Jennifer’s story isn’t about reckless choices — it’s about a reckless system.
A system that replaces relationships with flow charts and calls it safety.
Continuity of care saves lives.

Fear and fragmentation cost them.

Across Gloucestershire and beyond, conversations around informed choice and consent in maternity care are more important than ever. From birth plans and homebirth decisions to the way information is shared during labour, women deserve to be listened to and supported as active partners in their care. This article explores how the landmark case Montgomery v Lanarkshire (2015) shaped the legal and ethical foundations of consent — and why understanding it matters for both women and maternity professionals.

This second part dives deeper into the science behind PAPP-A and the Insulin-Like Growth Factor system — exploring how placental enzymes, blood flow, and vascular growth interact throughout pregnancy.
Aimed at birthkeepers and midwives (but valuable for anyone curious), it unpacks the research, physiology, and evidence behind how lifestyle, nourishment, and calm continue to shape placental health long after the first trimester. 🌿

Being told you have low PAPP-A can sound worrying, but it isn’t a diagnosis — it’s a marker of how your placenta is developing.
This enzyme helps build blood vessels and nourish your baby, and its function can be supported naturally through food, movement, rest, and calm.
Understanding how your body works turns fear into empowerment — your placenta is alive, responsive, and still growing with you. 🌿

Continuous monitoring (CTG) is one of the most common interventions in modern maternity care — yet it hasn’t been shown to make birth safer. Evidence shows it increases intervention rates, restricts movement, and undermines confidence.
What does improve outcomes is continuity, connection, and trust — the kind of support once offered by village midwives and birth companions. This blog explores what the research really says about CTG, and how women can take back their power through homebirth, skilled support, and radical responsibility.

I dare you to listen and tell me you’re not inspired!

Living with PCOS can make pregnancy feel full of questions. What does it mean for your health, your baby, and your birth choices? In this blog I explain what PCOS is, how it can affect pregnancy (including a slightly higher chance of complications like pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes), and — most importantly — the gentle, practical steps including yoga for pcos pregnancy, you can take to support your body.

This week I experienced something profound — being shrouded. For thousands of years, families cared for their loved ones in this way at home, just as naturally as we swaddle our babies or wrap women during pregnancy and after birth. These simple acts of wrapping are not just rituals, they are deeply human ways of offering support, love, and closure.

Pregnancy is one of the most nutritionally demanding times in life. Your body is building not only a baby, but also a placenta, an expanded blood supply, and the reserves you’ll need for birth and breastfeeding. While modern advice often says “just take a prenatal,” the truth is deeper: nutrient density and bioavailability matter most.

In this blog, I explore why certain nutrients — like choline, DHA, iron, zinc, and collagen — are almost impossible to get in sufficient amounts from a vegan diet, and why cravings for animal foods during pregnancy are signs of your body’s wisdom, not weakness. We’ll look at the gaps in vegan nutrition research, the dangers of modern monocropped grains, and how ancestral, wild, and locally-sourced foods can provide everything you and your baby need to thrive.

✨ Plus: a free Yoga Nidra meditation to help you release food guilt, trust your cravings, and reconnect with your body’s instincts.

It’s often seen as strong to carry on performing at work during pregnancy — but it takes even greater strength to pause, say no, and put your health and your baby’s wellbeing first.

For decades, families in the Forest of Dean could give birth locally at Dilke Memorial Hospital. With its closure in 2024, there are now no maternity services in the Forest — and women are being sent to Gloucester Royal, a unit rated inadequate for safety. A recent review found nine neonatal deaths with “missed opportunities” in care, while many families say planned home births are cancelled at short notice.

So what does this mean for choice, safety, and community care? And how much say do we really have in the so-called “co-design” of local maternity services?

Pregnancy yoga isn’t just stretching — evidence shows it reduces stress, improves sleep, and can even shorten labour. This blog brings together key research midwives should know, with a free evidence PDF to download.

Tiredness in pregnancy doesn’t always mean low iron — sometimes it’s just your body adjusting. Standard iron tablets are often poorly absorbed and hard on digestion, but there are kinder, more effective options. In this blog, I explore Spatone, Floradix, nettle tea, and iron-rich foods, plus other causes of fatigue in pregnancy, and how practices like yoga, massage, and relaxation can help you feel more energised and supported.

Biomechanics is the study of how the body moves and functions, particularly in response to external forces. In pregnancy and birth, this means understanding how the pelvis, muscles, ligaments, and baby work together to create the conditions for an easier, more efficient labor…..

This past weekend, I crossed a profound threshold during an experiential workshop led by Samara Hawthorn of Wellmama CIC. Among the many powerful rituals, the women-only sweat lodge stood out as a sacred space to explore the seasons and cycles of our lives as women.

It’s hard to put into words the transformation that happens when women come together in this way. Perhaps that’s why it’s referred to as the “blood mysteries.”

For many women, becoming a mother is one of life’s most precious journeys—especially when it’s a long-awaited pregnancy. Older mums, in particular, often face added layers of advice and medical recommendations, frequently framed around reducing perceived risks. If you’ve been advised to have a planned caesarean section, it’s completely natural to want to take the safest route for your baby. However, stepping into motherhood also means stepping into your power. You are the one growing this baby inside your body, and no one else shares that unique bond.

A recent BBC article highlights an ongoing crisis in maternity services. Despite years of warnings and recommendations, little has changed. Depersonalised, intervention-heavy approaches dominate, leaving many women feeling unsupported during pregnancy and birth. The result? Rising intervention rates, birth trauma, and an overall lack of trust in the system.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

After my first birth, I found myself replaying the events over and over in my mind. I had felt like a rabbit stuck in the headlights—surrounded by watching eyes, unsupported, and unable to communicate. I didn’t know that wasn’t normal, and on paper, everything about the birth looked fine.

The notes, the outcome—it all seemed like a completely normal birth, like those I’d been reading in the home birth group!

I was delighted to have achieved a home birth, but inside, I felt stuck and didn’t feel able to reach out for support.