International Day of the Midwife 2024!
May 10, 2024
Last weekend was International day of the Midwife.
I absolutely want to celebrate, applaud and recognise excellent midwifery care that supports women to have safe, satisfying, and empowered births, BUT too often what is being practiced in Western maternity is Obstetric Nursing.
This is a world away from what the original intention of Midwifery is...
True midwifery is woman centred, trusting of physiological birth, patient, and puts the needs of birthing women and their families ahead of the needs of any system
Midwifery is what is taught at universities BUT what is practiced in many maternity wards is obstetric nursing......
Obstetric birth is what so many women find traumatising.
It robs them of their bodily autonomy, feels abusive and coercive and is often very frightening.
This is why student attrition and drop out rates are so high..... students learn midwifery at uni and then discover that this isn’t what is practiced largely in the system.
It’s why so many midwives leave the profession because they find the system untenable and incompatible with their desire to support women to birth in a way that leaves them physically and mentally well enough for the next stage.
So, while I celebrate TRUE midwifery, let us be really clear that this isn’t what most women using a Western maternity system will receive. That is obstetric nursing which is very very different!
If you are a midwife or healthcare professional looking to pivot your career towards supporting the mental and emotional wellbeing of parents then you will be interested to know that TBR Certificate in Perinatal Emotional Health is now open for enrolment for AW2024 students.
Midwife Bernie said after completing the certificate:
‘As a longstanding midwife and a hypnobirth practitioner, the certificate course has dovetailed into my life really well. I'm very critical and I'm very scientific, so it ticks all of those boxes for anybody similar. I decided I would reduce or stop my hypnobirthing practice. Instead of which, it's taken off even more, because as people sought support with anxieties and trauma, they've have then chosen to carry on and work with hypnobirthing. It's very well paced, allowing you to learn at your own time scale. I have really loved studying all the topics.
I kind of looked at some of the modules and thought, "I've done that, know that, or whatever. I've seen that in my clinical practice," but the angle at which this comes from is quite different.’
Will you join our AW2024 cohort of Certificate students?
