Homerton Hospital has reinstated its home birth service after a three-week suspension that prompted a campaign by mothers and birth workers.
The service resumed on 9 October, having been paused on 18 September following a review. Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has since set up a monthly safety group to oversee home births, but has not said what the review found.
In a statement to the Citizen, the trust said the service had resumed “following an assurance and improvement process carried out by an external expert, and working closely with the Home Birth Team”.
It said it had “strengthened documentation, escalation and governance arrangements”, and had established a monthly Homebirth and Birth Centre Outcomes and Safety Group “to provide ongoing oversight of the quality and safety of care provided through the service”.
The trust said the review that led to the pause was part of its routine monitoring of maternity care, and had “identified areas where further assurance and improvement work was needed”.
“The safety and quality of care that women receive while using our maternity services is always our highest priority,” it said, adding that it remained “fully committed to providing a safe home birthing option” and had “no plans to close the service”.
The trust’s first public statement on the pause, on 20 September, said: “Following a review of the service, we identified areas that need further improvement and assurance.” It added that it had paused the service to make sure it “can be provided safely, effectively and consistently”, and apologised for “any worry or disappointment this has caused”.
That statement gave no date for the service to resume. A date of 9 October was first given on 23 September, in a post on the hospital’s maternity Instagram account.
The trust now says that “in the end, nine women were directly affected” by the pause. It said each was contacted by the trust, received an apology, and was offered an individual discussion about her circumstances and birth preferences, as well as the option of a “home-from-home birth” in one of the birthing suites in its Birth Centre.
“We understand that changing a birth plan at short notice can be upsetting and distressing,” the trust said. “We remain sorry for the disruption and disappointment this caused.”
Campaigners say some families first heard about the pause through word of mouth and social media.
Retired antenatal teacher Anna Clarkson launched a petition against the suspension on 19 September, which had 4,209 signatures as of 15 October. With a team of birth workers, she also organised a protest outside the hospital on 29 September, attended by around 80 people, according to organisers.
Clarkson said: “I just wasn’t going to stand for it, what I see to be terrible injustice, and really bad mismanagement.
“It’s not actually about home birth. This is about human rights. It’s about women’s rights.”
Campaigners feared Homerton could go the way of Gloucestershire, where the county’s hospital trust suspended home births for two weeks in November 2025, citing staff safety concerns, then extended the suspension by six months. In May this year, the trust said the service would remain suspended until autumn. The BBC reported last week that home births in the county would resume before Christmas.
The charity Birthrights found that 66 per cent of 119 trusts for which it had information had suspended, strictly restricted or frequently interrupted home birth provision between October 2023 and November 2024.
Home births are a small part of Homerton’s maternity service. According to the trust, 37 of the 2,388 babies born under its care between April and August this year were born at home, about 1.5 per cent. While the trust says nine women were affected by the pause, the BBC reported at least 10, and campaigners put the figure at 16.
Palmyre Manivet, who gave birth to both her children at home under Homerton’s team, joined the campaign because she wanted other families to have the same opportunity.
“I’m here because I have had a home birth with both my babies and it was incredible,” she said. “I really think home birth is a well-researched, evidence-based way of giving birth and having good outcomes.”
She said she would have been distressed had the service been suspended when she was due to give birth.
Although the service has resumed, she told the Citizen: “We’re still worried. We’re furious it was suspended at all.
“Obviously, some families have given birth in that time, in ways that were less safe for them, that weren’t their chosen way of giving birth.”
Manivet explained that some women feel safest giving birth at home with midwives they know, and that losing that option left them feeling less safe.
The trust said it recognised that the pause would have “a significant impact on women who had carefully planned for a homebirth, particularly those nearing the end of their pregnancy”, and that its home birth midwifery team “continued to provide care and support for them throughout their pregnancy and after the birth of their baby”.
Marguerite Williams, who had previously given birth three times with Homerton’s home birth team, was directly affected by the suspension.
She said she felt abandoned by the service and ultimately decided to give birth at University College Hospital, having lost faith in Homerton after the uncertainty.
She told the Citizen: “I’ve never given birth over 40 weeks, and I feel like it’s been because of the stress.”
The trust did not respond to questions about what the review found, whether the pause was linked to any external report, when women were first told, or why its first statement gave no date for the service to resume.
Campaigners say they want greater transparency about the decision and will continue to hold the trust to account. Clarkson said she hoped the trust would seriously reconsider how it handles any similar decision in future.
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