Michelle Tant

(March 2016b) I read the Better Births National Maternity Review (NHS England 2016) with interest and not a little trepidation having spotted a few media headlines before reading the real thing. Many could be forgiven for imagining that the focus of the review would be the personal budget which has receiving so much attention and while I have reservations about this particular aspect, it is short sighted to think this is the beginning and the end of it. Pic credit ( https://www.rcm.org.uk/news-vie ws-and-analysis/news/national-maternity-review-published) My overall impression of the report was its focus on choice and safety and that the two are not mutually exclusive. My feeling and my experience is that the kind of care the review discusses is largely the kind of care that midwives would like to provide. Certainly it would seem that there are incidents where this has not happened and if we have learnt one thing from Morecambe Bay and Mid Staffs, it is that no one is immune...

10 days from now I'll be back in the world of employment.10 days from now I'll be leaving my children for 11 hours per day, 3 days per week. 10 days from now I'll be joining the army of women doing the same, every day. I've been sitting here, really thinking about how I feel about this. People ask me now with increasing regularity when I am returning to work. For some time I enjoyed saying "not until next year!", but now the time has come and I am counting the remainder of my maternity leave in days rather than months. My childcare is sorted, and might I say at this point that I am blessed with angelic in-laws without whom our lives would be very different (read, worse) so in that respect we are beyond blessed. My eldest is now at school, my middle child spends the afternoons at nursery and my daughter lives it up with cuddles galore at Grandma and Grandads. Perfect. When I left work last year to come onto maternity leave, there was a lot of uncertain...