What Is Freebirth (aka Unassisted Birth)?

Freebirth is the term to describe intentionally giving birth without medical or midwifery assistance. It is also referred to as ‘unassisted birth’.

It is entirely legal to freebirth in the UK. Birthrights have a useful fact sheet on the legalities of freebirth which you can find here.

What Freebirth Is Not: The Difference Between Freebirth and Born Before Arrival (BBA)

Sometimes babies are born very quickly (we’re looking at you second babies), not where they were intended to be born and without midwifery/medical care. This is referred to as ‘born before arrival’ (BBA). This is different to freebirth as the intention was to have midwifery or medical input, but the baby had other ideas!

The term freebirth also cannot be applied to contexts where women and birthing people do not have access to medical facilities or skilled birth care and therefore have no choice in how or where they birth, or who if anyone they have to support them.

Why Do Some Women Choose Freebirth?

• Self-belief in their bodies, their ability to birth without assistance – ie consider birth a normal life event that does not require medical input
• Lack of confidence in or mistrust of the mainstream maternity system
• Previous traumatic experience with healthcare professionals
• Lack of access to home birth services
• Lack of support for birth plans (particularly if choosing to birth outside of normative care)

We support those who choose freebirth, because women and birthing people have the right to make this choice

How Can an Independent Midwife Support a Freebirth?

Women and birthing people who choose freebirth are not one dimensional – choosing to freebirth may or may not mean engaging with care during pregnancy or after birth. Some may choose to not engage with any maternity care during their pregnancy and some may dip in and out of accessing services as they wish. Some may wish to have antenatal check ups and/or postnatal care, but wish to birth undisturbed and without the presence of a midwife. It can look different for different people. We are able to provide both antenatal care and postnatal care as either one-off appointments or full care packages and we offer the newborn examination. We are also able to notify births. 

Birth Notification After a Freebirth: What You Need to Know

By law, the birth of a baby must be notified within 36 hours of their birth. Once the baby is born, they have rights and the process of notifying is a means of ensuring their rights are upheld. The law requires that all births are notified to a ‘relevant body’, which is defined as one of the following:

• NHS England
• An integrated care board
• Local authorities

The notification process will generate an NHS number for the baby. If you give birth at home or in hospital with the NHS, the birth notification will be done by a midwife, via a computer system and an NHS number will be generated automatically. As independent midwives, we usually notify a birth via the local Child Health Information Services (CHIS), this involves us sending the birth details and usually waiting 1-2 days to receive confirmation and an NHS number. The law states that the birth can be notified by someone present at the time of birth or who attended the mother or birthing person within 6 hours of the birth.

How to Self-Notify the Birth of Your Baby

Parents are able to self-notify the birth of their baby. This can look like phoning your local maternity unit after the birth to inform them – in this scenario they may send a midwife out to you. It could be informing the GP of the birth (although this will be an uncommon occurrence for GPs so some barriers may be faced). Parents are now able to self-notify via email and they'll be sent a 'digital postcard'. This doesn't automatically generate an NHS number, that can be obtained if and when your baby is seen by a medical professional. Details on self-notification after free birth can be found here.

Notifying the birth is different to registering the birth of a baby, which must be done with a registrar within 42 days of birth and is usually done by the parents. 

Why Healthcare Professionals Need Better Training on Birth Rights

Despite the law being explicit about women and birthing people’s rights when it comes to birth, there is a lack of understanding about these rights amongst healthcare professionals. This lack of understanding leads to obstetric violence and disrespectful care. It leads to women and birthing people choosing to birth outside of the system to avoid having their autonomy during birth challenged or ignored. It leads to healthcare providers acting inappropriately when women do choose freebirth. We strongly believe that there needs to be regular training for all midwives, doctors, students, paramedics, neonatal doctors – anyone who comes into contact with pregnant people – about women and birthing people’s rights during pregnancy and childbirth. Because ultimately, when healthcare professionals understand that women and birthing people have the right to choose and that the law supports them if they choose to have no medical care during pregnancy or childbirth, they realise that they are not responsible for the choices women and birthing people make. Check out our article on what you’re ‘allowed’ to do during childbirth.

Upholding women and birthing people’s rights during childbirth is at the core of the juno midwives philosophy

Read…

Freebirth Stories by Mavis Kirkham and Nadine Edwards is a book that shares the stories of women and birthing people who have chosen freebirth and also the stories of doulas who support freebirth. It demonstrates there is a wide range of reasons why women choose freebirth. It highlights some episodes where maternity healthcare professionals react positively to a woman’s choice to freebirth, but also many scenarios where healthcare providers are disrespectful, rude and unkind about women’s choices.