My £3,000 Birth Went Wrong

Aoife Stuart-Madge, 39, didn’t realise the unpredictability of labour when she started splashing the cash.

- Aoife Stuart-Madge

Hovering over a striped tankini, I hastily added it to my online basket. I’d already bagged 10 essential oils plus an aromatherapy diffuser and a hydrating facial mist, bringing my total to over £200.

You’d think I was preparing for a spa break. In fact, I was stocking my birthing bag. It was October 2015, I was nine months pregnant with my first child and training for birth like it was an Olympic sport.

Gearing up

I’d planned a drug-free water birth and pictured myself meditating serenely in a hospital birthing pool, surrounded by euphoric wave sounds as I calmly ‘breathed out’ my baby.

My birth plan laid out my wishes for a natural delivery with as little medical intervention as possible and detailed the oils to infuse during labour and how many minutes I wanted the umbilical cord to pulse before it was cut (preferably five). And I’d do it all in fancy swimwear.

In preparation for the big day, I was seeing an acupuncturist once a week for £40 an hour to de-stress and prime my body for labour, plus a reflexologist at £50 a pop to stimulate contractions. I was also on a hypnobirthing course costing £200 for 10 hours, over five weeks. This was all on top of free antenatal classes and a water birth workshop at the hospital, plus countless natural childbirth books, relaxation tapes, herbal teas and tinctures to induce labour naturally. In total, I’d spent the best part of £3,000.