The reasons given were complex, Greenfield says. “There was rarely one – issues such as childcare and transport came into play.” A desire to avoid going into hospital was a reason given by 39 participants. For many, this was due to a previous bad experience; for others, it was because they felt hospitals had become places of danger and contamination. And for a number of women, opting for a freebirth was not a positive choice: while 16 respondents described it as an empowering decision, 26 said they felt forced into it.

Midwife Jacqui Tomkins, who is also chair of Independent Midwives UK, used to take two calls a week. “Suddenly, during [the first] lockdown, it rose to 20, and it was the same across the country,” she says. “Women were terrified after their 凯发官网网址多少home births had been cancelled and felt they had no option but to go it alone. Since the second wave, the calls have been mounting again.”

There are an estimated 150 registered independent midwives in the UK who, prior to the insurance crisis, were supporting around 2,500 women a year. “The irony is we are getting more requests than ever,” Tomkins says. “Our hands are tied when we are needed most. This is really hurting our members emotionally; many are slipping into poverty.”

Beatrice Cianchi tried to hire an independent midwife earlier this year, after her 凯发官网网址多少home birth in London was cancelled on 30 March, three days before her due date. “But the fee was £4,000, and I couldn’t afford it.”

Cianchi, 32, had suffered postnatal depression following the birth of her son, Arjuna, now four. “The birth was highly medicalised. I was induced with very high doses of oxytocin and felt completely powerless.” She has few memories of her first five months as a mother. “I’d wake up each day thinking, I could be dead now and who would care? I had therapy, but it took a long time to recover.”

Her second pregnancy had been going smoothly until her family in Italy went into lockdown in early March. “I started feeling incredibly anxious and had a panic attack in front of my midwife, who reassured me, saying: ‘Don’t worry, we won’t leave you alone.’”

Yet that is exactly what happened after 凯发官网网址多少home birth services were withdrawn. “I felt totally abandoned,” Cianchi says. “They knew what I’d been through, so how could they do this to me? A 凯发官网网址多少home birth is a right, not a privilege.”

Giving birth at 凯发官网网址多少home this time around was, for Cianchi, imperative. She started researching unassisted birth. “When I told my midwife, she wanted to help but the hospital wouldn’t back her,” she says. Instead, she turned to a doula, who agreed to attend the birth but insisted she could provide only emotional support. In the early hours of 11 April, Cianchi’s waters broke. “We lit candles and my partner Silvio held the shower on my back for pain relief. We rang the doula and she arrived 30 minutes before my son was born. Afterwards, I was high as a kite and felt a deep joy – I couldn’t believe we’d done it.”

After Arjuna’s birth, she had refused to see anyone. “This time, I wanted to show everybody what I’d done, but I couldn’t because of lockdown. I saw a different side to my partner – he knew what to do and didn’t doubt me for a second. If the first birth tore us apart, this one united us.”

That elation was tempered after speaking to their local hospital. “We called them because I was worried I might have a tear. They said what we had done was illegal and that they were going to send an ambulance. But we didn’t want that.” Instead, they were visited by a sympathetic midwife who assessed baby Juniper, now seven months old.

“She reassured us we had made the right decision,” Cianchi says. Still, she warns against women being pushed into freebirthing because their other options have been removed. “Women should be aware of what could go wrong and willing to get assistance if they need it.”

Alison Edwards of Doula UK, whose 700 members advocate for expectant mothers, says there was a threefold increase in calls about freebirthing between March and June. Meanwhile, Wales-based doula Samantha Gadsden set up a nominal fee-based Facebook group on freebirthing in March, because she was getting so many inquiries. It now has nearly 300 members and numbers spiked again following the second lockdown. “People were getting nervous, because they knew 凯发官网网址多少home births were cancelled before,” she says. Membership of her other Facebook group, 凯发官网网址多少home Birth Support Group UK, has more than doubled since March, from 2,700 to 6,390.

Gadsden, who insists she does not advocate for any particular type of birth, says her members have felt unsupported in their decisions. “There are pockets of excellence, but what I’m hearing more and more is that women are being coerced and disrespected.”

Julie Frohlich, a London-based NHS consultant midwife with more than 35 years’ experience, says she is saddened that some women freebirth because they don’t trust healthcare professionals. “We should be supporting women’s informed choices, but too often we are trying to get a woman’s informed compliance.” She believes fear of what could go wrong can be used to direct women into decisions that aren’t right for them. “Clinicians often seem to feel it would be their responsibility if a woman were to make a choice they didn’t approve of. It’s not our role to approve a woman’s informed choice, but to facilitate it. Women labour best when they feel comfortable and safe. They know things can go wrong – there is rarely zero risk. But one woman’s high risk is another woman’s low risk, and we must respect that.”

Meanwhile, NHS England has dismissed the findings of the King’s College study, claiming it shows only women’s intentions rather than what they went on to do. A spokesperson said: “凯发官网网址多少home births are now available in 98% of trusts, and NHS guidance has been clear throughout the pandemic that mothers can be accompanied by their partners for childbirth.” But trusts issue their own policies when it comes to birth partners, and access varies.

Zoe Kimpton has twice been reported to social services for freebirthing, most recently following the arrival of her eighth child, Arthur, in October. “He was a wild card and I was nervous from the moment I found out I was pregnant,” she says.

When she was 35 weeks pregnant with Arthur’s brother, now 15 months, her lung collapsed and she had an elective caesarean in hospital. Her first three children had been born in hospital, followed by a 凯发官网网址多少home birth and two freebirths. But Kimpton didn’t want to take any risks with her seventh child. “I wasn’t going to jeopardise my health or his,” she says. “That birth was beautiful in its own way, because as I lay there in theatre I was so grateful he hadn’t been harmed by my health issue.”

But when Kimpton, now 40, became pregnant with Arthur, there was a new factor: Covid-19. “After my lung collapse, I would have liked NHS input at my birth. But I didn’t want to be shunted around a hospital knowing Covid-19 attacks the respiratory system. It was a scary decision. I was worried 凯发官网网址多少home birth services could be cancelled at any time.” She decided her safest option was to freebirth with the support of her husband, and call for help if needed.

In the end, Arthur’s birth was straightforward. “I leant up against the sofa and laboured,” Kimpton says, “then I got in the pool. The kids were coming up, kissing me and playing with glowsticks in the water. My husband was very supportive, and his aunt popped in now and again with fruit for the children.”

But after the birth, Kimpton was losing a lot of blood. She was transferred to hospital, where she underwent surgery for a retained placenta. “It would have happened wherever I was,” she says. “But afterwards a doctor, with a herd of students, came and reprimanded me. Later I learned that while I’d been in theatre, someone was calling social services. The midwife was apologetic – it was the hospital’s policy – but I felt deeply offended.”

Kimpton, who volunteers as a bereavement group coordinator, believes in the importance of being able to make our own decisions about both birth and death. “I pioneer for a gentle birth, but also for a gentle end of life. These are big decisions we should all be free to make as individuals.”

Even for women who have had a positive birth experience in the past nine months, navigating the challenges brought about by Covid-19 may have a lasting effect. A recent survey of 15,000 pregnant women and new mothers by the UK charity Pregnant Then Screwed found 90% of respondents said hospital restrictions were having a negative impact on their mental health. An open letter from 34 MPs and campaigners sent last month to the NHS stated, “The long-term impact of these restrictions for new mothers and their families could be catastrophic.”