‘Women feel they have no option but to give birth alone’: the rise of freebirthing

As Covid infections rose, hospital felt like an increasingly dangerous place to have a baby. But is labouring without midwives or doctors the answer?

On the morning of 3 May, Victoria Johnson prepared to give birth at her home in the Highlands. One by one, her three children came downstairs to where she was labouring in a birthing pool surrounded by fairy lights, the curtains tightly shut against the outside world.

Suddenly, she felt an urge to get out of the pool. I stood up and it felt as if the weight of the universe crashed from my head to my toes." Her waters broke - all over the carpet, which wasn't ideal" - and the baby started to crown. Everyone was there, including both grandmothers on video call," she says. Once the baby was out, my eight-year-old son came over and said, I'm so proud of you.' And that was everything."