Free Birth: the reality of home birth in Milton Keynes, UK.
5-7 minute read
There is a lot which can be said, and has been said about birth. So, I want to focus on one thing. The difference between the theoretical right to give birth at home and the experience of accessing support for a straightforward low-risk home birth in Milton Keynes.[i]
When we got married I told my husband “you would be mad to give birth without an epidural” so what changed? Well, I read a few books[ii] and I spoke to many other women who had recently had babies. I learned that home birth often enables a calmer more straightforward labour with statistically less chance of medical intervention. Whilst I couldn’t get on board with the affirmations of hypnobirthing (fluffy clouds are not my style) I enjoyed learning about the basic mechanics of birth and I liked the sound of a ‘natural’ childbirth. After all who doesn’t want to avoid being jabbed with needles, or have major abdominal surgery?[iii] And as birth is not like knee replacement surgery, where you are entirely at the mercy of the medical profession, for a straightforward natural birth to happen the mother needs to feel safe and supported, her well-being is paramount.
I have heard, through a friend that runs NCT classes that some of the most traumatised women she encountered were those that wanted a natural/vaginal /water /home/hynpo birth but they ended up with many medical interventions. Women wrongly blame themselves when things don’t happen as they expected or wanted them to. Often when I speak to some of the women this has happened to you find out that they were not supported properly in labour. You can do as much fluffy cloud breathing as you like, but I expect it won’t be as helpful as the correct external support.
My support was my husband and my independent midwife.[iv] I have told her since that she birthed all my babies, even though she was only present for the first, because baby number 1 gave me the confidence I needed to continue my labour without a midwife present. Having an independent midwife the first time around meant that I had continuity of care throughout my pregnancy and labour. In general, we know that this gives better outcomes than the alternative.[v]
In 2020 and actually on their due date, my son arrived in a little inflatable birthing pool with no pain relief apart from a brief stint of gas and air. I had 1.5 degree tear, which I understand is pretty standard for a first birth and no stitches. Apparently 14 babies were born at home in April 2020 in a Milton Keynes University Hospital (MKUH) record, which was due to the fact that they then had a home-birth team, and covid-19 incentivised women to stay at home.[vi]
The second time around, 22 months later there was no money for an independent midwife (then around £6,000). I signed up for an NHS homebirth. In 2022 MKUH still had a dedicated home birth team and I was visited at home for my checkups, but they were having issues with midwife recruitment. I recall anxiously asking my midwife about it and she had said something along the lines of “don’t worry we should have more staff by the time your daughter comes along.”
I don’t think it was a massive surprise that when we phoned for help, we were told that no one was available. I knew that if anything felt wrong, I could always call 999 and request a paramedic. So, I refused to come in and progressed the labour without assistance. Incidentally, I deliberately didn’t ‘push’ for number 2, I did some deep breathing (hpynobirthing style) and let my body just eject her and there was no tearing. When the midwives arrived about 20 minutes after my daughter they said it was the most bloodless birth they had ever seen.
So it was that my underprepared but always amazing husband delivered our second baby. He went into some kind of feverish shock about a week afterwards, so I really appreciated that he still supported the home birth option the third time around. By this time we were very aware that MKUH might not have the capacity to send someone and we were more cautious this time. We had thoughts such as: maybe they won’t come again when we call; and what would have happened if baby number 2 hadn’t been breathing? So we paid for a consultation with a different private midwife who gave us a basic baby resuscitation tutorial. It was very reassuring.
By 2025 the MKUH home birth team had been submerged into the broader maternity unit, further reducing the chances of an assisted home labour. In early June after about two weeks of on-off contractions baby number 3 started to make his way in earnest. I called MKUH after about an hour, having been told the reassuring words during a recent check-up that “staffing is a bit tight, but if you call early enough then someone might be able to turn up”.
My waters had possibly broken on Saturday, it was then Monday, and because of this I was asked to come in, I refused.[vii] We asked firmly “please send someone”. They said “no”, they said “the home birth team [singular!] are at another birth.” My husband filled up the water pool, I got in and about two hours after the contractions really kicked off our third and final baby arrived. Incidentally to Loreena McKennit’s “Dante’s Prayer”[viii] – I couldn’t have asked for a better track.
At this point I really wanted someone to check me and the baby over so we phoned 999 and the paramedics were with us in about 10 minutes. They were absolutely lovely, but didn’t know a thing about babies. Neither of them had had a child, neither of their partners had had a child, and they had never attended a birth before. My baby was the youngest they had ever met. They understandably went into panicky first aid mode, even doing blood-glucose tests, and when I stood up, they were shocked at the very normal amount of post-birth bleeding (I only had one very small tear after trying very, very, hard not to push!). Away we went to MKUH for the standard check-ups and everything was fine.
Through a freedom of information request published online we can find out that MKUH recorded 42 home births out of 3810 births (1.10%) in 2025. [ix] I wonder if births like my 2nd and 3rd (recorded as ‘Births Before Arrival’) are categorised as home births? It should not be correct to put unassisted births under a heading which implies that the births were midwife assisted. The number of assisted home births could be even lower. Conversely, I wonder how many women started out at the start of their pregnancy planning and wanting a home birth. For the three or so women I have met who had an MKUH home birth, I must have spoken to 30 who wanted one. Surely reasonable concerns about adequate home birth support directly feeds into women opting out of a home birth. The less home births there are, the less normal they become, the less midwives feel comfortable in a home setting. The trainees who arrived a bit late for birth number two were looking forward to seeing a home birth for the first time – I just hope they got their chance in the end.
I am sure we are all aware of the broader crises of underfunding in the UK maternity sector.[x] Consciously or unconsciously, someone with the financial purse strings at MKUH is making the decision that home birth should be the cherry on top of a fully functional hospital system. I can imagine the MKUH finance team saying “it’s nice if we can support home birth, but we shouldn’t worry too much if we can’t”. Personally, I believe that it would have been better if I had been told that MKUH could not realistically support a home birth due to inadequate staffing levels than to have been given false hope that it might happen. Whilst mine were absolutely fine, freebirth (unassisted labour) should not be the default option for those who don’t want to go into hospital, but who cannot afford an independent midwife.
N.B: I am not a medical professional or a midwife. All the facts and sources are correct to the best of my non-medical knowledge.
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Text updated 6/10/2026
[i] https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/labour-and-birth/where-to-give-birth-the-options/
[ii] Hynobirthing: Marie Mongan; Birth: A History, by Tina Cassidy, Expecting Better by Emily Ostler.
[iii] https://www.ulh.nhs.uk/patients/patient-information-library/choosing-home-birth-if-you-have-had-a-baby-before/
[v] https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/midwife-continuity-of-care-model-linked-to-positive-experiences-during-pregnancy
[vi] https://www.mkuh.nhs.uk/news/record-number-of-mk-home-births-for-one-month
[vii] I didn’t feel that the small increase in risk was worth transferring in for. “After your waters have released there is a small increase in the chance that you and your baby could develop an infection. Before the waters release there is a 1 in 200 chance of infection and after they release (and within the first 24 hours) this increases to 1 in 100. At each 24 hours after this that chance doubles, so at 48 hours the chance is 2 in 100 and at 72 hours it is 4 in 100.” https://www.chelwest.nhs.uk/your-visit/patient-leaflets/womens-services/your-waters-have-released-waters-have-broken-2013-what-are-your-options
[viii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUHvj1cxOs0
[ix] https://www.mkuh.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Home-Births-Response-1590.pdf
[x]https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/19/women-being-failed-by-underfunded-and-understaffed-uk-postnatal-care
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