Channel 5 have a new mini documentary series on midwifery and the first episode aired this Wednesday 5th July at 8pm. It is call 'The Highland Midwife' and follows a group of community and continuity of care midwives in rural Scotland.

On the show we meet midwives, mothers and families going through the last few weeks of pregnancy and labour and birth. Each woman discusses her past history and relationship with the midwife.
Honestly, it made me very teary. It was fantastic for the media to show this honest portray of the midwife-mother relationship in communities in Scotland.

Midwife Morven Fioretti from Channel 5's 'The Highland Midwife'

A few things I noticed during the episode and wanted to discuss will make up this blog post but if you haven't already seen the show I would highly recommend it. It can be found on my5.tv catch up and the next episode airs next Wednesday 12th July at 8pm on channel 5.

Continuity of Carer - What an absolutely fantastic way to introduce to mothers the standard of maternity care that Scotland is working towards. One of the main topics of the maternity review 'The Best Start' by the Scottish Government (2017) outlines the move towards case-loading midwives and continuity of carer. You can just see how this makes a different to each of the women. How they discuss the midwives as being parts of their family, how the woman having a cesarean section is missing the support of her antenatal midwife and  the trust the women have in the midwife when they are referred to hospital for review.
It is inspiring as a student to see this practice when sometimes you are faced with the reality of hospital midwifery as the only experience of midwifery in your city/town. Rural midwifery is different. The passion of midwifery shines through these midwives as they discuss the job and their role in these families lives. Still getting excited seeing a baby be born after 20 years of being a midwife? Incredible, and I hope that's how I'll feel in 20 years time.

Reality of limits of Rural Midwifery - This show does not gloss over the reality that sometimes birth at a midwife-led unit isn't possible and also the restrictions that living in a rural area can have on maternity services. For me this makes the best argument for having highly resourced midwifery-led units in rural communities to bring the services to the women, rather than have them drive 4 hours to have a midwife-led 'low risk' (yes I hate the term 'risk' but it fits here) birth.

Breech birth - I hope this show raises questions regarding why we go straight to cesarean section for breech birth, and honestly I think it should be questioned in this day and age. Lack of skilled breech birth attendants and resources is the only thing holding these women back from having vaginal birth - something which hopefully will be focused upon as maternity services head back to midwifery care but who knows. The power of the Hannah Report (2000) still seems to control breech birth. We need to start a conversation to change it.

Breastfeeding - SO MUCH ACTUAL BREASTFEEDING ON SCREEN. Yes I know all caps can seem like I'm shouting and believe me I almost did - with enthusiasm! Seeing mothers putting baby to breast soon after birth was beautiful not to mention the uninterrupted...

Skin to skin - Passing the baby straight to the mothers chest, initiating bonding and feeding and showing this as the norm is encouraging. Babies covered in vernex and blood and being cuddled by their mothers was an honest representation of birth. As a student I was so happy to see actual reality being shown on screen. But can I also mention the skin to skin after c-section?! Absolutely thrilled and I hope this opens up mothers minds to having uninterrupted skin to skin even if a c-section is planned.

Language - The praise for the midwives was wonderful but to see midwives praising the mothers during birth made me realise how important the power of words can be. I'm not sure if everyone picked up on it, but even the narration (Pam Ferris!) even said the mother had 'given birth' after the c-section. So important to use that language to empower the mother and family.

To me, this show was inspiring and although I know I am not working as a registered midwife just yet, I hope my passion for positive birth representation in the media doesn't make me sound naive.
I have a passion for midwifery, and I with application numbers dwindling I think we need to hold onto midwives with that passion with both hands to show women how maternity services should be.
And hopefully inspire a whole lot of future midwives too.

Leave me some comments below - I'd love to know your take on the tv show.

Ruth x

twitter: @ruth_stmw

Scottish Governments 'The Best Start' Maternity review can be found here: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/01/3303 or by clicking link in paragraph above.