{"id":535561,"date":"2026-07-06T10:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/535561\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:30:10","slug":"after-working-through-fears-of-free-birth-and-hospitals-i-decided-i-would-stay-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/535561\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018After working through fears of free birth and hospitals, I decided I would stay home\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid the renewed focus on choice in maternity services<\/a> in recent weeks, one small but growing group of women want to put their right to free birth on the radar.<\/p>\n

It is a planned decision, often decided upon months beforehand. It is not supported in any way by HSE hospitals.<\/p>\n

Three women spoke to the Irish Examiner about their free births.<\/p>\n

Jillian Molloy had three free births, the first in Kerry and then two after moving to Kildare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s what everybody needs to do with their pregnancy, but it was exactly perfect for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She described living with a chronic auto-immune condition and how this led to a crisis of faith in many ways.<\/p>\n

A researcher by profession, she turned that focus on pregnancy, saying: \u201cAll of a sudden, I was learning more and learning there is a natural flow to how birth is meant to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

She heard about free birth while taking a doula training course. Doulas are not medical professionals, but they support pregnant women in other ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately, my body just lit up with this peace and joy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called my husband, and I was like: \u2018OK I\u2019m going to have kids, but it\u2019s going to be like this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

‘System made me go this way’<\/p>\n

Leonie Quinn in Wicklow had a different experience, saying: \u201cGoing from before I had children thinking \u2018I would definitely have children in hospitals\u2019 to now doing a birth without anyone here seems a bit crazy, but it\u2019s the system that made me go this way and my experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Quinn\u2019s first birth was in a hospital and she was given a caesarean as her daughter was in breech position.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me that was about the only thing I hadn\u2019t wanted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s what I got, so that\u2019s where this all started.\u201d<\/p>\n

She opted for a \u201cbeautiful\u201d homebirth with Private Midwives Ireland (PMI) for her second pregnancy, but it had closed when she was pregnant again last year.<\/p>\n

\n I don\u2019t want to say I chose free birth, I felt like it was my only option\n <\/p>\n

Jenni Garvey experienced midwifery-led care in Canada and Australia, having travelled and lived in both with her husband.<\/p>\n

Her first was planned as a hospital birth but she said labour started at home, \u201cso it was essentially an accidental homebirth\u201d.<\/p>\n

The second birth happened before a homebirth midwife arrived, and she said: \u201cIt was essentially an unassisted birth accidentally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now settled in Sligo, she discovered homebirth was not available through the HSE or PMI for different reasons.<\/p>\n

She knew women who move county so they can access the HSE service and others who hired an international travelling midwife to live with their family.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, after working through my fears of both free birth and hospitals, I ultimately decided I would stay at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause that\u2019s where I felt safest, for as long as I felt comfortable, where my baby and I were OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

During almost a month of conversations with this reporter, they said free births are not for everyone. The women highlighted potential risks, but they also think hospitals are not for everyone.<\/p>\n

Ms Garvey has advocated for changes in the system publicly through various organisations.<\/p>\n

It is not that many decades since many Irish babies were delivered at home with help from district nurses known as Jubilee nurses. It is likely too births went unassisted at a time when nurses travelled mainly by bicycle.<\/p>\n

But now that hospitals are a common option, how many free births happen here?<\/p>\n

Emily Moffatt is an assistant professor in midwifery at Trinity College Dublin. She is working on a PhD about free births in Ireland and is a part-time midwife with the HSE\u2019s homebirth service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no research really in Ireland about free birth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of the hospitals collect statistics openly. I\u2019ve done an FOI [Freedom of Information] recently looking for those statistics, they\u2019re not available.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very similar in other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated stigma<\/p>\n

Ms Moffatt said many women do not admit they had a free birth because \u201cthere is a stigma associated with it\u201d. Others \u201cdip in and out of the services\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

A planned free birth is different from women delayed from getting to a hospital on time, so the child is \u201cborn before arrival\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n

She sees the closure of PMI last summer as a turning point as, despite the high costs, it covered areas the HSE did not and eligibility thresholds differed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole public and private obstetric debate has really highlighted women\u2019s desire for continuity of care, and to be cared for by a trusted support person,\u201d she said, adding this is about \u201cpsychological\u201d safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then there is an aspect of feeling safer outside the system. That is against the typical discourse which says it\u2019s much safer to have your baby in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

She points to reforms under the maternity strategy recognising birth trauma, but said advocates want this to go further.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important also to say that every midwife is trying their best, and not trying to be part of a system that traumatises women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Moffatt is also aware of interest in wild pregnancy.<\/p>\n

This has been popularised online by the controversial American group, the Free Birth Society.<\/p>\n

It means women avoid all healthcare, including GPs or pre-natal scans, during pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s happening here. It isn\u2019t as common as free birth, but it does happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

‘Negative experiences’ in hospitals<\/p>\n

Krysia Lynch is co-chair of Aims Eire, a maternity advocacy group made up of former directors and committee members of Aims Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would regard free birth as a choice and an option, a choice would imply you have other choice or it\u2019s a choice among many choices,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, for a lot of people who take that option, it\u2019s because it\u2019s the only option available to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Options such as homebirth after caesarean, midwifery-led units, or private obstetrics are either not available or not available everywhere, she added.<\/p>\n

More acknowledgement is needed, she said, that some women have \u201cnegative experiences\u201d in hospitals often to do with control or lack of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it all calls for is greater understanding of why women choose to do this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risks are there, and I think women do know them if they plan a free birth and they are willing to take the risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

One obstetrician aware of the increasing number of free births and concern about this in health services wished to speak anonymously so they could contribute more freely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real question is not where the birth takes place or what the setting is,\u201d the consultant said.<\/p>\n

\n The real question is: How can we ensure emotional safety for anyone who needs it?\n <\/p>\n

They suggested birth centres, as promised in the maternity strategy, are needed as another option for women.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly believe if there was a fully functioning homebirth service that the vast majority of women who have chosen a free birth would go for a home birth,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere can be anxiety among the healthcare workers too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn anxiety they are not covered and the woman could sue them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is often why a healthcare practitioner might come across as harsh, or unbending, or not allowing [a procedure] but that is anxiety speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Lack of choice’ rather than actively choosing<\/p>\n

Leonie Quinn and her husband have three girls \u201call pink and glittery\u201d in Wicklow, each with different birth stories.<\/p>\n

Their youngest was born in a free birth in April, and Leonie said: \u201cFor me, it all came down to a lack of choice rather than actively choosing free birth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roll back to 2020 and their first girl was born in hospital by choice.<\/p>\n

During the labour, Leonie was told she needed a caesarean because her daughter was breech.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThat was about the only thing I hadn\u2019t wanted. But that\u2019s what I got so that\u2019s where this all started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LeonieLeonie Quinn and her husband at their home in Meadow Gate, Wicklow, with their three girls each with different birth stories. Picture: Jim Campbell<\/p>\n

Her journals show she felt \u201cthe control was taken from me the moment the decision was made\u201d.<\/p>\n

She opted for homebirth next time with Private Midwives Ireland (PMI) . The HSE does not offer homebirth after caesarean.<\/p>\n

She continued hospital scans, adding that the birth was \u201call very nice and a completely different experience\u201d to before.<\/p>\n

Last year, she was devastated when PMI closed.<\/p>\n

For her third pregnancy, she switched to a smaller hospital and hired a doula after ruling out that going to Northern Ireland or home to Germany as \u201ctoo complicated\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, free birth was on her radar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I hadn\u2019t had the second birth at home that went so well, I wouldn\u2019t have considered it for the third. This way, I thought I already know my body can do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She had \u201copen discussions\u201d with hospital staff, adding: \u201cThere was a chance for the hospital to say: \u2018We will really look after you here.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was where I was hoping the discussion with the midwife and consultant would go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think being in control is what I like, and that\u2019s what I lost the first time. So my final decision was to say at home if everything goes well. I didn\u2019t want to put this positive birth experience above living. I also didn\u2019t want to be traumatised again, they were my two sides of the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a very supportive husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the day, her birth went \u201cfaster than I expected\u201d from around 4.30am.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doula was here at 7am and the baby was born at 07:50am,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Their daughter was born in their bedroom, and she said: \u201cI always felt safe and in the right place with what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Natural flow’ to the birth process<\/p>\n

The first time Jillian Molloy heard about free birth or unassisted births, she remembers her body lit up with joy and she went on to choose this three times.<\/p>\n

Living in South Kerry at the time, she said that, even if they had wanted to have a midwife there, they lived too far from the hospital to be eligible.<\/p>\n

A key factor was a discomfort she felt with hospitals, having spent years with an autoimmune illness and finding ways to live with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time I got pregnant, it was very obvious that free birth was what we were doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the labour and birth, it was very clear my husband and I made this baby and we were going to get this baby out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JillianJillian and Robbie Molloy with their children Matth\u00e9, \u00c1ine Niamh, and Aoise. Jillian, who lives with an auto-immune disease, sought out information on free births while taking a doula training course after her condition led to a crisis of faith in the system. Picture: Paul Molloy.<\/p>\n

A researcher by profession, the more she read about free birth the more intrigued she became.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was learning there is a natural flow to how birth is meant to go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I feel the need to go to the hospital, they are probably going to do a really great job and I really hope they do. It\u2019s the routine interventions that cause problems and the cascade of interventions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, they planned a free birth. On the day, the baby came earlier than expected and, as labour progressed, she moved around the house, settling in the ensuite bathroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome, it was hard, it was 24 hours of labour,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cMy husband [Robbie] did a good job, he was also overwhelmed, it was his first time too.\u201d<\/p>\n

She uses a phrase from her reading of wanting to feel \u201cprivate, safe, and unobserved\u201d during pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the next contraction, our daughter shot out of me and we barely caught her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was standing in the bathroom, it was just surprising, euphoric, and joyful. She came out and she was great, it was super exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sat in the shower with their daughter, and later she said they used \u201ctwine and scissors to clamp the cord\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThen the placenta didn\u2019t come for 24 more hours, but I knew that was not a problem. I didn\u2019t have any bleeding whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robbie wrote about his experience in a book called Giving Birth in Ireland.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhen I was looking down at that tiny bundle of joy, I remembered all the challenges my wife and I faced together, all the nights preparing, and all the research we did, and I realised it was a rite of passage that I will forever be grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jillian also said: \u201cI never attended any antenatal appointments for any of my three births.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘I don’t like the idea of being watched’<\/p>\n

When Jenni Garvey\u2019s third baby was born, her husband Michael caught their little girl and placed her on her chest.<\/p>\n

There was no midwife or doctor at the free birth in Sligo, which she describes as \u201cbeautiful and safe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could tell she was beautiful, alert, and active,\u201d Jenni said.<\/p>\n

The couple have lived in Canada and Australia, using public or private midwifery services for their first two children.<\/p>\n

In Canada, she did not make the hospital . She said: \u201cIt was essentially an accidental homebirth. I never set foot in a hospital my entire prenatal and post-natal period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JenniJenni Garvey advocates for change in the maternity services. File Picture: Sam Boal\/Collins Photos <\/p>\n

In Australia, her second child also arrived before the homebirth midwife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know [if I wanted to birth alone],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what I realised now from my third birth is I don\u2019t like the idea of being watched. I\u2019m a bit of \u2018oh someone is watching, am I doing it right\u2019, so I think I just naturally birth better on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

They now live in Sligo.<\/p>\n

She wanted a homebirth for their third pregnancy, but the HSE had no service the North-West. Private Midwives Ireland (PMI) had a midwife in Galway, but she was booked up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was starting to realise the lack of options that I had in the North-West,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The couple ruled out moving counties or hiring an international travelling midwife, and Jenni said: \u201cThen I knew I was either going to have to give birth in a hospital or have the option of free birthing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was open to free birth because I\u2019d had homebirths at home without midwives there essentially, I was more afraid of the potential outcomes that can arise if you are at home without a midwife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to work through the potential risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sligo University Hospital was about 10 minutes away. Jenni attended there for ante-natal appointments and scans.<\/p>\n

When their baby came, she said: \u201cOn the day, it unfolded beautifully and felt comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now pregnant with her fourth child and still in Sligo, she is unsure what happens next.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, three years on, nothing has changed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still only have the option of free birthing or going to the hospital. I\u2019m still assessing my options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenni advocates for change in the maternity services. The Irish Examiner first heard part of her story at events held by different organisations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid the renewed focus on choice in maternity services in recent weeks, one small but growing group of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[6343,103,397,396,2120,61,60],"class_list":["post-535561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-parenting-pregnancy","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}