‘I feel very lucky to have had a home birth, and I hope more women can experience that’

Academic Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin says we should cherish Ireland’s ‘fabulous’ midwives

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin has paid tribute to the “special breed” of midwives who guided her through her first home birth last month.

The academic and broadcaster gave birth to a baby girl, Doireann, five weeks ago. While it was her third pregnancy, it was her first home birth.

Ms Ní Shúilleabháin (40) said she wanted to talk about her “very positive” birth experience and to honour the midwives who had guided her through it and made her feel cared for.

“This is all about choice,” she said. “Midwives are just fabulous, they’re so experienced and so warm. You just feel that you are their priority. I feel very lucky to have gone through it, and to have done it with such supportive midwives. I hope that more women can have that experience.

“They are a really important part of our public health service and I think they deserve praise for that.”

Mayo woman Ms Ní Shúilleabháin and her husband of seven years, Carlos Diaz, already have two boys: Naoise, who was born in 2019, and Daragh in 2020.

The former Rose of Tralee, who had all three babies with the National Maternity Hospital, said that for her first pregnancy she wouldn’t have considered a home birth.

During her second pregnancy, a community midwife “planted the seed” in her head that she might be a good candidate for a home birth.

“I’m very lucky in that I’ve had reasonably straightforward labours, and I was a candidate for it because I lived within the catchment area for a home birth,” Ms Ní Shúilleabháin said.

She said that going into her third pregnancy with two other children to care for, there was “more to consider with the logistics”.

“I didn’t want to be away for very long,” Ms Ní Shúilleabháin said. “I was keen on the idea of being in my own space, in my own shower, in my own bed.”

She added that while she was “convinced” she wanted a home birth, it wasn’t something that her husband “would have naturally gone towards”.

But conversations with the midwives helped to reassure him.

“The midwives gave me a lot of confidence. I was so confident in them that if anything did go wrong, they were so on it.

“Midwives are a special breed and I think that the community midwives are really special,” she said.

Ms Ní Shúilleabháin had already gone through her first two pregnancies without an epidural, so a home birth appealed to her.

According to the National Maternity Hospital, the main reason mothers transfer from a home birth into a hospital setting is for pain relief.

“It is talking to other people that gives you the confidence to do it,” she said.

“If you think about it, my granny gave birth to all 11 children at home. It’s something we can do.”

Her advice for any other woman who is considering a home birth is to talk to women who have gone through it, to their midwives, and to “ignore anybody else”.

“There are other people around you who will be anxious about it, but it’s about choice,” she said.

“I found it fabulous. The midwives were there for a few hours after Doireann was born too. You just feel so cared for.

“When she actually arrived in our room, I found it very special to be in our own space, in our own bed.”

Ms Ní Shúilleabháin said another benefit to a home birth is that there is “no separation between you and your family, which is so lovely”.

“Particularly that first night, when the mum is left on her own,” she said.

“And, especially if it’s your first baby, you think ‘oh my dear God, how will I look after this child?’ It was so lovely that we could all be together.”

Ms Ní Shúilleabháin was speaking to mark the 25th anniversary of the National Maternity Hospital’s community midwifery service.

Mary Brosnan, the director of midwifery and nursing at the hospital, said that when the service was launched in 1999 it was “going against the tide”.

At the time, there was more of a focus on hospital-based births.

“Since it launched in 1999, there hasn’t been a single day when it stopped – Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, there will be a midwife in your home,” Ms Brosnan said.

Since it launched, the Community Midwifery Scheme has cared for 35,000 women. More than 10,000 women have used the Domino and Homebirth service, which has recorded more than 800 home births.

For women living in the catchment area of south Dublin and Wicklow, the Domino and Homebirth service gives them the chance to attend community antenatal clinics in their own local area. If they are eligible, women can also choose to have a home birth.

Women using the Domino scheme who give birth in hospital can go home as early as six hours after the birth, with midwives providing post-natal care in the new mother’s home for up to 10 days after the birth. The service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.