midwifery Archives

Learning to be a midwife 1980’s Scotland

Navigating The Australian Maternity System 1995

Arriving in Oz I joined an agency needing a salary as soon as possible.

First shift was a morning on the postnatal floor of a large public tertiary hospital, an old building, with no AC, a stinking hot 35-degree day, white dress and tights clinging as I worked under the whir of multiple fans, sweat trickling down my back.

A Community Midwifery Service QLD 1997 – 1999

An accurate quote ❤️

Midwifery is both joyful and painful. We see the best and worst day of people’s lives in our everyday experience. We are incredibly lucky to be part of women’s lives when things are bright and jubilant, but also when they are darkest and most difficult. It allows us to see the light and shade of life in its sharpest exposure
Alexandra Ryan

A Shift On Maternity ward, Australia 2022

It’s a morning shift, the ward is a long, large L-shape with six bays (four beds in each) seven single rooms and two soundproofed bereavement rooms.

Looking in from the entrance it’s a hive of activity. Cleaners mop, wardies push beds, partners look for loved ones, midwives wheel babies in cots, trolleys jostle for space … blood collectors, meal delivery, laundry and obstetricians with their piles of precariously teetering charts.

Voluminous blue curtains surround each bed giving privacy but it’s noisy with the chorus of call bells, IV pumps, women in early labour, babies crying, private conversations, staff chit-chatting.

My Birth Stories

Maternal red thread, me, mum, granny, great granny and great great granny below

My births were rare in today’s world, both spontaneous labours, no vaginal examinations, no drugs, no interventions of any kind, nothing DONE to me. Afterwards both times, I felt like superwoman like “bloody hell if I can do THAT, I can do anything!”

Complications

Usually pregnancy is a joyful time but for some women things go wrong and hospital admission is needed.

Separated from family, friends and support network, stuck in hospital, often miles from home, joy is replaced by anxiety and fear

For some women …..