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Private Midwives in Warrington
A birth story from Mum & Dad

Jen and her partner James contacted Private Midwives to discuss the birth of their second child after having a quite traumatic experience with the birth of their first child.

Jen and James really wanted different care and support for the second pregnancy. Due to covid restrictions on the number of birth partners allowed in hospital, they made the difficult decision to have a private midwife in place of James to ensure she got the care she wanted. Our midwife, Madelaine, was at hand for the birth of their beautiful baby boy, Finley who was brought into the world to the sound of the Back Street Boys "Everybody".

Jen has kindly shared her birth story experience and her partner James has also given his perspective on the experience:

Jen's Story:

  • I had traumatic first birth in 2018 which involved post dates induction, failure to progress, an emergency caesarean section and delayed wound healing with infection where I was also treated poorly throughout. I knew that I needed different care and support for my second pregnancy.

    I contacted a number of independent Midwives before finding private Midwives and being paired with my midwife Madelaine. I first spoke to Madelaine in early June 2021 when I was about 5 weeks pregnant for an initial meeting. I felt Madelaine was the right midwife for me after this meeting and decided to go ahead.

    I then had appointments every 4 weeks with Madelaine which were extremely detailed and reassuring lasting 1 to 2 hours each time. We fully debriefed the previous birth so that I could understand what went wrong last time and covered a big range of topics. After a couple of appointments, I just knew I needed to have Madelaine at the birth, even if that meant my partner James couldn't be there in the event of a hospital birth, as covid restrictions only allowed one birth partner at the time, because I knew she would take the best care of me and support me advocating for myself.

    As we approached the due date, I felt well prepared and informed of my choices for birth and all the possible plans. We had built up a good relationship with the hospital, with Madelaine attending appointments with myself and the consultant to agree detailed birth preferences.

    As with my first pregnancy I went overdue and started to have increased monitoring with the hospital from 40 +12. At 40+15, I decided to be induced at the hospital via the balloon method. Madelaine stayed with me overnight whilst the balloon was in, ensuring I had emotional support during this long process and that I was getting the rest I needed for labour.

    After 24 hours, my waters were broken and 4 hours later I was started on the oxytocin drip. Madelaine was great support in this time, encouraging me to rest when I needed and be active and mobile when I wanted to as well. It was like a sleepover with a friend, dancing to 90s music. After a further 5 hours on the drip, I was examined and we discovered that, as with my first baby, no progress had been in the labour on the drip.

    I made the decision not to continue with the induction and requested to have a caesarean section at this point. Decisions were made efficiently and nothing dragged on longer than it needed to. I went into the theatre having made my own decision and having the energy and awareness to express my choices. I couldn't have made the decision without having Madelaine there as I trusted that this was the best thing to do at this point rather than continue with the induction becoming tired and risking anything happening to my scar or the baby for no progress.

    Baby Finley was then born at 1.46am to the Backstreet Boys, “Everybody”. I got to see him straight away, have delayed cord clamping, cut his cord myself and have skin to skin in the theatre. Madelaine supported me to breastfeed him whilst we were still in the theatre which really helped to establish the feeding early on. I then stayed in hospital for one night.

    Madelaine came to visit me my first day at home and many other times in that first week. She has a vast amount of knowledge regarding breastfeeding and really helped to get it well established and comfortable for me. She provided reassurance and spent time at each appointment going through my list of concerns. It was the postnatal experience that I hadn’t realised I was missing last time. I feel I have recovered really well. Particularly feeling that I was physically able to look after him much more from the start.

    Overall having Madeline support me through the birth of our second child has been life changing for me and one of the best decisions I have made. I honestly couldn’t have done it without her and I am extremely grateful for all the care and support she provided. Despite the events of the birth being very similar to my first birth experience, this was positive for me and I feel very proud of myself for doing it.

Jame's Perspective:

  • For me, having seen how unwell Jen became during the first birth and postnatal recovery, combined with poor treatment she received, the second child we had always wanted did not seem like a possibility anymore. I did not ever want to be in that situation again, even if that meant we would not have more children. The stress of the first experience had stuck with me even 3 years later. When I found out Jen was pregnant again, my first thoughts were not the amazing joy they should be. I immediately worried about the birth and this was when I also knew we needed to find better support for her this time round. This didn’t seem possible until I met Madelaine, who took me from not wanting a second child anymore to the point at which I would trust her to look after Jen during an induction process, labour (including caesarean section) without me even being at the birth.

    The first experience left me feeling like the medical professionals would miss things and not look after her which only I was be able to do. But, of course, I am not a doctor nor a midwife and so I did not have experience needed to do this fully. Madelaine however, had this covered and over the course of our antenatal appointments gained my full trust and confidence. What really made the difference, for me, was her attention to detail, her ability to understand what went wrong last time and how things could be different this time round, and seeing how she made Jen feel. I knew we were in the safest hands we could be and I am extremely grateful that despite having very similar birth events to last time, we ended up with a positive experience, a healthy baby AND healthy mum.

    This whole second birth has been a completely contrasting to the first and I honestly believe this is due to Madelaine and her allowing us to create a good relationship with the hospital before the birth. If you are considering using the private midwives service, all I can say is you will not regret it. Everyone should be entitled to this level of care. If you are someone that wanted a second child but is no longer sure, my advice would be don’t let the fear that “the system” has caused stop you living the life you want. As Madelaine would say there are always options and solutions and for us Private Midwives was the solution.

Meet the midwife

Birth is a very personal and intimate event. We recognise how important it is that you meet your midwife and have a “connection” so that you can develop a trusting, professional relationship going forward. We hold regular “meet the midwife” sessions where you can come along and chat to past clients, talk to the midwives and ask questions. We also offer you a free consultation to talk through things on a more personal level and discuss your individual needs and wishes. Please contact us for further information.

If you would like to find out about our Meet the Midwife sessions please call 0800 380 0579

Have a look at more of our testimonials here

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