DJing dads, chaotic cats and a birthing temple are just some of the unusual things a team of midwives have to contend with every day.
And as many couples continue to opt for a home birth instead of going to their local hospital, the profession is getting more eye-opening all the time.
Be it a mischievous moggy puncturing a birthing pool or a wall of snakes slithering in the background, one team in Yorkshire are certainly used to seeing it all.
Midwife Laura Hughes, 34, laughs: “It can be like a bit of a circus. It’s definitely a juggling act for us when we have to look after the mother but then also deal with everything else that’s going on in the house, from other kids, to family members and pets.
“At one birth we came down from getting the mum settled upstairs afterwards and found the cat licking the placenta! You never really know what’s going to happen.”
Laura’s part of a six-strong team that look after nearly 200 home births a year in Bradford, west Mids.
And their daily lives are being captured on camera for the first time in a new BBC Two fly-on-the-wall series, Yorkshire Midwives On Call.
The show which starts on Monday has been branded “the real Call The Midwife” and promises a warts and all insight into the job.
The team certainly have some stories to tell.
“We had one birth where they’d moved into this house and had set up their spare room into a birthing temple, it was absolutely amazing,” Laura tells us. “I would’ve paid to go and stay in there as a hotel room!
“She’d hung all different cloths and silks from the ceiling, she had fairy lights everywhere, aromatherapy candles.
“She even had like a little basket which said midwives on it which was full of Lucozade and crisps for us, which was really sweet.”
Co-worker Gemma Gordon, 38, a former air stewardess, has been a home birth midwife since 2019, and says the team have to be ready to deal with anything.
“The last birth that I went to a cat had bitten a hole in the birthing pool that they’d repaired with a puncture repair kit,” she laughed.
“It held up quite well, thankfully. There’s a lot of water in those pools that you wouldn’t want all over your living room!
“Pets is just part of the day job, really. You kind of get used to cats and dogs jumping all over you.”
Laura added: “I went to one house and the mother had given birth in the hallway.
“I turned around to look behind me at what I thought was a bookshelf and it wasn’t, it was a whole wall full of vivariums with snakes and tarantulas, all sorts of stuff in it.”
But it’s not just pets, partners can also create chaos on the day.
Mum-of-two midwife Stephanie Crefin, 38, said: “I’ve been to a birth where the dad was a DJ, so we had the decks setup and some lights, it was like a rave.”
They’ve also had interesting playlists ranging from Classical to AC/DC, while Adam Sandler movies and Will Smith’s romcom are favourites for film-loving mums in Labour. Laura’s also been able to enjoy a few Friends marathons.
“Things that make you laugh or feel that warm, fuzzy feeling inside definitely relax mum!,” she explains.
Among those couples sharing their birthing experience on camera are junior doctors Rebecca and Tim, who already have two-year-old Freddie together.
Rebecca said: “One of the things that made us think how special it would be is the thought of how many babies have already been born in our house considering it was built in 1860.
“It feels like it’s probably been a long time since there were any babies born there so we’re wanting to do it.”
The couple pushed ahead with their plans for a home water birth, with Tim responsible for looking after the pool they’d inflated in their front room.
And just seven hours after her waters broke, Rebecca gave birth to Toby weighing in at a eye watering 10 pounds.
Tim admitted: “It was a lot quicker than I thought, Rebecca did so well.”
“We’re absolutely over the moon.”
Laura, who’s been a midwife for more than seven years, is hoping to prove home birthda aren’t just for “the stereotypical ‘hippie mum’”.
“You don’t need a big house. We’ve been in studio flats, tiny bedsits, houses where there’s absolute extreme poverty, where they’ve got no furniture and no carpets on their floors,” she says. “We look after a lot of lesbian couples and we’ve had polyamorous relationship set ups.”
One of the more complicated cases was Keeleigh, 26, who lives with her boyfriend and their three children, sons AJ, one, and Harrison, seven, and their daughter Lily, 10.
“When I gave birth to Lily it was really scary,” explained Keeleigh, who was just 16 at the time.
“I wanted a home birth but I couldn’t have one because she was premature so we were rushed straight to hospital.
“It was such a bad experience, so from then I’ve hated going to hospital.”
Complications had prevented her from having a home birth with any of her children, before striking it lucky with number four, Willow.
However Keeleigh lost more blood than the midwives were happy with, so they called an ambulance.
“I did get taken into hospital, which wasn’t part of my plan so it was upsetting, proper scary,” explained Keeleigh. “But I got the home birth I wanted. Laura was so good, I’ve never met a better midwife, and I’ve had four kids!”
Their emergency training is the same as given to a pilot. And that’s quite a familiar feeling for Gemma, who quit her job as a British Airways to become a midwife.
“Your training does kick in quickly when things don’t get to plan,” she said.
“There was a birth just before Christmas where we had to resuscitate the baby, as they were born with the cord wrapped round her neck three times. But we can cope with anything that’s thrown at us.”
Laura adds: “There really is nothing quite like it seeing a child born in their own home.”
- Yorkshire Midwives On Call, BBC Two, Monday at 8pm
