Michelle Tant

There must be a faint reassurance in the unfailing nature of my complete failure to update my blog on a semi regular basis. As I said in my last post, babies continue to be born, life goes on! I'm feeling vaguely poetic this evening so here is a little reflection on birthing for you. So, nearly six months have passed since I last wrote. I upped my shifts at the hospital and generally did 3-4 short shifts per week until August when Kev was back in regular work.  I now tend to do one short shift per week on a weekend and am fortunate enough to be able to continue to give care and 'love' in the way I know best.  Just last weekend, a beautiful slippery warm baby was born into my waiting hands and I can tell you there is no feeling like it on earth.  I look at these babies and feel absolute awe at the wonder of life and creation, and the strength and resilience of the women birthing them. Sometimes they open their eyes mid-birth, peering out past squashed chubby cheeks and blo...

(December 2016) Mary paused again as the back ache which had been plaguing her for the last few hours gripped her, causing her to grasp onto the donkey’s pack as she walked alongside. She looked up as the sensation passed and saw the outline of the town up ahead and sighed inwardly in relief, careful not to let Joseph hear her. He had been so kind and gentle with her since this whole thing had started and though she felt sure that he would continue to stand by her, she worried that it wouldn’t take much for him to take the advice of all their friends and family and reject her completely. He didn’t talk about it but she knew that the community was confused by his determination to stand by his pregnant bride to be. Many of his family could barely look him in the face and business had fallen recently, he was a skilled carpenter, taking pride in carrying on the family business, but he didn’t seem to waver. There were the faithful few though who seemed to trust his judgement however...

(April 2015) Contrary to the information the media would have us believe, a majority of women still will go into labour without the need for induction and will give birth vaginally (NICE 2014). Currently however most of those women will also birth in an obstetric unit, though hopefully the dissemination of the new NICE guidance will start to have an impact of chosen place of birth given that around 45% of women are at low risk of complications in labour. So it would seem that most midwifery care in labour is given to women on a high risk unit at present. As a student midwives we are taught about the normal physiology of birth, that the mechanism of labour is facilitated by a delicate balance of hormones and that oxytocin is an element to be treasured and worked with. Of course we are also taught about when labour and birth takes a more complicated route and what action to take in those situations, and the inclination sometimes is to imagine that all normality is left behind in t...

I haven't updated this blog for a little while but it seems fitting to break the fast with the wonderful news today that NICE guidance has finally been updated to reflect the evidence surrounding birthing at home, one to one midwifery care, delayed cord clamping and minimising separation of mother and baby. You can view the updated guidance here: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/CG190 While I am over the moon at the update I can't help the feeling that this is a little like teaching Grandma to suck eggs and actually most of this is good old fashioned excellent midwifery philosophy already but it would seem churlish to point this out at length. What is key however is that while much of it is midwifery wisdom - what midwife will argue that one to one care and keeping mother and baby together needs new research and evidence to inform our practice with this - it is not yet in the public forum. Women have been scared out of having their babies at home and this latest guidance...

If you have been reading my ramblings for any amount of time then you know that I really can witter on. More recently my writing has been restricted to university essays so I don't write here as much as I would like to but I was inspired of late to come on here and have a bit of a muse. The thing is, is I come from a long line of witterers, or as I prefer to call us (sounds kinder somehow), storytellers. It's highly likely to be the Irish in me though and I know this apple didn't fall far from the tree that is my Dad. For as long as I can remember, family gatherings have always, and I do mean always, ended with us sat around a table or cuddled on sofas, telling stories of 'The Family'. Some of them I've noticed have evolved over the years, possibly embellished, possibly just added to as more of us have added dimensions to the story. New stories have crept in and I noticed with pleasure that a couple have crept in which involve my husband (of 11.5 years!) so ...

What a beautiful way to announce the birth of their child. And might I say a welcome relief to those of us who have felt like breastfeeding advocacy has been an uphill battle this week. (the BMJ have a lot to answer for, not least my raised blood pressure...). So congratulations to them both, I wish Miranda and their baby a long and fulfilling breastfeeding journey. Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

When I was pregnant with my 3rd child, I mentioned to my midwife that I had an interest in having a homebirth. For a couple of panic stricken moments she simply stared at me. On that basis alone you would assume that she was anti-homebirth. But I happen to know she's not. Her reaction was purely to do with my birthing history. My first child was born by cesarean section. When I got pregnant that first time, I was full of plans for a natural birth. My own mother had given birth naturally with no problems, 5 times. In fact of all the women in my life I only knew one who'd had a section and that was following severe complications. So when it came about that I had to have a cesarean as a result of Jayden being in a transverse breech lie, I felt that my body had let me down without so much as a murmur of objection. They tried to turn him with an External Cephalic Version but no joy. I was booked to have him ejected through the fire escape a week later. Incidentally I went ...

I want to be a midwife. Not because I love ickle babies, but because I think the female body is incredibly clever, and creative and instinctive. Woman is amazing. She copes with so much, she gives birth, she works, she raises her children, she will strive for self actualisation given the opportunity. I love pregnancy. I enjoyed being pregnant despite its various challenges it presented me with. Setting aside the incredible pain, I loved giving birth. I love to be around pregnant women. I feel inspired by them and motivated to be a better person. I want to support them to have the best experience they could possibly have. I want to be there when that happens. To be a midwife though will mean university for 3 years full-time and that means 3 years essentially away from my own 3 incredible children. So another possibility is to train as an Antenatal Teacher with the NCT. The question I keep asking myself is will that be enough for me? Will I always be wondering if I settled for s...

Birth Story Daisy Caitlyn Born Tuesday 1st June 2010 at 10.08pm 8lb 6oz Around 8am on Tuesday morning I started to have contractions which started to come fairly regularly and around 7 mins apart, lasting 20-30 seconds so I started to get quite excited thinking that we’d have a baby by the end of the day. Kev postponed his lessons and we packed the kids off with a friend and waited for things to happen but they tailed off by lunchtime. Gutted! I had a midwife appointment booked for 2.10pm so we went along to that. I asked her to do another sweep and she said I was 3cm and ready to go, just a waiting game. She rang the hospital and booked an induction for Friday morning and off we went feeling a bit dejected! We went to a café for a cuppa before going to fetch the kids and while we were there the contractions came back. They started to come every 10 minutes or so but for some reason I didn’t really believe it this time and had already in my head written off the day! We headed home at ar...