Availability

Go to the month of your due date and click to flip the box to find out if I am available that month. I take on only two clients due each month to make sure I can attend both births. It is recommended that you book an independent midwife in early pregnancy or on your second trimester to make sure she is available. 

2025

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Is your baby due in July 2025?

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Ups, I am fully booked!

But my midwife partners may have availability.
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Is your baby due in August 2025?

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I am afraid I am not available this month!

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Is your baby due in September 2025?

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Ups, I am fully booked!

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Is your baby due in October 2025?

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Fantastic!

I have got TWO spaces available.
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Is your baby due in November 2025?

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Is your baby due in December 2025?

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Fantastic!

I have got TWO spaces available.
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Is your baby due in Octobre?

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It is your lucky day!

I have got ONE space available for after the 15.10.2024
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2026

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Is your baby due in January 2026?

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I have got ONE space available.
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Is your baby due in February 2026?

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I have got TWO spaces available.
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Is your baby due in March 2026?

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Is your baby due in April 2026?

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Is your baby due in May 2026?

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Is your baby due in June 2026?

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I have got TWO spaces available.
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Is your baby due in Octobre?

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It is your lucky day!

I have got ONE space available for after the 15.10.2024
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2024-2025 past availability

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July 2024

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I am afraid I am not available this month!

But my partners Beth Woodger and Cheryl Samuels are .
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August 2024

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Ooops, I am fully booked this month.

But my partners Beth Woodger and Cheryl Samuels may have spaces.
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Septembre 2024

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I am afraid I am not available this month!

But my partners Beth Woodger and Cheryl Samuels are .
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October 2024

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It is your lucky day!

I have got ONE space available.
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November 2024

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Ooops, I am fully booked this month.

But my partners Beth Woodger and Cheryl Samuels may have spaces.
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December 2024

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Fantastic!

I have got ONE space available.
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Is your baby due in January 2025?

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I am afraid I am not available this month!

But my midwife partners might be available.
Check out my partners

Is your baby due in February 2025?

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Fantastic!

I have got TWO spaces available.
Contact me

Is your baby due in March 2025?

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Fantastic!

I have got ONE space available.
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Is your baby due in April 2025?

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I am afraid I am not available this month!

But my midwife partners might be available.
Check out my partners

Is your baby due in May 2025?

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Fantastic!

I have got ONE space available.
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Is your baby due in June 2025?

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Ups, I am fully booked!

But my midwife partners may have availability.
Check out other midwives in the area

Is your baby due in Octobre?

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It is your lucky day!

I have got ONE space available for after the 15.10.2024
Contact me

Make sure I can cover your area

Check my home birth packages

Any questions?

Hello! My name is Irene Vine and I am an independent midwife  covering Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge and East London. I provide full antenatal, postnatal and birth care including homebirths and outside of guidelines care. I am passionate about supporting women achieve a birth experience where they feel empowered, heard and understood. If you would like to experience the best possible care with unrushed appointments and a private midwife who is always at the other end of the phone, give me a call! I cover most cities and villages in East Anglia, such as Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Cambridge, Harlow, London or Southend.

Resources For Fetal Heart Monitoring

1.When did we start monitoring babies in labour?

For more high quality evidence around fetal monitoring please visit Kirsten website here, an obstetrician with a PHD in CTGs. https://birthsmalltalk.com/

In this post she discusses intermittent auscultation: https://birthsmalltalk.com/2023/08/23/what-is-intermittent-auscultation/

Hear her talk about the lack of evidence behind CTGs in this podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1eXZY973Oxbs1ducavpSAk?si=872f8c4077be4ba5

Post on the history of fetal heart monitoring: https://birthsmalltalk.com/2023/08/09/listening-to-the-fetus-the-history-of-fetal-heart-rate-monitoring/

Cochrane review comparing CTG to intermittent ausculation (CTG increases interventions
): https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006066.pub3/full

Does CTG use improve outcomes for high risk women? https://birthsmalltalk.com/2024/10/16/the-story-behind-our-paper/

2. How should we use intermittent auscultation in labour?

These are the NICE guidelines for fetal monitoring in labour: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng229/chapter/Recommendations

Midwife researcher and lecturer Rachel Reed has a brilliant article and podcast about this where she unpicks the evidence around the recommendations for intermittent auscultation protocols here https://www.rachelreed.website/blog/listening-to-baby-during-labour

and podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3sJeIR3xUOr20EBRGilHxl?si=818537594dd04457

The WHO recommendations for intrapartum care: https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/260178/9789241550215-eng.pdf?sequence=1

3. How does intermittent auscultation detect fetal distress?

For more on normal and abnormal heart rate monitoring watch this explanatory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni48bbtiZgs

4. What happens if there are concerns with the fetal heart rate at a homebirth?

NICE guidelines for fetal monitoring in labour: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng229/chapter/Recommendations

5.What is better for fetal monitoring in labour: a Doppler or a Pinard/fetoscope?

To read about the research and the experiences of midwives using a fetoscope/pinard antenatally and in labour check these links out.

Short facebook comments compiled in this magazine here: https://www.midwiferytoday.com/mt-articles/wisdom-of-the-midwives-issue-131/

Midwives perceptions of fetoscope vrs Doppler Tanzania https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-018-1736-y

Midwives experiences of Pinard use Norway https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0266613822000407

Defense of fetoscope article by American midwives

https://hearthandhomemidwifery.com/blog/fetoscope-a-tool-of-the-midwifery-trade#:~:text=Fetoscope%20uses%20go%20beyond%20just,birthing%20person%20and%20the%20baby.

A Cochrane review that compares Doppler and Pinard use in low income countries: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD008680.pub2/full

For a compilation of research that compares the use of Doppler to Pinard check this link: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/content?templateType=related&urlTitle=%2Fcentral%2Fdoi%2F10.1002%2Fcentral%2FCN-01110791&doi=10.1002%2Fcentral%2FCN-01110791&p_p_id=scolariscontentdisplay_WAR_scolariscontentdisplay&_scolariscontentdisplay_WAR_scolariscontentdisplay_action=related-content&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_mode=view&type=central&contentLanguage=

6. What if you decline some or all fetal auscultations?

Is fetal monitoring essential?: https://birthsmalltalk.com/2024/11/06/myth-busting-3-fetal-monitoring-is-essential/

7. What to bear in mind about intermittent auscultation in labour?

Examples of womens experiences of fetal auscultation in labour: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871519224002658#bib14