Michelle Tant

(September 2018) Feeling honoured this evening to see my article on the benefits of continuity of mentor in The Practising Midwife Journal ♡ (September 2018 issue)

(February 2017) Something a little different today. There is a scenario which many midwives may be familiar with. It is constructed from my imagination/experience and so no fears about confidentiality though I suspect you may feel you recognise it. Have a read and then consider my questions at the end. A woman has a normal vaginal birth of her first baby around mid afternoon. She is absolutely over the moon and desperate to breastfeed; it was in her plan and she really feels it is the best thing for her baby having been to antenatal classes and done a bit of reading. She is thrilled when her little boy latches on first time and assures you that it doesn’t hurt. You can see that baby has a good latch, he stays on for a good 20 minutes before dozing off and she is transferred to the postnatal ward. You hand over to the midwife that the baby has fed well and they are both for routine postnatal care including feeding support. The following day you are assigned to the postnatal wa...

(June 2015) While on this final count down to qualification, I recently sat an exam for the module ‘Leadership’. When I saw this title on the timetable for third year I will admit to feeling a bit confused. I equated leadership with being in charge of people but it turns out I was confusing leadership with management and while one person can be both a leader and a manager, not all managers are leaders and not all leaders are in any sort of management position. I have been surprised by how gripped I have been by this notion of leadership at every level and then reading about Maternity Experience 2015 (#MatExp) as well as the amazing ROAR book (Byrom & Downe 2015) has really brought it to life for me so I thought I would put together my thoughts on leadership and how I intend to ACT in June and beyond. My revision led me to realise that true leadership is significant in every part of professional and personal life. Mullins (2009) described leadership as a re...

I recently finished the bulk of my dissertation and while it would be true to say a great sigh of relief was heaved as realisation set in that it was over, it would also be true to say that more has happened here than a document being completed. The dissertation has loomed large as third year approached, and I do mean large. The essays up to now have been 1500, 2000, 3000 words and they have seemed long enough, so 8000 words seemed like a mountain. While it has been quite a climb and the going has been pretty rocky at times, the journey has been amazing and I've learnt something about myself which was surprising. I absolutely loved it. Maybe (hopefully) my mark will be decent but honestly even if it is terrible (gulp) I'll be grateful because the process has opened my eyes to research and how to start looking at it in a new way. I'll admit to previously including references in my work without taking some responsibility for ensuring what I was quoting was, to my limited ...