Sixteenth floor

On the face of it, it wasn't an ideal place for a homebirth. Mari lived on the sixteenth floor of a tower block, in what is often described as a sink estate. She wasn't exactly an ideal candidate, either: overweight, a smoker, a single parent with two other small children running around the flat. But Mari was adamant that she wouldn't come into hospital to have the baby - she couldn't stand hospitals, she said. Nor was she willing to be separated from the kids.

The other community midwives weren't prepared to consider it. "What if the lift breaks down? What if we have to get her into an ambulance?" I admitted it was a distinct possibility. They also didn't feel safe being there on their own in the middle of the night. But I believed that Mari had as much right to have her baby at home as anyone else. And when she said: "You're not going to tell me I can't have it, are you?", I heard a voice intimidated by a lifetime of authority figures telling her what to do. "No, of course not!" So we went ahead and Mari had her homebirth. "Having her at home changed my life", she told me later. I could see it had. Not because the birth itself was such an incredible experience, but because it was the first time in her life that she had been able to make such an important choice for herself. From that point on, Mari never looked back.

Themes:

• Sense of achievement - her big day should be a positive experience for everyone
• Support network - working with her birth supporters needn't be a problem  
• Minimizing risk - risk assessment doesn't take into account individual circumstances 
• Solidarity - why we need to work together and support each other
• Homebirths are safe - women choose homebirths for all kinds of reasons, including safety