Call the Midwife

My interest in babies and birth began when I was about six years old. Back then, the pride of middle-class families was a piano and set of encyclopaedias. When the door-to-door salesman successfully sold a set of books to my parents, their ‘prize’ was The Red Book! It was all about pregnancy and babies and my mom kept it well hidden. At least she thought so! But I knew where she kept it, and I poured over the pictures and diagrams at every opportunity, longing to know what they meant but never daring to ask. 

After more than 30 years in the field of midwifery, I am still learning and marvelling birth and babies. If only we appreciated the miracle of conception, the precision of pregnancy, the dance of birth and the amazing spontaneous development of children in their first few formative years, ‘child-abuse’ wouldn’t exist, and the world would make sure that no child ever went cold or hungry.

‘Call the Midwife’ a TV series based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, has, in some way, revived respect for the midwife. True midwives monitor women throughout her pregnancy, deliver their babies at home, visit the new mother for the first 10 days, and monitor the health and development of her baby over the next few years at well baby clinics.

But a lot has changed in the last 30 years. Women are having babies when they’re much older, putting them and their babies at risk for complications. This means that the work of the midwife must be handed over to obstetricians and gynaecologists who are trained to deal with problems. But that doesn’t mean that midwives can’t prepare couples for the birth and what to expect afterwards. Midwives appreciate the value of skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby immediately after birth, even after a C-section. They are there to help new mothers bond with their babies through breastfeeding and can teach mothers how to avoid breastfeeding problems. 

As a community-midwife, I enjoy the ongoing friendship with many families in my home-town. They keep me updated about their children’s development and their chosen careers. I feel special every time I go shopping and I know that I made the right career choice when I chose to wear green bars on my epaulettes and called myself a midwife.