We want to start by thanking Dr Keith Duncan for a positive and frankly soul moving birth experience. We knew we wanted to have the birth of our first baby at The Kensington Wing or The Portland Hospital, but weren’t attached originally either way to either location. I was very sick during my pregnancy with hyperemesis and everything during pregnancy felt like it was being done in catch up mode including arranging the birth after months of being in bed with sickness. Making these big decisions under time pressure wasn’t ideal to say the least. The issue we had? Being over 40, I had to have an obstetrician led birth (which was our preference anyway) and looking at the consultant obstetrician options at both hospitals was overwhelming. How do you choose based on the profiles and lack of personal experience? That was our conundrum. I just didn’t know who to pick. My sister had had her baby under Dr Duncan’s care 4 years prior and had had a very positive experience. That was obviously very useful information but it didn’t mean necessarily that this was the right choice for us in terms of an obstetrician with us being older first time parents and me still completely unclear at this stage on my birth preferences (eg medicated, unmedicated, water birth etc). What made us choose Dr Duncan as our obstetrician was watching an interview he did on the HCA website which we found on Google where Dr Duncan spoke about his early career that led him into obstetrics. My partner and I are both very purpose driven people and have found it to be the path to fulfilment in life and also when you get support/care providers who are exceptional about what they do. Dr Duncan spoke in this video of his early experiences around delivering babies and how he became hooked on this speciality. Aside from being exceptionally qualified, when he spoke in this video you could tell that this was what he was put on this planet to do through the passion in his voice. Honestly, that’s why we chose him. It made us feel like we were in the safest hands of someone who had immense passion for his craft (as well as the pedigree background). We’re so glad we made that choice. In terms of the antenatal appointments, it was exceptionally reassuring to be monitored by a fetal medicine specialist and to have our baby and the placenta monitored to ensure the pregnancy was developing as it should. What we liked was Dr Duncan’s manner when we brought up questions or expressed preferences around the birth or around the pregnancy. There was no robotic “this is what the NICE guidelines say” or fear driven answers that made us feel we only had one choice. Instead, he was considered in his responses, explained the benefits and the risks, and what was striking was that he answered the questions like an everyday human being (and not a dogmatic medical professional). That mattered to us a lot and made us feel empowered in our choices. The birth experience ended in an emergency c section and yet was incredible. We had completed an antenatal class that heavily influenced us into planning an unmedicated vaginal birth as a way of minimising the likelihood of medical escalation from starting with interventions. We decided that this was the best route for us (don’t get me wrong, I am usually a complete lightweight when it comes to pain) and chose a water birth in the water birth suite at The Portland Hospital (our experience of The Portland was to run and not walk to having a birth there - the staff were incredible, but I digress…) We had an exceptionally detailed birth plan following the principles we had learned with our aim of birthing our son naturally in the birthing pool as the safest entry for him into the world. The idea was using the water and other techniques we’d learned, oxytocin and endorphins would be high and adrenaline low, creating the ideal conditions for a short and safe labour. It all worked very well for 10 hours of labour until it was clear our baby was stuck because of his size and position. Why am I telling you this? Because up until the complication, we had had an incredible natural labour at The Portland with a wonderful midwife and Dr Duncan by our side. Everyone had been incredibly respectful (especially Dr Duncan) of our birth plan (eg low lights, leaving me to labour uninterrupted, speaking to my partner rather than my during contractions, not suggesting any medications unless I asked for them). That’s the point I want to convey. How respectful he is where there is no medical issue. Then we had the other side of Dr Duncan - the experienced professional who stepped in when there was a problem. He explained the issue to us, why the labour had stalled and what our options were. Being confronted with a medical emergency is never going to be good news, but he stepped in and said words to the effect of “I know you wanted the birth to go away certain way, I’m sorry, things are not progressing, we can’t wait any longer, you need to go to the theatre” (I won’t go into the detail of how things escalated). We were whisked into theatre, we were told that the baby’s condition meant we had to deliver now, we’d done all we could etc. 3 minutes later our baby was born via emergency c section and Dr Duncan showed us our baby over the curtain. I have tears in my eyes as I write this review and nurse our baby because it was truly a soul moving experience. Our preferences were respected throughout the birth and when things didn’t go to plan, following Dr Duncan’s advice I knew we’d done all we could do and the c section was the only decision in that moment. Because of how respectful he’d been throughout our interactions and during the birth of our medical preferences, when he told us gently this was the only way, we trusted him. There was only one decision in that moment. He delivered our baby quickly and safely and my tearful partner and I in the theatre will forever be grateful.