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

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Why you don’t actually want grovelling customer service just after having a baby

Posted on August 15, 2019November 22, 2019 by Talia Ripley

Before becoming a midwife I had worked for a big telecoms company. They liked to consider themselves “customer focused” – after all it was the customers that they overcharged for calls to Croatia so they had to be nice to them. With this background in mind, I was a little surprised when I started working…

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When multi-disciplinary teams disagree and why you might not even notice…

Posted on July 4, 2019July 4, 2019 by Talia Ripley

“So,” I start to say and curse myself for sounding too conversational. I need to be more assertive. “Is it going to deliver vaginally?” I was at the head end for this particular birth, offering encouragement and pushing the monitor into the poor woman’s abdomen so that we had some sort of idea how her…

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Rabbits in Switzerland

Posted on June 13, 2019November 21, 2019 by admin

So this post is a bit of a repeat of before – sorry I’m not being very original. But our book is now on Amazon and free this weekend so just wanted to repeat……… As I have said before…. I trained to be a midwife around 10 years ago. I started as soon as our…

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Velvet induction

Posted on May 25, 2019May 25, 2019 by Talia Ripley

When I was first interested in midwifery I joined lots of groups dedicated to a vision of true midwifery – radical midwives, real midwives, grassroot midwives. Basically midwives who felt that the medical model of childbirth had taken over and women needed to connect and trust their bodies. I want to stress I feel strongly…

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Don’t you remember, you stuck your hand in my genitals?

Posted on April 8, 2019April 4, 2019 by Talia Ripley

“Sorry but are you a midwife? You delivered my baby didn’t you!” She looks so pleased. So pleased to see me. Have you any idea how lovely it is for complete strangers to be pleased to see you? It gives you a warm nice feeling inside – unfortunately accompanied by an icy dread because she…

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Why Mad Men Nostolgia Doesn’t Help In An Obstetric Emergency

Posted on February 7, 2019February 7, 2019 by Talia Ripley

Having meandered around the jobs market for a long time before coming to midwifery I’m quite used to the phrase “good at working in a team”. In many a job interview I’ve bleated on about good communication skills and respect for others. NHS job adverts always request good team workers – it’s probably on some…

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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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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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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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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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