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Jersey's head midwife has warned expectant mothers not to give birth at home without medical support following the suspension of the island's home birth service.
As Express revealed last week, the Health Department suspended the home birth service in October to carry out an internal review of protocols, staff training, and resources.
Before the full suspension, the service had been operating inconsistently due to a lack of trained midwives – with home births in the island declining sharply from 45 in 2022 and 43 in 2023, to just nine in 2024.
Roslyn Bullen-Bell, Director of Midwifery, explained that the decision to halt the service during this review period was made to ensure the safety of both mothers and babies.
Pictured: Roslyn Bullen-Bell, Director of Midwifery and Nursing, stepped into the role this time last year.
“I want to reassure islanders that this decision has been made to ensure we’re providing the highest standard of care, not just within the home setting but across all maternity services,” she said.
Roslyn added that she hopes to have the service fully operational again in the first half of this year once the training is complete and midwives feel confident in providing safe home birth services.
Despite Roslyn's assurances that the decision to pause the service was made with safety in mind, the suspension has led some women to consider alternatives such as unassisted home births – also know as 'freebirthing' – which is seen as riskier to both mother and child.
Pictured: 'Freebirthing' is when someone gives birth at home without medical supervision.
Pregnant islander Amanda Berresford told Express the service suspension was "really upsetting", and while she doesn't want to give birth without medical help, she feels the ongoing pause might leave her with no choice.
"It is a wonderful thing to give birth at home," she said, adding that one of the "best" choices for her had been "eliminated".
Roslyn, however, strongly cautioned against unassisted births.
"Free birthing is not something I'd advocate at all," she said.
Instead, she encouraged women to visit the hospital’s recently upgraded midwife-led maternity unit, which can be set up to be less clinical and accommodate personal preferences.
“We can make the room whatever they want it to be, whether that's with their own birthing balls, duvets, or lamps,” she explained.
While expectant mothers have been invited to the unit to make them feel more at ease, the sense that the suspension has left women unable to choose where they give birth was a common sentiment raised by service users in response to queries by Express last week – with many reporting feeling "saddened”, “devastated”, “disheartened” and “shocked” at the decision.
Just days after Express revealed the service had been suspended, a petition launched by former doula Kat de la Mare calling for the immediate reinstatement of the service gathered nearly 500 signatures.
Pictured: Kat de la Mare is a former doula – a trained professional who provides physical, emotional and informational support to their client before, during and shortly after childbirth.
"I am deeply concerned that the women of Jersey are not being supported to choose where they want to give birth and are being forced to give birth in the hospital against their wishes," she wrote.
Kat added that withholding this choice demonstrates “a deep lack of understanding and care towards the women of Jersey.”
The decision to suspend the home birth service was driven by staffing shortages, inconsistent availability, and gaps in midwives’ specialised training.
This relates to how the service was offered inconsistently before October, with some nights covered and others not.
“It’s unfair on mums because you’re getting their expectations up,” Roslyn said.
She added that the island’s small population and single hospital made it difficult to manage such disruptions due to staffing.
Unlike mainland services, Jersey cannot rely on external resources to fill staffing gaps caused by illness or absence.
To address these challenges, an internal review is underway, focusing on training and equipping midwives to ensure a reliable and safe service.
A bespoke training session is being arranged with a UK company to upskill around 40 midwives, so the majority of the staff can be part of the home birth on-call service.
“I need to make sure all staff feel confident and happy to provide a safe and effective service,” Roslyn explained.
“By training the majority of our midwives, we’ll have a more consistent approach.”
Pictured: A petition has been launched calling on the Maternity Unit to reinstate the home birth service "immediately".
She added that the temporary pause on the home birth service is the only area of maternity currently impacted, as the focus is on getting all midwives trained to provide that service.
Efforts to resolve staffing issues have included converting agency midwives to permanent roles and recruiting new team members.
Two more midwives are due to start by the end of March, bringing the department to full staffing levels with no vacancies.
Rosyn said she hopes to restart home births "in the first half of this year", adding that the service will operate more consistently once it opens.
The review is part of broader improvements in maternity services, following 126 actions identified following a review of maternity services in 2023.
One of these recommendations was to boost the department's leadership team, which led to the appointment of Roslyn almost a year ago to oversee areas of Health including maternity, gynaecology, paediatrics, and neonatal services last January.
The petition can be found HERE.
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