Trike ride backs births at home

12:05pm Saturday 17th May 2008

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TODDLERS will be helping their mums to spread the word this weekend about the birth choices facing pregnant women in York.

Youngsters are doing a sponsored "toddlers trike ride" at 2pm at Rowntree Park tomorrow to raise funds for leaflets to raise awareness of having a baby at home. The York Home Birth Support Group, which is holding the event, wants women to be better informed about their options.

Alison Goodwin, group co-ordinator, said the group had been running about ten years, but there was "an appetite" for it to do more. "We had a stand at the NCT Bumps And Babies Fair and attracted a lot of interest.

"We see our role as informing women, not persuading or cajoling them into choosing a home birth," she said. Some people feel more relaxed in hospital knowing the technology and interventions are available, while others are more likely to relax at home, she said. The group also wants to see improvements in local maternity services. "We have become aware of an increasing number of instances where women who have booked home births are being told, when they are already in labour, that no midwife is available and they will have to go to the hospital," said Alison, whose son Joe was born at home seven months ago.

Last year, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt pledged that by 2009, expectant mothers would be guaranteed a "full range of birthing choices", including a home birth, attended by a fully qualified midwife.

Acknowledging the national midwife shortage, she said 1,000 more were in training.

Margaret Jackson, York Hospital's head of midwifery, said although midwives were keen to offer a home birth, they were not always able to when they were under great pressure.

Tracey Mulryne, who has helped organise the trike ride, used an independent midwife to guarantee having her baby at home. "I wanted a home birth with the NHS," said the former teacher from Clifton. "They kept suggesting that it might not happen because of a lack of midwives."

She learned about the support group when she was 39 weeks pregnant, and met an independent midwife at a group meeting. She chose to "book" her at the last minute. "We ended up having to pay £2,500. I didn't want to get to the point of ringing the hospital and saying it's on its way', to be told there were no midwives available to come out. It is a stressful enough time."

Baby Connor was born on December 20, 2006.