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Midwife Experiences
21. THE POISONED APPLE
First published in Midwifery Matters 179 By Antonella Gambotto-Burke My baby was born blue and motionless. She didn’t even look real. ‘Is it dead?’ I asked, blurred by morphine. This was my first response to my only child. Beyond the apathy, nothing. In that moment,...
Exploring the Socio-cultural Aspects of Obstetric Interventions Through a Feminist Lens
First published in Midwifery Matters 179 Childbirth in the UK is defined by societal and cultural beliefs, expectations and customs which influence women’s decisions (Luce et al, 2016). These beliefs become accepted as the ‘norm’ and are based on ideas which emerged...
Reading “Closure”
Reading “Closure”, Becky Reed and Nadine Edwards account of the sabotage of the Albany Midwifery Practice (AMP) by managers at Kings College Hospital enraged me, made me cry, and woke me up in the night. It is just as well that Tim Smart, former CEO at Kings doesn’t...
Money Matters – the cost of living crisis and student debt
In June of this year, the National Union of Students carried out a survey of roughly 3,500 students into their financial situations, concerns and how they feel about the current cost of living crisis. I believe that this may be affecting midwifery and other healthcare...
Will Bill Kirkup March for Midwives?
I was surprised that the Sunday Times wasn’t full of the latest scandalous report into maternity services. Bill Kirkup’s report into East Kent showed a toxic culture that harms women, babies their families – and midwives. It was the same old story: rapid turnover of...
The Baby on the Fire Escape – A Review
From the captivating cover art, ‘Mother and Child’ by Alice Neel, to the community of ‘mothers and others’ in Julie Phillips acknowledgments at the end of the book, this text reverberates with honest reflections of artists as mothers, mothers as artists, that will resonate with anyone combining work and mothering.
This Is Going to Hurt – and it certainly does
Guest Post by Paula Cleary – I decided to watch ‘This is Going to Hurt’ on BBC iPlayer to try and see if there was anything I could find sympathetic about the protagonist. Unless you’ve witnessed birth from various angles you might be forgiven for thinking “This is going to hurt” is an accurate representation of normality. And that’s because it IS. One kind of reality, anyway.
Why Mandating Vaccines is Wrong for Midwives and Everyone
Do vaccine mandates breach the NMC Code?Saturday 22nd January 2022 saw large demonstrations of NHS staff and supporters, including midwives, through London and many towns and cities throughout Britain. Demonstrators were demanding the scrapping of vaccine mandates....
The Threat of Social Services in Maternity Care
Written by Georgia Clancy The management and communication of risk in pregnancy and birth is a complex issue for both women and their maternity care providers, feeding into the choices they have and the decisions they make. The normalisation of the medical model of...
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