the secret midwife

confessions of a pragmatic midwife stuck between the NHS and a hard place

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Why your nervous stomach stops another woman sleeping

Posted on January 14, 2019January 15, 2019 by Talia Ripley

Most of my shift had been really nice. That does happen sometimes. Maybe about once in 20 shifts. Just due to the random statistical distribution sometimes there are just not that many women going into labour. I was on the antenatal ward and only had two women to look after. I was enjoying having the…

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Photo by Jyotirmoy Gupta on Unsplash

The money shot

Posted on December 17, 2018January 14, 2019 by Talia Ripley

There is, of course, one momentous positive about being a midwife. It’s such an obvious one that it almost goes unmentioned a lot of the time in midwifery circles. Yes, it’s lovely to help to empower women; yeah, it’s great to be an autonomous professional and all the other stuff but really, honestly, it’s pretty…

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Why selling pumps makes me want to weep and may delay your exit

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Talia Ripley

So on the post natal ward yesterday. An average kind of a shift – not too dreadful but my urine still looked like lucozade when I finally went to the loo so obviously fairly busy. I had managed to discharge a couple and thought I wouldn’t hear from them when they buzzed and said they…

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Photo by Aidas Ciziunas on Unsplash

Should your midwife consider your newborn baby’s future sex life?

Posted on November 16, 2018January 14, 2019 by Talia Ripley

I’m not always very good at breastfeeding support – it requires lots of patience and time. I have the patience but often on a postnatal ward I’m very short on time but it’s probably the most important thing to get right for new parents. So many babies I come across have this weird instinct to…

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Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Your entitled moaning may be entirely appropriate

Posted on November 5, 2018November 16, 2018 by Talia Ripley

“I know it’s not your fault  but it’s just that I really have a thing about waiting, It makes me really stressed. We’ve been waiting for hours now. If the doctors think it’s so important for me to be induced why have we been waiting for so long.” There is no way on earth I…

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Photo by Luca Rüegg on Unsplash

Why starting as a student midwife was like being in ‘Life on Mars’

Posted on October 26, 2018November 16, 2018 by Talia Ripley

This only makes sense if you’ve watch the time-travel series ‘Life on Mars’. Sorry to start a midwifery blog in such an inappropriately inaccessible way. Just the way it goes – it’s the only way to get across my initial feelings when I started as a student midwife 10 years ago. Maybe this will work…

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Read the book

Rabbits in SwitzerlandMy novel Rabbits in Switzerland (co-authored with Ethan Crane), based on many of the real-life events from this blog, is now published. Available here (read a free extract here).

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Recent Posts

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