For me my most active learning has been in the community at homebirths, I was lucky to work with a community midwife who advocated and loved homebirths. Because of my experience in community, when I first went into the hospital setting I had the exact same feeling as Peggy Vincent did in one of her Babycatcher stories. Women looked tied up to me, bound to the bed by the CTG and it didnt feel right (Im talking about women where there was no indication for either prolonged or even 20 min bursts of FH monitoring). It just didnt feel right, it wasnt what I had been witnessing, women moving freely in their own homes and birthing in the way that felt comfortable. Many birthed on their backs but it was different, they werent laying there for hours, they were moving about, writhing around, walking, making noises all the things youd expect but in hospital it was different.

I still think the answer is more contact with IM's... their status must be protected and we must get placements with them.

Thats my two penneth...

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