I believe that outcomes for women and babies are best when care is provided in a one to one personalised manner. Birth is not simply a physical, generalised process, it is affected by individual beliefs, experiences and emotions. We all have different needs and expectations and childbirth for each woman, each time, is unique.

As a midwife I work in partnership with women, sharing information to provide safe care according to your needs and wishes. Consequently, I do not take on large numbers of women, but prefer to offer care to a small caseload at any one time. I firmly believe in women’s innate and intuitive ability to birth their babies; and with trusted support around them, most women can give birth naturally and gently.

I am passionate about homebirth and waterbirth and have always worked with women on a one to one basis, with care based in their homes. Birth is a natural part of family life and family life is centred in the home. Please see this article from a recent edition of Cheshire Mums magazine - "Choosing to Give Birth at Home". For me personally, after 4 hospital births, the experience of birthing at home totally transformed my understanding of childbirth; and it's affect on me as a woman was profound.

For women who are comfortable with water, waterbirth provides a gentle environment for your baby to be born. Very often these babies don’t cry – they seem hardly to notice they have been born! I have 15 years of waterbirth experience - it all started with my own, but is a constant part of my midiwfery care too.

Independent midwives are qualified in the same way every other midwife is – they simply provide care outside of the NHS in order to provide individualised continuity of care and carer. I believe this form of care should be available to every woman – even the Government has acknowledged this and you can register your support for this belief on the Independent Midwives UK website. Women have the right to make choices about their care, but unfortunately those choices are often minimised by what their local service is able to offer.