Home Births with Private Midwives

What an amazing journey 💫

From the moment I met Madelaine I knew I had been blessed with the most amazing midwife and I will be forever grateful for meeting her. The day after our first meeting, I messaged Madelaine to say I was concerned that I hadn’t felt the baby moving much, and by that afternoon she was at my house to listen to the baby’s heartbeat and reassure me that everything was okay. When she left, she said, “I told you i’d look after you.” I immediately felt so overwhelmed and happy to have her, as I could tell straight away how much she genuinely cared. I knew from the beginning that she was going to look after me no matter what.

Madelaine was always at the end of the phone to check how I was doing and answering any little question I had - not to mention she’d have the answer to any question in about 2 minutes! (I swear she knows EVERYTHING)

As soon as I met her, I felt genuinely excited about my birth, as I knew I could trust her 100%. After having a previous home birth with my first daughter who was back to back - Madelaine made it her mission that she wanted to make my second home birth even better - and she didn’t disappoint. She’d refer to it as our “pool party” and would always talk about birth in a positive and relaxing way, which made me so excited to experience a birth with her. Not only did she make me so excited, but Madelaine also ensured I was well-educated in all aspects in order to make informed decisions about my birth.

I told Madelaine that I wanted a due date baby as it was on a Friday - my favourite day and the same day that my first daughter was born, but during a visit she took one look at me and said “you’ve got at least another week to wait” and she was right (as she was about everything)

So Friday 27th January, a week after our due date - our baby girl was born!

I texted Madelaine when I woke up in the morning to say that I had a feeling that the baby was definitely coming today. Before I’d even asked her to come she was on her way, 11 minutes later she arrived at my house and said she would've camped out in her car if I’d of said I didn’t need her yet, just to make sure I was okay.

Madelaine arrived at 7.30, we had a cup of tea together, and she asked my partner to make me some breakfast. I listened to orders and ate my Weetabix then we went upstairs, so Madelaine could check me over and tell me whether it was nearly time, or whether she was sending me back to bed for nap… she lay me on the bed with some relaxing drum music while she examined me and then told me it was time to fill the birth pool. I felt so excited as the moment we’d been waiting for and talking about for weeks was finally here! I couldn’t wait to go on the journey together.

I lay on my bed during contractions with my fire on, candles lit and my music playing. As they got stronger and stronger, Madelaine was there massaging my back and helping me through it every step of the way. I remember her saying “you trust me don’t you?” and I did, with absolutely everything!

Madelaine told me that as soon I was in the pool, it was time to meet my baby… and she was right - of course. Our chunky 8 lbs 10z baby girl came into the world at 10.03 after the quickest and most relaxing birth I could've ever imagined. I will never forget hearing Madelaine say “catch your baby” as I couldn’t quite believe it. It was the most serene and magical experience, and I will treasure it for the rest of my life.

I will be forever grateful to Madelaine for everything she taught me and how prepared she made me feel in the lead up to my birth. She told me the whole time that I would have a beautiful home birth, and I believed every word she said, but I also felt so reassured knowing that whichever direction it took that I would be absolutely fine. Every event was explored and discussed with me, and I felt prepared for everything. This allowed me to have the most relaxed pregnancy and birth I could have pictured.

I will never be able to thank Madelaine enough, and I will always feel lucky to be blessed with her as my midwife.

Our second midwife Cristina was a ray of sunshine and always had a smile on her face. Even though we didn’t meet until the final weeks of my pregnancy, I was so excited that she was going to be at the birth. Her warm presence made me feel so comfortable straight away, and I couldn’t of been happier that she became apart of our journey. She even made us homemade lasagne during the postnatal visit the day after our baby was born!

Both Christina and Madelaine would always make an effort to play with my 2-year-old daughter when they came for any visits and always let her “help” with any checks they were doing. It always just felt like you had friends round whenever they came, and I’ll miss seeing them every week.

I will always treasure the memories made throughout my pregnancy and labour. Thank you for the most amazing experience. 💖

Kind regards

Danielle