A midwife is helping more South Lincolnshire mums to give birth at home.

Community team leader Sue Hasnip, who has more than three decades of experience in delivering babies, is part of the team providing the Midwife-Led Pathway introduced by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn.

This new pathway is open to women in South Lincolnshire, including Long Sutton and Holbeach, to have a less clinical approach to birth.

Sue is well-known in Long Sutton as the town's community midwife and is the wife of Baptist minister Nic Hasnip.

She said: 'I feel the midwife led pathway is an ideal opportunity for a community midwife to be involved in all aspects of the patient's care. It is not unusual for my patients from Long Sutton to go into hospital having not seen another midwife but me during their pregnancy.'

Starting off as a student nurse in Scunthorpe, Sue was soon drawn to midwifery after watching her first birth.

She said: 'I can't remember if the baby was a boy or a girl but I can remember every detail of what the midwife did. It was like watching a master craftsman at work.'

Sue then underwent her midwifery training in Doncaster and later moved to South Lincolnshire, taking on the Long Sutton midwife portfolio 14 years-ago.

The Hospital has invested in its maternity services in recent years with the creation of the £600,000 Waterlily Birth Centre, which aims to provide a 'home from home' feel with two birthing pools and the reintroduction of the home birth service.

It aims to provide women having low risk pregnancies greater options of where they would like to deliver their babies.

'The benefits of this pathway for women are huge,' said Mrs Hasnip. 'You build up a relationship of trust and they are more likely to share if they are having any issues and as a midwife you are more likely to pick up on any physical change as you have seen them before.

'For women with low risk pregnancies, home births can be a very safe, satisfying and precious experience. As a midwife, it is a magical experience to watch as an older sibling comes home to meet the baby which was born just an hour or two earlier.' For more information call 01553 214903.