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Midwifery up close

The “Essential Midwifery” tour has now ended, and what a great time we have had. The last event was in Portsmouth, and again we had an enthusiastic group, who joined in with the role plays, explored barriers to normal births and absorbed the practical tips on dealing with “complex” labours and births.

Lynne Staff’s slides and videos, which beautifully illustrate the women’s stories of a variety of births, have been very well received, even though I am sure that the midwives often felt very uncomfortable with the degree of intimacy and connectedness between the woman and her midwife that the pictures demonstrated. There is a strong reticence to get “up close and personal” amongst midwives in Britain, and I must admit that I often have some difficulty in imagining some of them being “with woman” as labour progresses. There have been occasions during my Active Birth workshops, for example. when midwives in the group have declined to participate in basic back massages with others (even thought we were all fully dressed) because they felt it was too intimate!

This tour has brought a number of issues into sharp focus for me, particularly those surrounding the culture of birth in this country. I am preparing some notes for an article I will write for “The Practising Midwife” (if they will publish it!) that will explore some of my observations and propose some solutions for lifting midwifery out of the trough it has slid into here. I sense a level of despair and defeatism that is dangerous and may jeopardise the professional as a whole, unless some positive, practical measures are taken. I don’t claim to have the answers, but I am willing to offer some suggestions to get the ball rolling. More in future Diary entries too.

Posted by andrea at June 10, 2003 09:05 PM

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