home birth and actually getting a home birth through the NHS when there's no team available are two very different things.
When home birth services are suspended and you call the hospital in labour requesting a home birth, you'll be calling triage (there's no dedicated on-call home birth number anymore). If there are no midwives available - and with current staffing levels, there often aren't - you'll be advised to come into the hospital where the staff actually are.
Yes, technically the trust still has a duty to provide care if you choose to stay home. But if there's literally no one to send? You're left with an impossible choice: go to hospital when you desperately wanted to be at home, or birth without a midwife present.
Neither option should be your reality. But until the government takes midwifery staffing seriously, this is where we are.
What This Really Means for Women
I'm seeing women across Devon and the South West making heartbreaking decisions right now:
Giving up on their home birth plans and reluctantly booking hospital births, grieving the birth they wanted
Taking a chance and staying home anyway, hoping midwives arrive in time (but often they don't)
Freebirthing - choosing to birth intentionally without medical professionals because they feel completely unsupported by the NHS
Looking for alternatives because they know deep down that the system cannot guarantee them what they need
And this is where I need to be really clear with you about what your options actually are.
Another Option:~ Independent Midwifery Care
This is what I do. I'm an experienced home birth independent midwife. I've attended hundreds of births, and I offer private, independent midwifery care to women who want to opt out of the NHS system and have an experienced midwife at their birth.
When you book independent midwifery care for your home birth, you get:
Dedicated commitment - I work with a small caseload so I can prioritise being at your birth. While I can't guarantee attendance (illness and emergencies can affect anyone), you won't be subject to NHS rota gaps or staffing shortages.
Continuity of careR - You'll get to know me throughout your pregnancy. I'll be there as you birth your baby, not a stranger you've never met arriving in the middle of labour. In the unlikely event I can't attend, my backup midwife will have access to your notes and birth wishes.
Full clinical care - This isn't just birth support or hand-holding. I provide complete midwifery care including monitoring you and your baby during labour, administering medications if needed, attending your baby's birth, and providing postnatal care.
Experience that matters - I'm a home birth expert. I know physiological birth, I trust the process, and I know when to act and when to step back.
No rushing off - NHS community midwives are often managing multiple women or need to get back to the hospital. With independent midwifery care, I stay with you for as long as you need me to after your birth.
But I Can't Afford Private Midwifery Care...
I hear this a lot, and I completely understand. Private independent midwifery care IS an investment - typically several thousand pounds for full pregnancy, birth, and postnatal care.
But let me ask you this: what's it worth to you to have dedicated midwifery care throughout pregnancy and birth? To know you won't be at the mercy of NHS staffing shortages? To not spend your labour anxiously wondering if anyone will come?
Many families find ways to make it work:
Using savings they'd set aside for the baby
Family contributions (grandparents often want to gift this)
Payment plans spread across pregnancy
Sacrificing other expenses because this matters more
For some women, once they realise the NHS genuinely cannot guarantee them a home birth, private independent midwifery care becomes the only real option for avoiding hospital.
What If I Genuinely Can't Afford Independent Care?
If private independent midwifery truly isn't accessible to you financially, here's what you need to know:
Be realistic about NHS home birth right now. In areas without a home birth team, calling for midwives when you're in labour may result in being told to come to hospital. There may be no one to send. Have a Plan B.
Prepare for the possibility of unattended birth. Stock your home birth supplies. Learn about the stages of labour. Understand what's normal and what's not. Know what to expect when your baby is born and how to support yourself if midwives haven't arrived (yes, really! It DOES happen!).
Consider hiring a doula if you can't afford a midwife. Although they can't provide clinical medical care, they can absolutely provide continuous support and help you feel less alone.
Connect with AIMS (Association for Improvements in Maternity Services) for advocacy support if you're being denied your choices.
Know that if you choose to freebirth - to birth intentionally without medical professionals - that is your right. But it shouldn't be your only option.
The Bigger Picture
What's happening right now with home birth services is a symptom of a much bigger problem. Midwives are leaving the NHS in droves - burned out, undervalued, and unable to provide the care they were trained to give. The government's response? Silence or blaming an ideology of normal birth at any cost (yes, I’m pointing my finger at Jeremy Hunt!)
Until there's real investment in maternity services and real change to working conditions, services will continue to be suspended. Women will continue to be failed.
But individual women shouldn't have to carry the weight of systemic failure. Your birth matters. Where you birth matters. And you deserve better than this.
If You're Pregnant and Want a Home Birth
Whether you're in Devon, Plymouth, North Devon, Somerset or anywhere in the South West, I want you to know:~
Your desire to birth at home is not unreasonable.
You're not being difficult for wanting this.
And you're not alone.
If you're considering private independent midwifery care and want to know more about what it involves, what it costs, and whether it might be right for you, please get in touch. I offer FREE telephone consultations because I believe every woman deserves to make an informed choice about her birth - even if that choice ultimately isn't to work with me.
And if private independent midwifery care genuinely isn't an option for you, I'm still happy to talk. Sometimes just having someone acknowledge how awful this situation is can help you figure out your path forward.
Clair x
Private Independent Midwife | Home Birth Midwife | South West
Home BirthNHS CrisisIndependent MidwiferyDevonSouth WestExeterBarnstaple