A MUM who gave birth at home without the support of the NHS has spoken of her “amazing” experience.

Darlington woman Laura Phoenix was due to have an NHS-assisted home birth last year but was told when she was 37-week pregnant that the service had been suspended.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust suspended the service because of pressures caused by staffing and Covid.

More than six months later, the service is still suspended.

Instead, Laura opted to have an unassisted birth at home, with her husband and doula in attendance.

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She is now mum to five-month-old Nova.

She said: “We ended up doing what we wanted which was an unassisted home birth. It seemed scary but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

“I felt I had done a lot of research and I had a doula. She’s not a midwife but she has had three children at home.

“It was a bit frightening but it went really smoothly and took two and half hours.

“It was an amazing experience.”

She added: “It might seem reckless but I was probably more researched and knowledgeable than 90 per cent of women who go into hospital and hand themselves over to the team there for care. I had to create that team with my husband and doula and they were fantastic.

“It was the most amazing and relaxing experience for me and my family for bringing my second child into the world.”

She said she had been surprised when she was told the home birthing service in Darlington had been suspended.

“It was funny because they were coming out to my home for appointments with two midwives at everything," she said.

“When I went into hospital I didn’t see the strain myself but I’m not saying it wasn’t there. I was being cared for by two midwives in my own home it was great – they were very attentive and considerate of my needs. It was such a huge shame they couldn’t do the birth. They wanted to come. I was 37 weeks pregnant so I was ready to give birth but they were understanding of the situation and explained everything. I could see they were heartbroken.

“That was the only indication I got that they were understaffed. There was nothing lacking in their care. They were amazing, amazing people.

"I think it’s difficult for people to have a glimpse into people’s lives because they put on such a good face. Maybe that’s why people are walking away.”

At the time it suspended the service, a trust spokesperson said: “Due to unprecedented pressures on our community midwifery services created by a number of factors; we have had to take the extremely difficult decision to temporarily suspend home birth services.

“This is not a decision we have taken lightly, we have explored all reasonable options to address the challenges we are facing. However, the safety of our women and their babies must be our priority.

“We understand the impact these decisions have on women under our care and we are working extremely hard to be able to have our home birth services return to normal as soon as possible.

“While home birth services are temporarily suspended we are encouraging women to revisit their birth plan and access the excellent low risk rooms we have available at the University Hospital of North Durham or Darlington Memorial Hospital.”

The trust was approached for a further comment.

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