Before I was three months pregnant I had been admitted to hospital with Hyperemises. (A condition which is essentially morning sickness gone mad!). The illness is often linked with stress. This matched my picture as my proverbial ‘first baby’ Unity Garden, the community garden I co-founded and managed, was forced to be destroyed making way for a housing development.

By four months pregnant I felt reasonably well, but by seven months had very high blood pressure, oedema and concerns of sugar in my urine. Jim and I had planned a home birth with little intervention, by the fire, but we were instructed it was to be the hospital for us! We were relieved the pregnancy was over when on the 5th November the contractions started. I had been in hospital having my daily monitoring but I didn’t tell the midwives, as I wanted to start labour at home. By the evening they were regular and close so we went to hospital.

Two days later, following loads of gas and air, but no food or sleep, I was given an emergency C-Section. Rue was born perfect and beautiful, 8.2lb. Strange though it may seem, as we had our perfect little man, I was deeply traumatised from the labour. His journey to us resembled nothing of our plans and our aspirations had been high. Our Birth Plan may as well have been composted straight after conception! I used to hold Rue to me and just cry. Jim and I would talk over and over the birth. Time is a great healer.

Just nine months later Jim and discovered I was pregnant with our second child. We decided the pregnancy and birth would be different and contacted Annie Robertson our local independent midwife. Annie’s graceful nature and her immense warmth guided us through a healthy pregnancy and birth. She helped me work through my previous trauma and allayed fears over NHS protocol regarding vaginal birth following C-section. Annie visited us once a month and became a friend to Rue.

I remained healthy and even travelled round New Zealand in a campervan!

Our second son Noah was born on the 8th May 2006, 9.10lb. I had been having contractions for a few weeks. Two weeks following our delivery date I went to bed only to wake at 6am with strong regular contractions. Rue went to friends; dogs went next door, taps running to fill the birth pool. Thankfully Annie arrives. As with Rue I wanted a quite dark place to focus on getting through the immense pain. For a time a sat on the edge of our sofa wrapped in Rue’s duvet, holding Jim’s hands, eyes closed listening to Annie gently reassuring me. I remember thinking this is what Annie said would happen and we’re dealing with in the way we hoped we would.

During a blood pressure check Annie firmly, yet calmly, said ‘Helen we have to go to hospital now.’ Just two hours later Noah was born on the hospital toilet floor, perfect and beautiful. My blood pressure was fine and three hours later we were all home waiting for Rue to come home to meet his baby brother. Many people ask if hiring Annie cost a lot. I always answer ‘it did cost, but we spent nearly twice as much on our second hand car!’ For our family my pregnancies and birth experiences have, and will always be, some of the biggest adventures of our lives. To have the care of one experienced professional midwife, a woman who needed no birth plan because she became a friend who knew what we all wanted was invaluable, priceless. Thank you Annie. Thank you Jim.(ex-client of independent midwife)