The smiling angels of Call the Midwife and hi-tech cheerleaders of documentaries create a simplistic and unhelpful impression
Sitting at my kitchen table, browsing the news online as I choked down some dinner before a night shift, I hit one of the lowest points of my career. Among the articles was a report about the growing number of heavily pregnant women left alone or sent away in labour, only to face hours of solitary pain or even having to give birth at the roadside on their way to hospital. Like a commuter rubbernecking at a rush-hour car crash, I couldn’t help but scroll down through the indignant comments under the story. Along with understandable sadness and frustration at the limitations of an underresourced, overburdened maternity service, there was a steady stream of vitriol directed at midwives – “a bunch of cruel, twisted gatekeepers”, as one angry person described us.
There was the proof in black and white – we were hated; I was hated. After reading this, I headed out to spend 12 hours caring for strangers while the rest of the world (and my own young family) slept.
Midwives are often shown in the media as either cunningly evil or beatifically benign
Continue reading...from Pregnancy | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2vnzExV
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