A day of 2 appointments

Today I spent the day with Chris, a midwife of decades and has been an independent midwife for much of that. Chris recently let her registration lapse and now works as a birth educator and companion, doing birth preparation work and general parentcraft-y things.

We *only* had 2 appointments!

After a 90 minute drive to Chris' i'm greeted by her husband and beautiful dog, Meg. Before heading for the first appointment, Chris wanted to chat to me and I helped her with some admin things. She was very open about local trust policies and the state of maternity services in England and asked me about Scotland and the best start initiative which is happening in the next 5 years. She was also really enthusiastic about the KCND pathways and care dynamics, even though they're going to be obsolete soon!

KCND pathways

I was absolutely shocked that she felt i'd had a good experience of physiological pregnancy and birth and the continuity i'd found in my team midwifery community placements! I have 24 births in my book, around 10 were lithotomy +/- an epidural, around another 8 were in some sort of forward kneeling/standing position and 6 were on the bathroom floor on all fours, Chris has had many elective students who've never had a birth off the bed. I also naively thought team midwifery was the norm in England, and women who recount never seeing the same midwife twice were 'unlucky'. Perhaps the biggest difference is labour care, Scotland are dedicated to one to one care in labour and i've never seen one midwife looking after 2 women and don't think it happens, but is a regular occurrence in England! I can't even comprehend how you could manage that...

Our first appointment of the day was around a 40 minute drive in rural (well to me it was?) Yorkshire with a woman who was approaching her 40 week date as the Storks say, and we were there just over an hour. Chatting about her plans for this birth, last minute admin and notes sorting as is required by the Storks' Airedale bank contract. It was actually so lovely to see the relationship Chris had built with this woman and her family, and to see such in depth discussions around birth choices with new clinical information being recently discovered. It was an absolute privilege for her to let me into her home and be part of her circle of care and she spoke so candidly despite my presence.

After this was a consultation appointment, usually for someone who is considering using the Storks' services and gives an opportunity to discuss the needs of the woman and what brings her to access independent care, and also if this meets up with the ethos and what the storks can offer her, as well as monetary issues. This woman was over half way through her pregnancy and was considering accessing independent services for the first time and spoke at length about what she was hoping for, and why she didn't feel NHS services could offer her this. This appointment was over 90 minutes long but like the last, it was unhurried and came to a natural ending of the conversation.

Chris was kind enough to offer me some books to lend after all our discussions in the car about human rights in childbearing, informed consent and activism! I'm looking forward to reading them, and really wanting to get back into the activism side of myself I left behind when I started the course, even if it is in a slightly different way. 

Perhaps the biggest thing I've underestimated about this placement is the milage on my car! Onto Sheffield tomorrow...

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