Alicia slips out of her jeans and t-shirt and pulls on the green birthnurse uniform, corporate logo emblazoned in large yellow letters across her breast: 'MegaMaternity Inc'. She stows her clothes and bag in the locker, walks out of the staff room and down the corridor to her clinic room and picks Continue Reading
Birth in The Year 2073: Malina Has Her Baby
Derisa pulls her scarf up over her head as she hurries down her garden path and out onto the quiet, dark street. It is frosty; in the gardens icy fronds flash white in the light of a full moon, which is partly obscured by clouds pregnant with the possibility of snow. Once again Derisa reflects on Continue Reading
Frida’s Home Birth
This is a guest post by my lovely friend Izzy. I was honoured and grateful to be one of her doulas, alongside my wonderful friend Becky Talbot. This is long for a blog post, but if you are a doula, midwife or parent preparing for birth, I urge you to read it all. Izzy leaves nothing out, so her Continue Reading
Green Birth: How Modern Birth is Killing the Planet and Killing Us
Greta has not minced her words: our house is on fire. The count down to global destruction has well and truly started and the human race must act, now, to avert the extinction of our species. We know it's too late to avoid the crisis: it's coming and we will need to learn to live in a new, hotter, Continue Reading
Umbrella of the Love Gods: The Clitoris, Female Sexuality and Birth
Button, Devils' Doorknob, Bald Man in a Boat...the English words for the female clitoris are far and few between and not particularly positive or enlightening. As a woman in her 50s, born and bred in England, I have a suspicion that my lack of vocabulary to describe this part of my body is a symptom Continue Reading
Birth In the Year 2073
These snippets of fiction are written to help spread the word about our campaign #MarchWithMidwives 2022. I hope to paint a picture of how the absence of maternity care universally available, free at the point of contact, is so important. I hope to show how crucial midwives who are truly autonomous, Continue Reading
Use Your Loaf: The Curse of the Baby Hat
It's deeply ingrained, this habit of putting hats on newborns. Search online for images of newborns and almost all of them are togged up in a woolly hat, for all the world like they are about to go outside for a snowball fight. So why do we do it? And why do so many midwives and doctors insist that Continue Reading
Shame and Blame in the Birth Game: Part 2
'I have failed.' I hear it almost every day. It's women who whisper this. Men don't. Men say, 'I was robbed', 'It wasn't fair', 'There wasn't enough time', 'Ah well, that's just the way it is.' Our bodies are branded. Labelled and judged: “Failure to progress” "Incompetent" "Lack of Continue Reading
Mindful Walking
What do I take from this place, this time? A pebble, a snail shell, a flower, a fern. A catharsis, an unravelling, A peeling, an untying of knots. I leave my mark: a footstep on the hill, On the path to the lake, All fear floating, trembling and tumbling Over the watery rocks. Each step Continue Reading
This Is The Way I Pray
Toes, feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs. Salty water, cold as ice, brooding skies. Breathe, breathe, breath is blooming, I am NOW, this moment all consuming. Alive. I am alive. In this breath, In this beating of my heart, In this pumping of my blood, I am here, I am now, I Continue Reading