In March, ARM decided to support the Glasgow Women’s Library, the holders of the ARM archive, and honour Mary Cronk at the same time (see news 7th March 2022). Here is the latest update from Sue John the Director of Operations, Resources and Enterprise at the Glasgow Women’s Library: “We have been working with our designer, Kirsty McBride, to finalise the design to be printed on the wall that will then proudly feature the nominated names. We are working with Glasgow Print Studio to apply the design to the wall using a silk screening method, with individual names being added into the design by ..read more

I was surprised that the Sunday Times wasn’t full of the latest scandalous report into maternity services. Bill Kirkup’s report into East Kent showed a toxic culture that harms women, babies their families – and midwives. It was the same old story: rapid turnover of managers – none of whom were able to change anything, women weren’t listened to, mistakes were covered up, deaths were labelled ‘expected’ to avoid an inquest, poor teamwork, too many locums, too little consultant presence, passing the buck down to the lowly midwife or locum. None of the outside bodies brought in to suggest changes ..read more

The Baby on the Fire Escape Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem by Julie Phillips A Review by Lynn R S Genevieve From the captivating cover art, ‘Mother and Child’ by Alice Neel, to the community of ‘mothers and others’ in Julie Phillips acknowledgments at the end of the book, this text reverberates with honest reflections of artists as mothers, mothers as artists, that will resonate with anyone combining work and mothering. In a case of art reflecting life, a strange synchronicity occurred when just as I finished reading this book (that I’d received from the publisher som ..read more

Open Letter to the Board and CEO of the Royal College of Midwives 25 March 2022 We the undersigned seek the resignation of the RCM board and the CEO, with processes to elect a new board and CEO to be commenced as soon as possible; we await your early response. Since the publication of the Kirkup Report and more recently the Interim Ockenden Report there has been a concerted attempt to undermine and smear midwives, the midwifery profession, and to deny the legitimate experiences and wishes of childbearing women who wish to retain autonomy over their own bodies and births. These attempts have b ..read more

We the undersigned seek the resignation of the RCM board and the CEO, with processes to elect a new board and CEO to be commenced as soon as possible; we await your early response. Since the publication of the Kirkup Report and more recently the Interim Ockenden Report there has been a concerted attempt to undermine and smear midwives, the midwifery profession, and to deny the legitimate experiences and wishes of childbearing women who wish to retain autonomy over their own bodies and births. These attempts have been led by powerful actors in government and media. They have been biased and m ..read more

Mary Cronk and Lynn Genevieve Glasgow Women’s Library is the only accredited museum in the UK dedicated to women’s lives, histories and achievements, with a lending library, archive collections and innovative programmes of public events and learning opportunities. They have generously agreed to house ARM’s extensive archive which includes independent midwives’ clinical records. To mark their 30th birthday last year, they launched a new fundraising initiative, Women on the Wall, to help them in their ongoing work towards building a sustainable, green future. Women on the Wall fundraising will h ..read more

12 March 2022 Hosted by Sara Merritt The programme 9.30 Registration 9.50 Welcome and introductions 10.00 Seen and Heard: a report/reflection on the MWM from Maddie McMahon 11.30 Getting the message across: A mediator shares ways to communicate across divides 13.00 Lunch 14:00 Evidence and stories: optimising childbirth experience evidence and discussion how to communicate this – Sara Merritt 15:30 Workshops Venue Sawyer’s Farm, Slough Lane, Little Cornard, Suffolk CO10 0NY ARM Member – £25 | Non-ARM Member – £35 ARM Student Midwife Member – £15 | Non-ARM student midwife member – £20 Lunch and ..read more

Photograph: Anika Molnar/BBC/Sister/AMC Guest Post by Paula Cleary Adam Kay is honest about hurting women – but has he caused harm in ways even he had not imagined? I decided to watch ‘This is Going to Hurt’ on BBC iPlayer to try and see if there was anything I could find sympathetic about the protagonist. Unless you’ve witnessed birth from various angles you might be forgiven for thinking “This is going to hurt” is an accurate representation of normality. And that’s because it IS. One kind of reality, anyway. When you’ve seen another way of doing things, the reality depicted by Adam Kay ca ..read more

Do vaccine mandates breach the NMC Code? Saturday 22nd January 2022 saw large demonstrations of NHS staff and supporters, including midwives, through London and many towns and cities throughout Britain. Demonstrators were demanding the scrapping of vaccine mandates. Hundreds of people placed or threw their uniforms on the ground as part of the protest. The legislation bringing in vaccine mandates was snuck in amongst a host of other Covid measures in mid-December, and there wasn’t a debate in either the House of Commons or the Lords about this before the law was passed. The proposed mand ..read more

Written by long-time member Lynn R S Genevieve, Midwife Voices, is a living archive of the Association of Radical Midwives (ARM) whose members were asked, ‘what does it mean to you to be radical?’ It is a collection of reflections from invited contributors, the verbatim transcribed voices of the membership, and reprinted articles from the association’s journal Midwifery Matters, along with true, birth stories shared by the author; Midwife Voices is a radical anthology. A particular trope has been used to underline the experience of those who have questioned mainstream midwifery, that of the wi ..read more