I Used To Be A Midwife

In 2013, I returned to University at the age of forty-eight to train as a midwife. After having seven children of my own, I felt a strong sense of vocation to support other women on their journeys to parenthood.

Becoming a midwife was one of the most thrilling and challenging adventures I have ever undertaken. It took me to places few people are privileged to enter. I shared the intimacy of home births, learned the language of the labour ward, and even visited a remarkable birthing clinic in the Philippines. 

Midwives undertake the awesome responsibility of welcoming numerous new lives into the world, answering the call to be 'with women' in some of their most intense and memorable moments.

People often tell me midwifery must be 'a lovely job.'  In some ways it is, but although I loved working with women and their families, the profession is beset with problems. Short-staffing, long shifts, inadequate management, and above all, a culture of bullying drove me out of midwifery less than a year after qualifying.  

This little book is a collection of short stories and poems inspired by my experiences as a student midwife and a midwife.