Dr Shree Datta, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Portland Hospital and NHS Homerton Trust, says, “It’s estimated that a very small proportion of births, likely less than 1%, occur outside a medical or midwifery setting, including freebirths.” She notes, “The NHS does not formally recommend freebirth, but we respect a woman’s right to make decisions about her birth.”.
As someone who is fundamentally nosy – I will never not notice a “baby on board” badge or make up backstories for strangers – social media has always offered an irresistible window into other people’s lives.
My research led me to private freebirthing groups, so my Facebook feed swung between virtual nursery rhyme events and graphic freebirth videos – blood, viscera and fragile life pulsing through bathtubs and mattresses.
Two things happened back in 2020: TikTok pushed me into increasingly niche corners, from TTC to alternative birthing stories, and lockdown meant I had far more time to read all the articles I’d previously bookmarked.
Dr Zeynep Gurtin, a medical sociologist at UCL who is setting up the largest international study in freebirthing, explains there are a “huge number of reasons” why someone freebirths.
