A Private Independent Midwife is a fully qualified, self-employed Midwife who has chosen to work independently outside of the NHS.

The appeal of hiring a Private Independent Midwife is the bespoke, personalised woman-centred care that the NHS currently cannot facilitate. 

Full continuity of careR by the same Midwife throughout your pregnancy, your birth, and for up to 8 weeks postnatally, at a time and place to suit you.

Yes you can still have all of your antenatal screenings and scans with your local NHS Trust if you so wish, and yes you can still have NHS obstetric care alongside your personalised care with a Private Independent Midwife. 

I have full indemnity insurance cover approved by the NMC to provide antenatal, labour, birth and postnatal care.

ALL MIDWIVES will have hadat least 3 years of training in the NHS, and are ALL regulated by the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC).

A Private Independent Midwife (IM) however, has more freedom to practice individualised, personalised woman~centred care compared to an NHS Midwife. 

Independent midwives have a passion for physiological birth, enjoy being with woman and empowering them to give birth in the stress-free home environment, which can help to reduce unnecessary interventions. 

An Independent midwife has the luxury of providing GOLD standard care, which involves providing bespoke continuity of careR, which we know, from extensive research, improves outcomes for women and their babies as it involves a trusting relationship between the mother-to-be and her Midwife. 

Evidence shows that women want and benefit from continuity of careR (NHSE). 

A Cochrane review found that women who received midwife led continuity of carer were less likely to experience preterm births or lose their baby in pregnancy. 

Building a relationship together enables a trust to develop and sharing anxieties and insecurities through a fully supported maternity journey. 

Receiving full continuity of careR from the same midwife is very different to experiencing the care currently provided by the NHS, which may mean a 20-minute appointment slot in a busy antenatal clinic and seeing a different midwife at every appointment. 

This relationship-based care also benefits the Midwife and is the best way to support you to have a safe, positive and empowering experience.

According to the most recent and up-to-date evidence, YES!

2019 The Lancet - a large systematic review and meta-analysis looking at 14 different studies and data from around 500,000 intended home births, found that "the risk of perinatal or neonatal morbidity was NOT different when birth was intended at home or in hospital." (Hutton et al, 2019).

2018 Scarf et al - a systematic review and meta-analysis further confirmed the safety of home birth for healthy women even if they are having their first baby. Furthermore, this study found that women giving birth at home were more likely to have a 'normal (non-instrumental) vaginal birth'. Planning a home birth, women were 3 times more likely to have a normal (non-instrumental) vaginal birth than women planning a hospital birth. 

Research also shows us that home birth is also safer for women who are labelled "high risk". 

For further information please see Dr Sara Wickham's work at https://www.sarawickham.com/research-updates/is_home_birth_safe/

I have a 1st class BSc with Hons Midwifery Degree and a Masters (PostGradCertificate) in Advanced Midwifery Practice.  I started my midwifery training later in my life in a large obstetric-led hospital.  

When I qualified I worked in a smaller hospital moving into the community team after 6 months where I looked after my own caseload of women and supported their births at home or in the birth centre. To date, I have been the primary/lead midwife at over 600 births in different settings across labour ward, birth centres and home births.

My passion is for providing true continuity of careR, and supporting and empowering women's birth choices. I have a particular interest in home births, as I birthed my 3rd baby at home on the living-room floor!

I carry my home birth kit with me, which includes carrying drugs to manage the third stage of labour, emergency equipment if needed, and suturing material for repair of perineal tears. 

I have a biomechanics for birth certificate to support physiological birth and I have learnt the Rebozo technique. I am qualified in Aromatherapy in Childbirth to support the use of essential oils, massage and acupressure for labour.  

As a Private Independent Midwife it is my responsibility to ensure my practice is evidence based, holistic and woman-centred. My skills are updated annually.

I am able to provide you with the GOLD-standard of midwife-led continuity of careR and I look forward to working with you on your maternity journey. 

Everybody is different and we all  have different needs, therefore I don't offer a 1-size-fits-all package. I do have 3 beautifully curated packages so please take a look.

You can call me for a FREE 30 minute Connection Call, where you can tell me what type of care you're looking for and I can explain how my independent midwifery care is different and what the cost is. 

Prices do vary dependant upon what you want.

I do require a non-refundable 20% deposit at our initial booking appointment, with the remainder due by 37 weeks. This ensures that I am available and I will go on-call for a 5 week period. 

Yes you can. I ask for a 20% non-refundable deposit at booking to secure my services for you.

The remainder may be paid in instalments, but I do ask for all monies to be paid BEFORE I go on call for you at 37weeks. This avoids any embarrassment for either of us.