I was excited about birthing my second child Eric, I’d been under Elke and Diane’s care long enough to know that my baby, partner and I weren’t going to be subjected to the same life-changingly awful experience I had had in hospital with my Daughter in 2009 as a result of being induced. I wanted and had finally started to believe (as I had once done before) that giving birth can and might be amazing. Even the prenatal checks at home had been a different world, this labour had felt like a real family event. rather than us being on an overworked conveyer belt.

For my first daughter, Lily, I planned a homebirth. I don't like hospitals and I certainly didn't feel ill. I didn't even really like the routine monitoring and scanning offered in pregnancy. It always felt to me as if people were looking for things to go wrong.

From very early on in my pregnancy I thought about having a home birth. I asked the midwife about it at my first appointment at a central London hospital but I was told that I was outside their area for home births. The midwife there confirmed the experiences of my friends, that my nearest hospital is unable to guarantee a home birth due to staff availability. My pregnancy was progressing well so I had no reason to think I would need medical intervention and the more I found out about home births and hospital births, the more sure I was that I wanted to have a home birth.

Discovering I was pregnant for a third time in February 2005 at the age of 40 was a huge shock. I was due to be sterilised in April – that is how unplanned the pregnancy was. Although our two boys were still quite young, we had both agreed that our family was complete. However, after the initial shock wore off, my natural maternal instincts kicked in and I began to focus entirely on what would be best for me and my baby.

Our firstborn, Charlie, was delivered by a planned, entirely elective C-section at an NHS hospital. I had a complete change of heart for my second son, Ben, and desperately wanted a natural birth. I was fortunate enough to have an uncomplicated, drug-free, midwife-led water birth at a private hospital. I very much wanted to replicate Ben’s birth, but was disappointed to discover that the hospital’s risk management policy had changed since his arrival and they would no longer permit midwife-led care for any mother who had previously had a C-section.

Flora's birth with Jacqui and Elke (Youtube video)

Jacqui is a very important part of our family's recent history, as she has delivered two of our three children…

We initially met Jacqui when I was pregnant with our first child in 2002. I was determined not to give birth in a hospital (whether NHS or private) as then recent research had shown that unnecessary medical intervention was likely. I also wanted a home birth, which I was not assured of without engaging an independent midwife.

I found out I was pregnant again quite late. I went for the first scan at five months. Although I had thought I would concentrate on finishing my thesis before the birth, I found that I needed to read and focus my energies on finding out what went wrong the first time and seeing if it couldn’t be changed for the better.

My little boy was born at home in 2002 and we wanted another home birth for my second baby. The midwife we had used before wasn’t available and we thought at first we would use the Homerton midwives and simply ask for a home birth when the time came. Its funny how things work out, we ended up having a hospital birth and using Elke as our independent midwife.

Our desire for a natural birth at home led to our retaining the most exceptional midwife in Elke, who soon introduced us to her colleague Jacqui. Their care was complete and special to us as a family, as I expect their care will have been to many more families. I would highly recommend their services not only for their vast knowledge of the birthing process, but also for their sensitivity in understanding our needs, aspirations and, most importantly, our philosophy of birth. We were encouraged and consulted on every aspect of the process, which I think is extremely important.