ABSTRACT
Over the last decade the trend of home-birth rates in the United Kingdom (UK) has remained consistent, with 2.4% of women giving birth at home in 2020.1 Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, maternity services have seen significant changes to visiting policies, delivery of services and the suspension of home-birth services across the UK.2 This paper will explore the evidence regarding the experiences of those women and birthing people who choose home birth, with the aim to identify women's reasons for choosing a home birth during the pandemic. Some dedicated home-birth teams reported increased referral rates for a home birth and an increase in the amount of home births throughout the initial wave. It is unclear why home-birth rates appeared to have increased in the UK during the pandemic, especially since women's access to home birth may have been limited.