What we do.....

I was thinking about the question "what do you do then?" in response to IM's not reflecting some of the midwives seen on current TV programmes.  Taking time to reflect on that question, I realised its more what we DON'T do.....

• We don't tell women what they should or should not do; we explore, discuss, share and come to a (mutually made) 'trusting' decision.
• We don't subject women to unnecessary intervention such as routine VE's, ARM's, directive pushing or managed 3rd stage.
• We don't assume we know best simply because we are the 'professional'; women know their minds, bodies and babies.  We learn as much from them as they from us.
• We don't apply time frames to labour and birth; we wait respectfully, 'drink tea intelligently' (Anderson) and gently support birth as it unfolds.  We do not (on the whole) need to hasten this process.
• We don't  'normalise the abnormal'; we approach every woman, every pregnancy and every birth as an event that is 'uniquely normal', working with evidence based practice, within our midwives rules and code of conduct, and in the woman's best interest

Angela xx