About Us

The Essex Midwifery Practice provides independent midwifery care for
women living in and around Essex. We believe passionately in providing midwifery care that is tailored
to your individual needs, providing a better chance of having a memorable and positive childbirth
experience.

Research shows, and we agree, that by choosing and getting to know who you are with at the time of
your labour maximises the chances of achieving the birth experience you want. It also promotes
successful breastfeeding and reduces the risks of post-natal depression.

By working independently and having a small caseload of clients, we are able to offer you
individualised, holistic care. We will see you at a time that is mutually convenient and are able to spend
up to an hour at each appointment with you. The time spent during appointments helps our relationship
and trust build up so that you feel comfortable and confident with your care-providers.

We are dedicated to helping you make decisions and will provide evidence-based information to help
you make appropriate choices regarding your pregnancy and birth, including whether to give birth at
home or in hospital. We are all experienced in homebirth, waterbirth and VBAC. (Vaginal Birth after
Caesarean)

Our service provides you with 24hr access to a midwife and continuity of care that is invaluable. You will
have a midwife you know and trust with you in labour and postnatal care and support for 4 weeks after
your baby arrives.

We believe this is the best way for women, but as midwives, we also benefit enormously. Working this
way provides us with immense job satisfaction and we are privileged to be a involved in such an
amazing part of your life.

These are our statistics up to and including March 2009 which we are proud to share with you:

79% of our women have had a normal vaginal birth

61% of these women had their babies at home

61% of our women exclusively breastfed beyond 6 weeks

87% of women who had a previous section had a normal birth this time round (VBAC)

28% of our women had a hospital birth

8% had an instrumental delivery in hospital

11% had a c/section.

We are very proud of these statistics and feel they demonstrate clearly how effective it is to have one to one care from midwives you know and trust. We dont have the statistics for this but anecdotally, our women use very little for ‘pain relief’. Most clients choose to hire a pool for a home waterbirth and opt to do hypnobirthing in the antenatal period as well.  They very rarely ask for anything else although some will have some gas & air (entonox) towards the end.

It just goes to show that when women feel confident,relaxed and trust in their bodies, the process of labour works so much more effectively.  It is a pleasure to witness!