Testimonial

Midwives In Partnership

Testimonials

Providing the very best in one to one midwifery care

Welcome

June Pembroke Hajjaj RM Dip. BSc (Hons).
Tel: 07876795179
Member of RCM, NCT, ARM, AIM

Testimonials & Birth Stories

Looking back we were pretty ignorant as to what having a newborn means, with our families living far away, little did we know that June would be our lifeline for the first six weeks of Alex's life. Her knowledgeable, supportive and holistic approach to care leaves me in no doubt that I would want June to care and support me should I be blessed with any more babies in the future.

Jana (Baby Alex born January 2005)

Jana (Baby Alex January 2006)

Sylvia & Xavier Testimonal coming soon.

(Baby Xavier born August 2005)

Zan born August 2005.

“We both wanted to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your unstinting support and guidance throughout this amazing and unique experience. Your help and assistance be it by phone, at home and needless to say at the birth itself was so much appreciated. We genuinely believe that we had the best possible experience – thanks entirely to all your help, expertise, guidance and empathy. Thank you for having confidence in us throughout the marathon process. With much love, Karen, Julian & Zan xxx.”

(Baby Zan born August 2005)

I would really like to thank you for making the whole experience so wonderful for us. Evie’s Birthday was the best day of our lives, and was made so special since we were able to have her at home, thanks to your care and encouragement. We feel privileged to have had the experience we did, with no complications or hitches, and I believe a lot was down to the confidence you instilled in both myself and Nick throughout the whole process. Thank you, also for your help following the birth – it to was invaluable, and made those first weeks even more blissful!” Emma, Nick & Evie xxx.

(Baby Evie born May 2005)

Twin Home Birth Story by Sasha Field.

When I found out that I was expecting twins, I was thrilled. My enthusiasm changed to worry when I discovered that I wouldn’t be able to give birth at the Birth Centre where I had such a wonderful water birth when my first child was born.

My only choice seemed to be a hospital birth and I was in for further disappointment when I realised that I had no choice about which hospital! Now images of myself flat on my back in an operating theatre began to haunt me. I knew that wasn’t the way I wanted my babies to be born.

After reading an inspiring book, called ‘Double Trouble’, I was offered a glimmer of hope and immediately started to research other options.

I rang Jane Evans, an independent midwife experienced in twin birth, who gave me lots of excellent advice on birth and nutrition and really helped me to visualise the birth I really wanted. She helped me to see that twin births weren’t abnormal and that it was perfectly feasible to carry my babies to full-term and then have a normal delivery, if all was well.

She gave me the number of some local independent midwives, who, luckily for me, would be available to work in August. I met June and talked things through. We decided to opt for a home birth if all went well with my pregnancy and the babies’ presentation. I also managed to get a transfer to UCLH, in case there were any problems during delivery. The head midwife was also willing to help me deliver in the birth centre if there were no problems. So felt relieved I had some choice and was able to relax and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy.

My pregnancy continued to progress well and the babies were a good weight. After many scans the presentation of Twin One was head down and Twin Two liked to perform somersaults even up to 37 weeks. This was not considered a problem and having reached 38 weeks my home birth seemed imminent. We had a birthing pool delivered and by the time I went over the 40-week mark I decided to have some acupuncture to get things going. The second session seemed to do the trick and the following night at around 10 pm the contractions started, which was a huge relief as I was just about to hit the bottle of castor oil!

I rang June and my mum (who was coming over to look after my four-year old daughter) and my partner pumped up the pool. The contractions were about 8 minutes apart for the whole of the night. I managed them by leaning against a wall and rotating my hips while vocalising “. Then I would rest on the edge of the bed and try to take some micro naps, while my partner slept soundly beside me.

By about 6a.m the contractions felt much stronger and were quite quickly coming closer together. At this stage I called June and we filled the pool. When the June arrived I was 8cm dilated and could get into the pool, which was wonderful as it took a lot of the weight off my tired legs. I hadn’t managed to drink much before then as it had made me vomit, but June insisted I should be taking in fluids and made me up a batch of raspberry leaf tea, which I managed to keep down.
I felt very safe in the pool with midwives beside me and tried to push with each contraction. At one point my daughter made an appearance and thought it was very amusing to see her mum in a pool in the middle of the kitchen! June helped me to push more effectively by telling me to use a deeper sound and encouraged me to feel the stretching, stinging sensation and go with it. After I had been pushing for an hour and there was still no sign of baby number one, it was suggested that I got out of the pool, to see if it helped. I staggered to the bathroom, with what felt like a grapefruit between my legs and squatted down. It seemed like an age, but was probably only three or four contractions later that I really went for it and my daughter Ruby was born, weighing 8lbs 6ozs.

I stayed upright so that June could check the position of the second baby, trying to keep the head down if possible. Waiting for the contractions to start up again was very tiring as my legs were quite wobbly. We got a chair in and I sat on the edge so that June could make sure she kept the baby in the right position and could monitor his heartbeat. As the contractions were quite weak, I asked for Ruby to be brought in so that she could suckle. That helped to strengthen the contractions and after two more, Oscar was born in a breech position but still inside the membrane. He literally shot out and June had to catch him. He was born weighing 8lbs - exactly one hour after his sister.

I was so happy that they had both been born and were safe and healthy. I went to bed for the last stage and delivered the placenta, which was huge and partly fused together. The midwives whizzed around cleaning up, while I blissfully cuddled my beautiful new babies. It was an incredible experience!