Yesterday I went to London for the day. I caught several tube trains, visited a Costa Coffee and had my appointment at an hospital, no sightseeing for me. Yes, my mini-saga with the Choose and Book system has ended. It has only taken 24 weeks and countless phone calls but I have met the consultant (very pleasant) and the treatment is planned. My feelings now are that things have happened as I would have expected, if it were not for Choose and Book and government targets which gave me false im... Read Full Story

Trust, now that’s quite an important aspect of my job. Obviously it’s good if the woman trusts her midwife, she will feel safe in her hands but it does need to be a two-way thing for the partnership to work well. I’m not naive, if a woman tells me that she smokes 5 cigarettes a day I generally take it with a pinch of salt, especially if my room smells like an ash-tray when she leaves the room. I’m not going to condemn her, I just make sure that she understands the impl... Read Full Story

Happy Birthday Evie – 1 year old on Halloween Pumpkin Princess We are just coming to the end of a busy weekend. Whilst Hubby (bless him) played golf on Saturday morning I prepared everything for a typical English meal we would be having that evening. Just after lunch I dressed as a witch and drove over to son’s house for Evie’s birthday party where ghosts, vampires, other witches and a pumpkin princess greeted me. At 6pm I zoomed home and Hubby and I began to create a farew... Read Full Story

I received this today from the NCT in response to my communication. Dear Midwifemuse, Firstly, I would like to thank you for your e-mail. It’s always really helpful to have feedback in this way. My name is Jay, and I am the Campaigns Project Officer here at the NCT. As such, it’s very good to be told about the situation for midwives around the country. We really do acknowledge the work that midwives do – as some of the entries in your blog, and the snapshot you provide show ... Read Full Story

I read the NCTS’s research, Location, location, location and felt moved to email them. Here it is, will they reply? Will anyone out there stop the pressure and allow maternity services to make CONSIDERED changes rather than perform ill-judged and poorly planned knee-jerk reactions? As a community midwife I know that your organisation is represented on local MLSC’s so you must appreciate the constraints which many Trusts are placing on local maternity services. In my area we do off... Read Full Story

I received an e-mail this week. NMC, RCM, NHS and Alan Johnson, I hope you all feel ashamed of yourselves.  Hi, I’m really glad I found your blog. I’m a student midwife (ish) I wish that someone would have told me beforehand that the midwifery you read about isn’t the reality. I think you often get glimpses of the midwifery you’d love to practice but in reality…its paperwork, targets, interventions (did i mention interventions?) Its like working on massive a conv... Read Full Story

People are contacting me via the link at the top, and I’m not sure what to do in some of the cases. I would love to advertise but, although I’d love some money, I want to have some integrity so I’m not going to put things in my toolbar thingy but I will post some of them if I think they will be of interest to readers. Here goes then, in no particular order:- From We Are Social - We have just launched a campaign called Open Up ( you can read more about it here: http://www.op... Read Full Story

So, having been unable to choose and book it all came back to the good old ‘they give you, or not’ , appointments system. That fell apart when they appointment offered, at a weeks notice, was for a Saturday when I was already booked on to an advanced life support study day. That was back at the beginning of September and as I have heard nothing from the London Teaching Hospital I phoned them today. Bearing in mind that the whole process has been going on since the beginning of Jul... Read Full Story

Very busy at work at the moment, I blame it on the New Year celebrations!  The rumours are still keeping everyone on their toes, brows are furrowed, tongues are wagging and knees are trembling, whilst ears are flapping and teeth are gritted We should enter the World Gurning Competition. Yesterday I ‘booked’ a young couple who have just gone onto the social housing waiting list. I was discussing the process with them and we got onto the topic of the list of available properties whi... Read Full Story

This is one of those days that will stay with me for ever. We had gone to a little one’s birthday party where the field at the back of their house had just been harvested. Jack and Izzy have a rabbit, Bradley, so freebie hay is great. The picture is of 5 of the grandchildren collecting hay together, Evie wasn’t with us. Why is it perfect? It was a flash back to my childhood where I spent hours and hours enjoying the freedom to roam in wide open spaces. It conjures up memories of ... Read Full Story