Nottingham mum who gave birth in remote woodland cabin says experience was 'magical'

She welcomes the return of the city's home birthing service

A woman who gave birth in a woodland cabin has called the experience 'glorious', 'magical' and exactly what she wanted. Joana Weaver and her partner Nick, both 42, is among parents welcoming the return of Nottingham’s home birthing service.

The West Bridgford couple sought an off-grid cabin in the Vale of Belvoir to fulfil their dream of a home birth in the woods - wanting the birth of their fourth child to be surrounded by nature.. Joana went into labour on May 21 this year and with combined support from the Homebirth Service at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust ( NUH ) and the ambulance service, baby Otto was safely born.

Joana and Nick say it would not have been possible without the Homebirth team respecting their wishes. Joana said: “It was glorious, it was magical, because it was exactly what we wanted.

“The fact that it was able to happen with the support of the [the Homebirth team] it was the best outcome.”

She added: “It has the stigma of it being dangerous, risky, when actually I think we can see more and more that it’s actually extremely safe for women and if there is that choice, I encourage every woman out there.”

Nottingham’s hospitals relaunched their Homebirth Service in March this year, with more than 30 babies being born since its re-opening. The hospital trust, which runs Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital reduced the hours of the service in 2020 during the pandemic. The service was then suspended entirely in January 2024.

Staff and families were invited to celebrate the return of the service at an event at the Indian Community Centre Sherwood on Monday, September 23. The service functions 24/7 and promotes more personal birth experiences by allowing people to give birth in the comfort of their own homes or desired surroundings.

First-time mother Dorrie Scott, 34, originally planned a hospital birth, but says having the later choice to give birth to son Orly in her Sneinton home in May helped her to have a calmer birthing experience.

She said: “The choice was a massive thing for me, it’s a very big thing that your body’s got to go through and being forced down any route that you don’t want to just feels very counter-productive.

“It was probably one of the most important parts of the whole birth, allowing that to play out in a way that you want and the midwives supporting that throughout the whole labour was really important.

“It made it what it was- it made it as calm and smooth as it possibly could be.” Nuthall mother Ellen Clark, 40, gave birth to her seventh child Evie on her bed at home, with her six other children having the freedom to be involved in the experience. She has praised the decision to let her have the birth she wanted.

She said: “I’ve had three home births, so I’ve had quite a varying experience but just having the choice as an older mum is amazing because usually that choice would be taken away from you as you get older, the more babies you’ve had…”

“The Homebirth team were amazing, they are all really calm, really reassuring if I ever had any concerns.” Homebirth Midwife Eliza Jones says that choosing to have a home birth can make birth more “enjoyable”.

She said: “People are in their own environment so they feel comfortable and that raises their love hormone, oxytocin, which is what controls the progression of labour.

“They tend to have a more straightforward and enjoyable birth and evidence shows that it reduces some of the need for additional pain relief when [oxytocin] levels are higher.”

Sharon Wallis, Director of Midwifery at NUH, says the service “empowers women”. She said: “For some women, being at home with their loved ones, in their environment with their things around them is, for them, the absolutely right thing to do, so it matters that we can enable that choice for women.

“The midwives are visitors in their homes, they’re invited guests and behave as such, whereas when women go into hospital they sometimes feel that power is taken away from them.

“That sense of being able to control who they have, when they call the midwives, how they want their birth to be is really important for women.”

The re-opening of the service is also part of the hospital trust’s ongoing efforts to improve its maternity services, which last yeat moved up from being rated as ‘inadequate’ to ‘requires improvement’ by the healthcare watchdog.

A seperate independent review into past maternity care failings is also ongoing, led by midwife and healthcare expert Donna Ockenden.

Hospitals Trust Chief Executive, Anthony May, said: “We’re very proud of our relaunched birth service. We did some work in 2023 to get a sense of what women and families wanted and we’ve managed to configure our service to those needs and the feedback we got.”

“We’re very committed to our Maternity Improvement Program, in place for a number of years, and choice is a very important element of that.”