Thursday, February 14, 2008

Midwives and daughters

Last year I wrote about my daughter who was considering the possibility of being a midwife. At the time, I was conflicted as to whether I thought that was a good idea or not. In the meantime, she decided that being on call would interfere too much with her social life and has signed up for an arts degree, in which she is taking at least two gender studies papers.

But the other day we were looking at the birth videos I have recently posted here. I was trying to explain various things but she intuitively knew what I was going to say and was able to work things out without any guidance from me. She still has a very keen interest in working with women and families and instinctively knows things, so maybe she will come to midwifery when she is a little older.

This led me to wonder how many daughters follow their mothers in midwifery these days? How many of you either had a mother who was a midwife or has a daughter following in your footsteps? How has your mother inspired you to be a midwife, or not, as the case may be?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I am about to start my midwifery degree this year - my mum is already a midwife. It is great to be able to see first hand the commitments involved - makes it more of a reality :) It hasn't put me off but I am not going into midwifery (completely) blind regrading the 'oncallness' etc :)

Carolyn said...

Just in case you were wondering the no vote is not from me. I voted yes. I am pleased you reinstated the video. I do respect others opinions however and if there was an overwhelming feeling that these videos should not appear on blogs I would respect that. I wonder if perhaps some warning that as a midwife blog there is adult content on the Title bar might be a good idea. What do you think?

I don't think your counter is working properly. I can't believe it. I came out and went in again later and the counter stayed the same. I am quite sure you have a similar readership to my own.

Anonymous said...

birth videos are adult content?

Sarah Stewart said...

Thank you, anonymous for your comments. Good luck for the next 3 years!!

Sarah Stewart said...

Hi Carolyn and mammal, thanks for your comments. I think the debate is an interesting one. I know other web sites like Facebook have banned photos of breastfeeding which only perpetrates the notion that breastfeeding is not normal, in my mind.

In my quiz, the majority of people said to put the birthing videos in my blog, but I guess there's no harm in putting some sort of warning with them.

shauneboy said...

i really don't see this as adult content - i see it as normal - and agree with the comments that this just creates and supports unhealthy stereotypes and myths around birthing.
rae