UK members

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Comment by Lynn Genevieve Walcott on May 7, 2009 at 1:04am

Hi all

This should be fun - like ukmidwifery with pictures!

Most of you are familiar.........
Lynn x

Comment by Catherine Williams on May 5, 2009 at 1:33pm

Hello Becki, Sarah and Teresa,

It is very lovely to 'meet' you.

Becki, It was interesting to hear your story and to get your perspective as a GP. Also I agree it is fascinating that the safer birth is, the better the knowledge of what facilitates normal birth, the higher the rates of caesareans, inductions and instrumental births. The latest rates are out today - www.birthchoiceuk.com What is happening? What can we do?

Sarah, Wow, what a tremendous amount of experience you have - and how busy you must be (your washing machine must be good!) What do you think helped you to give birth peacefully, and to take that step of going against consultant's advice?

Hello Teresa, I am glad your training is going well and you are finding it rewarding despite being away from your own (grown up) babies. I am sure you will find caseloading immensly insightful and rewarding. A calling is what it needs to be - it is almost unique among jobs, dealing with the creation of new life, and the edge of death, and transitions etc. What sustains you through the gruelling training? How do you balance the theory/practice gap (ie what you learn in college and what you experience on the ground on labour ward)?

I look forward to talking to you all more, and perhaps we can start some discussions about the state of maternity care (thank goodness we are not in the US or Brazil though) and ways we can work together, and share ideas to make it better.

best wishes to you all,
Catherine

Comment by Teresa Norman on May 5, 2009 at 11:34am

Hi There.
i'm Teresa. A second year student midwife. I am really finding the training hard going. BUT so rewarding. I have two children, aged 15yrs and 20 yrs. And live away from home to study. I am starting my caseload and really looking forward to it. I feel I've found my calling. Its such a wonderful job.x

Comment by Sarah Kent on May 4, 2009 at 9:35am

Hi all - thanks Catherine for pointing me in this direction! I'm Sarah and I live in Northampton. I have 5 children. I've had a very wide range of birth and pregnancy experiences! A consultants worst nightmare!!! I had an emergency c/s with the first, a hospital VBAC with the second, a twin homebirth (1st breech and 2hours 10minutes between births) for the third and fourth and another homebirth with the fifth - although I haemorraged after her birth and had to go to hospital for blood transfusions - I feel I coped better with this simply because she was born peacefully at home! All my homebirths were against consultant advice, but I thoroughly researched and soul-searched each time before making the decision and had confident and competent proffesional assistance from my independent midwife at each homebirth. I like to think I am very open minded when it comes to childbirth and enjoy discussing pregnancy, birth and the early days of parenthood! I'm planning on training to be a midwife in the future but currently am busy with our 7, 6, 5, 5 and 3 year old children!!!

Comment by Becki O on May 4, 2009 at 2:05am

Hi, I'm Becki, and live in St Ives, Cornwall. I have one little girl, who is now 14 months. I am also a doctor, training part-time as a GP, and have developed a fascination with how difficult it seems that 'normal' birth and breastfeeding can be to achieve 'these days'. I wasn't able to get over my fear of the 'what-if' situations to go for a homebirth with Kerenza as we would take 30mins or so to get to our nearest hospital in the even of an emergency, but after having to fight to postpone intervention from the minute I was admitted (thin meconium likely due to being overdue, but with perfectly normal fetal heart tracings etc), I do feel that next time I may go for what my heart says rather than my head, and aim for a homebirth. Fortunately K was a vaginal birth in the end, but not without synto / epidural etc and I can't help but wonder if I'd been allowed to labour for longer on my own I could've avoided that. That being said, her birth was still the most amazing experience of my life, and breastfeeding for more than a year so far the next most rewarding!

Comment by Catherine Williams on May 4, 2009 at 12:52am

Hi Andrea, welcome to the group. Where are you training? Will you have a job at the end? It is lovely to hear from you. You sound like you are doing great things.

Comment by Andrea Simpson on May 4, 2009 at 12:44am

I am a student midwife about to qualify in september, currently caseholding which I am loving. I live in the midlands and am a member of the Association of Radical Midwives, currently organising their annual conference to be held in November in Telford.

Comment by Catherine Williams on May 3, 2009 at 8:09am

Welcome to this group for members living in the UK. I live in Bedfordshire, near Luton. I have four children, three born at home (one in Hampshire, and two here). I have run a home birth group for the last eight years, and a vbac/traumatic birth group for the last three. I love supporting expectant parents whatever their plans.

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