Active Birth

I see it is 30 years since the push for active birth began. I have been a midwife for35 years (!) a little longer the movement.
When I qualified I couldn't wait to be able to practise normal midwifery,  then vaginal breech and twins were regarded as normal. I knew I was practising "differently" when I told colleagues that the mum I was  with  did not require suturing to be told "it was nothing to be proud about"!
Michel Odent came to give a talk near me, and it was truly inspiring, along with another man called Leboyer (Birth without Violence) set me on the path for women led birthing
Then I had my first baby, looked after by friends, sat upright in a dimly lit room and I lifted my own baby out into the world, quite an event for 1980!. Ever since then I have tried to go with mothers wants and needs, I wasn't alone,  in our unit I worked with like minded people, it has always been a bit of a battle to change long held views and practises and thanks to a great team and two fab midwives we were runners up in the RCM awards for promoting normality. It is great to see that we are still training midwives who have this innate belief in women to do what we have always known they could do, birth their babies naturally
We have always needed cheerleaders to help us so, thank you to Janet Balaskas, Michel Odent, Frederick Leboyer, Andrea Robertson, and my recent discoveries made through the wonder of twitter!
I am coming towards the end of my working life, I know the profession is in good hands and women will go on being able to give birth in the way they want to!