UK midwife responds

My post last week on the UK’s new birth agenda Maternity Matters prompted a UK midwife, Anna Skye, to write the following response on her blog Tales of Midwifery—the Truth. Rather a much-needed reality check, I suppose, to someone (yours truly) whose knowledge of the matter was based only on what she was reading in the media and on government websites. Somewhat deflating, as well, but at least it’s comforting on some level to know that midwives in the UK face just as many challenges as midwives here in the US, and that the true commonality between us may very well be our committment to continue to fight against overwhelming odds and overwhelming systems. When you decide to become a midwife, I think you are committing yourself to a life of pouring your energy and passion and heart and soul and blood and sweat and tears into a cause and a goal that requires enormous work and enormous sacrifice, but does, indeed, make change….just very, very, very slowly. But then, I am still a student, and not yet burnt-out or jaded. Perhaps you should ask me again in another 20 years; hopefully I’ll still be here, still fighting.