ABOUT ME

When I started my career in Midwifery in 2003 I was fascinated by all things pregnancy. I could not wait to attend my first birth and experience everything this amazing career had to offer.
During my first year of training I was not disappointed. I found the birthing process as fascinating and mesmerizing as I had hoped I would and was allowed to spend lots of time with the mothers and families who I came into contact with - I was in my element.

Holistic care
However, as my training went on and my skills improved, I got to spend less and less time being with the women and families in my care and more time 'doing'. Although I fully appreciated the technical skill I had to have to be a competent practitioner, I missed offering the fullest support and companionship I had been able to give before I was useful clinically!

I had also seen the massive difference it made to women to have that support - that person they could ask a 'silly question' to or tell their fears to. I saw how much it meant to them to have an ally as they went through this alien experience that made them feel vulnerable, or brought up things from the past. To have a friend who knew both what they were doing clinically but also had time for their emotional needs. Someone who had time to ask them how their hospital stay was affecting their other children? To ask them about how the discomfort of pregnancy was affecting their day to day lives and how this made them feel?
To reassure them that these feelings were OK even if they didn't feel normal. To ask about the previous pregnancy and birth experience and how these are impacting the current experience.

This, I realised quickly, was holistic care. Encompassing not only body and the mechanisms of pregnancy, birth and motherhood but mind and spirit too.

What's missing & why?
I also realised as I qualified that this type of midwifery care was in rapid decline and mostly didn't have time to exist in a system overstretched, under funded and with different priorities.

Although during my years of practice as a midwife, particularly on the community and home birth circuit I did manage to carve out some opportunities to give truly holistic care, it was not as often as I had hoped. The better your clinical skills get, the more you are called away to help others / or do more and opportunities to truly get to know women and their families are left to new students, health care assistants or doulas. The aspect of the job I valued most and the bit I believe made the most difference slipped further and further away.

Going on to have two children of my own, as well as supporting many friends and family members of mine through pre-conception, pre-natal, birth and post natal experiences highlighted to me further this devastating gap in support for women considering pregnancy, getting pregnant, staying pregnant, giving birth and raising babies and toddlers all while maintaining their own health and well-being every step of the way! It became even more obvious to me that in a society where we often live in very private, nuclear units away from our extended family members, where there is increasing pressure to appear as if we are 'coping' and we can 'do it all' women and mothers, new and old are struggling and are being left to navigate what is a truly momentous, transformative and life changing experience alone, with little support, encouragement or recognition.

Clinical vs holistic care
Pregnancy, birth and early infant care and bonding remain my passion even after all these years, however now I see it from a completely different angle.
The doctors and midwives who continue to work in the NHS do a fantastic job and their clinical skills and competencies are amazing and they keep women and babies safe from harm without a shadow of a doubt. However, for me there is so much more that pregnant, birthing and new mothers need to ensure they enter motherhood as centred, heard and supported women, who are open and ready for the transition they are making, so that they can be as 'fear free' as possible and can navigate any difficulties they encounter along the journey in a way that adds to and strengthens them as mothers.