WHEN lawyer Frances Ennis told friends and family she was planning a home birth, she said most thought she was either "mad or brave".

The 36-year-old mother-of-three, from Bearsden in East Dunbartonshire, is one of a tiny number of women in Scotland giving birth at home despite repeated statements that the option should be routinely available to all low-risk mothers.

In the Greater Glasgow and Clyde region, 74 births from a total of 11,669 in 207 took place at home - just 0.6%.

The figure is unchanged since 2013, in line with the picture Scotland-wide.

Mrs Ennis, had her first baby - daughter Nessa, now four - at the former Southern General hospital in Glasgow, but said the experience motivated her to choose home births with her sons.

"I didn't have a bad experience, but I just felt that there were a lot of things that made it more difficult than it needed to be," she said. "I was back and forth to the Southern two or three times and I think that stalled my labour and made it longer. It was 30-odd hours and by the end of it I was just off my face on gas and air.

"It suits some people, but it absolutely did not suit me and I was on it for eight hours. I lost track of what was going on, who everyone was. I just remember feeling totally out of control and a bit freaked out at the end."

With sons Ciaran, three, and one-year-old Eoin, she opted for drug-free labours at home with midwives and a 'doula', or birth coach.

She said: "You get told you're a hippy. I had a very close family member say, when I told them I was hoping to have a home birth with Eoin, 'you got away with it last time, you wouldn't want to chance it a second time'. I get that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm also quite risk averse. I'm a litigation lawyer so my whole life is about assessing risk. I don't just say 'let's try a home birth and see what happens'."

Ms Ennis said both births were "hard work", but also more relaxed. Despite complications after Eoin's birth - a retained placenta meant she had to be rushed to hospital - she has no regrets. However, she said she felt pressured to deliver Ciaran, who seemed large in scans, by C-section and to be induced with Eoin after going to 42 weeks.

She said: "When I said no, you definitely feel like you're being belligerent, or difficult, but in my job questioning someone isn't that big a deal. I know so many women who wanted a particular type of birth and feel that they were railroaded into something else.

"They found themselves in a situation where they were completely out of control, the birth didn't go to plan, and then they had an emergency section when what they'd actually wanted was as relaxed a birth as possible with as few drugs as possible.

"Then they're baby is taken from them, they don't get to be the first person to hold it, there's no skin to skin, no immediate breastfeeding, and they're just left feeling traumatised and like complete failures."

The latest figures show that just 0.7% of mothers in Scotland had a home birth in 2017.

Scotland is also lagging behind England and Wales, where the rate is 2.1%.

The Scottish Government has never set a target for home births but its new maternity agenda, 'Best Start', says women "should be encouraged to consider home birth as an option" if they have had a previous vaginal birth without complications.

Elizabeth Duff, policy adviser for the National Childbirth Trust, said she welcomed that aim but said it could only be delivered with more dedicated home birth midwives and a change in attitudes.

She said: "It's a question of getting the numbers up so that you've got those midwives in place who are experienced and confident in home births, who regard it as a really genuine option and are able to say to the mother 'we've got the staff, we can support you, you'll be fine but if you need a transfer to hospital we can arrange that in a very calm and organised way'.

"There's still a lot of fear that is largely unfounded. It's entirely up to women to make the choice, but I think for some women it's really off-putting that people say things like 'oh, you are brave' or 'wouldn't it be better to be in hospital, just in case'."