The past year was an odd time to have a baby, admits Mills, who went to her pregnancy scans alone. Luckily, due to her choosing a home birth, she was able to have Matthew with her throughout labour. Mills says she valued the “little bit more certainty” of a home birth, knowing she could avoid the “traumatic experience” of labouring alone, which women up and down the country have done in the pandemic.
After May was born in October, restrictions relaxed enough for Mills’s mother to stay for the first few weeks to help with both babies. But besides her, baby May has met only a select few family members, including only one of Matthew’s four siblings. “It’s just so strange”, she says. “They re Covid babies and they don’t even know it.”