We define freebirth as a birth that is intended to take place at home, outside of medical institutions, with no medical personnel - including registered midwives - present.

After reading our information, if you choose to proceed, first we will ask you to confirm your eligibility to take part, and ask for your consent. In order to take part in the study you need to:

1) Be over 18 years of age

2) Be able to complete an online survey in English

3) Have had, or intended to have had, a freebirth (even if you then transferred to a hospital or received medical assistance)

The survey has 10 sections, with a range of questions asking about your views, decisions, choices and experiences. At the top of each section, there is a brief explanation about the types of questions the section is focused on. There are a lot of questions in the survey because there is so much we would like to understand better or know more about, but you can skip any questions or sections you’d prefer not to answer. Depending on the detail you provide, the survey can take anything from 15 minutes to 45 minutes to complete. Please take your time.

If you decide to withdraw or leave the survey at any point before submitting, you can do so and your answers will not be used in the study. Once you have completed the survey and are satisfied with your responses, you can submit them. Once submitted, you will not be able to change or withdraw your responses.

The survey is completely anonymous, so the research team will not know who you are, and all study findings will be reported anonymously.

This survey is designed for you to tell us about one (intended) freebirth in detail. Ideally, we would like you to detail your most recent freebirth. However, there is a section where we ask you about your reproductive experiences where you can list all of your pregnancies and/or births, and an open-text box at the end of the survey where you can tell us about any other births in your own words.

We know that there are many women who have had several freebirths, and who are keen to share their experiences with us in more detail. And we would love to learn more about your experiences. If this sounds like you, please consider taking part in the next phase of our study which will include online interviews, where you can tell us your whole story. If you might be interested in being interviewed, please email z.gurtin@ucl.ac.uk and we will be in touch when the next phase starts.

This survey was designed primarily with intentional freebirths in mind. However, if you had an “accidental” freebirth (for example, if your midwife did not arrive in time, or if you intended to birth in hospital but the birth process unfolded too quickly, or another variation), and feel that you would like to tell us about your experiences, you are very welcome to. There will be opportunities for you to clarify your specific circumstances, and please do make use of the open text boxes to do so.

Similar to our response regarding “accidental” freebirths, if you consider yourself as having ha a freebirth and wish to complete the survey, please do so, and clarify your personal circumstances.

In our research, we have defined freebirth as “a birth that is intended to take place at home, outside of medical institutions, with no medical personnel - including registered midwives – present”. Therefore, births where there were medical personnel present do not fit within our definition.

Absolutely! If you were planning or intending to have a freebirth, but transferred to a hospital at some point during your birth process, we very much want to hear from you. This survey is for everyone who planned to have a freebirth, regardless of the eventual outcome, and it is really important for us to gather data about the full spectrum of experiences.

Please do not, under any circumstances, complete the survey on someone else’s (even your partner’s) behalf. Sociological research relies on informed consent as a central ethical principle, and we want to ensure that those whose stories are included have properly consented, and are able to tell their own stories in their own way. Even if you are motivated with the best intentions, to increase knowledge or to provide better representations, it is a violation of another’s rights to report their experiences or to pretend to be them. While we have both software and human checks in place to filter out inauthentic responses to this survey, we are also grateful for respectful cooperation with this most important point, which is why our survey begins with clear declarations to eligibility and authenticity.

Unfortunately, at this stage, we do not have the resources to translate and appropriately analyse translated material. We are really grateful for the interest and we hope to broaden the study in the future if we can secure the funding to do so.

We are absolutely delighted with the interest, enthusiasm and response to our study. The best way you can help us is to spread the word and to promote the study as widely as possible, so that we can hear from as many eligible people as possible. We are very grateful for everyone sharing our website details, as well as our social media posts. Please see www.freebirthstudy.com