Michelle Tant

According to government statistics, 96% of women drink less alcohol once they get pregnant. So why is there this 'tar with the same brush' mentality to making recommendations about alcohol consumption? I'm certainly not negating the seriousness of fetal alcohol syndrome but I do think that the women who are going to drink to excess whilst pregnant will do so regardless of the governments well meaning guidelines. The vast majority, yes, safe to say, almost all women take a sensible view to alcohol drinking when pregnant if the figures are to be believed. In fact a third of that 96% actually give up alcohol entirely. There's a part of me that thinks that the whole thing smacks of a nanny state, driven to reactive government styles. Women are more than capable of making these decisions. We are not defenseless, ill-educated dolls hanging about waiting for someone, anyone to please tell us how to look after our bodies and children because really we have no idea. ...

The other day I noticed a pregnant woman on crutches, desperately struggling to climb a single stair without moving above her knees whilst simultaneously not twisting her hips and upper body. As I rushed to her aid, in my own mind I was catapulted back to my own pregnancies and I felt her agony.   While you are pregnant, for some reason the expectation from non-pregnant people is that you should be a picture of blooming health, sailing around with that lovely pregnancy glow once the morning sickness has eased off. In fact even some pregnancy books say that once the first few months are passed that you will feel healthier and that you should take advantage of this time before the heaviness of the 3rd trimester kicks in.   So what if pregnancy, morning sickness aside, leaves you unable to walk, unable to move in bed, climb stairs, get in and out of the car, sit up for any length of time, sit down for any length of time… what then? Welcome to the excruciating world of Symphysis Pubi...

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...

Waiting rooms, queues, waiting lists, resturants, cinemas, amusement parks. Us British will wait for anything it seems. It's like one of those great British traditions. If someone queue jumps then immediately those of us who are patiently waiting in line will look round at each other, momentarily united in our 1) disapproval of the queue jumpers totally unacceptable behaviour and 2) wry acceptance of this queue as our lot in life. People get REALLY upset about queue jumpers in Post Offices. Perhaps it's the demographic, though that would be a very sweeping statement and not one I have any empirical evidence to back it up with but I've definately noticed a lot of queue hate in Post Offices. Considering how emphatically British Post Offices are, there's a lot of non-British-like anti-queue behaviour going on. Of course the kind of waiting I'm really getting at though in this blog is the kind of waiting I'm experiencing at the moment. I'm pregnant. Make that VE...

As you know, I am pregnant. 27 weeks pregnant tomorrow to be exact and I am thrilled, over the moon in fact to be pregnant but healthy, I am not. And the problem with this is that people don't like unhealthy pregnant women. It doesn't fit into the nice 'blooming healthy' version of pregnant that in actual fact we've fought for. We've fought for pregnancy to be recognised again, as it was 'way back when' as a normal, healthy part of life and that is brilliant. But in my position right now, it seems to have come at the cost of not allowing pregnant women who are in fact having a pretty naff time of it to not be healthy. Does that make sense yet? I suffer with this marvellous thing called PGP (Pelvic Girdle Pain) but what it means in lay-person terms is that I feel like I've been kicked in the 'bits', then while I was on the floor writhing in agony, someone thoughtfully stamped all over my hips and lower back. In more medicalised terms, it means...

Today I found out that baby number 3 is a girl. I have two boys already and I was convinced that this one would join the blue club. Or perhaps I convinced myself that because I secretly did want a daughter. So it would seem that I am possibly not destined for a house full of testosterone for the rest of my life (of course the ultrasound technician might be wrong yet!) and I was happy before but now I have another kind of happy to add to it. I lay on that bed/gurney and when it came to it, all I really wanted to see was a beating heart and all the parts in the right places, doing the right thing. We saw the brain inside the skull, the perfectly formed spine, the four cavities of the heart, pumping away quickly. Two wiggly legs and hands bashfully hiding her face. She flicked a switch and we saw the flow of blood in the cord, that was amazing. Watching life literally flowing through her. A round tummy with a 'full' bladder and the technician told us that all her 'inner bits...