Tea & Toast: Talking Birth
This podcast aims to discuss and muse a different birth topic every month, with our hosts, who collectively have over 80 years of midwifery experience. For some episodes we will be inviting special guests to contribute towards our conversation.
We do not intend any of our discussions to act as medical advice, and all of our considerations are merely our own thoughts and feelings on that particular subject, utilising our collective experience and knowledge. Our aim is to bring together the wider community of birth, combining clinical experience with the felt experience in a hope to demystify pregnancy and birth, and share information and evidence.
Please visit our Instagram TeaandToastTalkingBirth or Tweet us @birth_tea with your thoughts, comments or suggestions for future shows.
Title music by Rojj from Fugue
Supported by The University of Hull
Tea & Toast: Talking Birth
Episode 3: Freebirth
The Tea & Toast team are delighted to bring you June's episode, which considers issues around freebirth. As result of pressures during the COVID-19 pandemic, some maternity services have suspended access to home birth or midwifery led units, meaning that some women may not be able to access the place of birth that they had planned. It seems possible that this has led to an increase in the number of women opting for freebirth / unassisted birth, and this month the team ponder some of the issues this may raise.
Episode 3 - Freebirth
Resources
AIMS (2020) Freebirth, unassisted childbirth and unassisted pregnancy. https://www.aims.org.uk/information/item/freebirth
Feeley C, Burns E, Adams E, Thomson G.(2015) Why do some women choose to freebirth? A meta-thematic synthesis, part one. Evidence Based Midwifery. 13(1):4–9
Feeley, C., Thomson, G. (2016) Why do some women choose to freebirth in the UK? An interpretative phenomenological study. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 16 (59)
Claire Feeley, C. & Thomson, G. (2016) Tensions and conflicts in ‘choice’: women’s experiences of freebirthing in the UK. Midwifery. 41, 16-21.
Nightingale, L. (2011) Midwives are an unevaluated intervention in birth. Midwifery Matters. 130.
Renfrew, M. J., Homer, C. S. E., Downe, S., McFadden, A., Muir, N., Prentice, T., ten Hoope-Bender, P. (2014) Midwifery: An Executive Summary for The Lancet’s Series, The Lancet, June 2014.
Royal College of Midwives (2020) RCM Clinical Briefing Sheet: ‘freebirth’ or ‘unassisted childbirth’ during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.rcm.org.uk/media/3904/freebirth_draft_23-april-v5-002-mrd-1.pdf