Why I became a midwife

My credo: Strengthen women and you strengthen the whole world!

I've always wanted to do something meaningful in this world. To learn a profession, ideally in the medical field, that would help me personally and make the world a better place. I find midwifery work very special and intense. And for a better world, girls and women need to be empowered! No matter where.

I can describe my career in a nutshell as follows: characterised by being present at many animal births and the births of my siblings as the eldest of four children. My best friend suggested to me: „Why don't you become a midwife? Then I asked myself: what exactly does a midwife do and why this old-fashioned name? This inspiration led me to look for internships and so I did my first labour ward internship at the age of 17, although I was spared shift work due to my age. I spent my second placement with an independent midwife. I remember the home visits as being very calm and peaceful.

I completed my training as a midwife in Hamburg and got the place I was hoping for at the second application round. In between, I spent a year in Finland.

I still remember one of the first births during my training, when the head became visible in the depths (that's what midwives call it), became a little bit more visible with every contraction and then retracted again. I kept thinking: All right, how is that supposed to come out? That will never work! And yet it does and then suddenly there's a complete baby, even though it was there before, just surrounded by skin etc.

What fascinates me about birth is that in this existential process, a person is simply a person. Status, level of education, everything is unimportant, secondary, only the moment and your own strength count. Every person's birth is so similar and yet at the same time so individual and unique.

The clinic is not my place. Supine position, power struggles and rigid systems. Lots of fear and insecurity. Supposed control over situations that can't be controlled in order to feel safer, but sometimes to the detriment of the situation. I'm not sure whether this was simply my own perception. I had the feeling that I was being trained exclusively for hospital obstetrics. And that I couldn't do justice to the women giving birth at the same time.

That time was hard for me. I asked myself what I was actually doing and very often considered giving up. My idea of self-determination and humane obstetrics was simply not being fulfilled. A huge ray of hope in the middle of the training period was a learning session with a homebirth midwife of many years' standing. She simply told us about the births she had attended and the whole course hung on her every word. It was such a ray of hope for all of us and I realised again why I originally wanted to learn this profession. I have often thought back to this sequence to remind myself of the rightness and meaningfulness of it.

I had an exciting experience on an excursion to our neighbouring country, the Netherlands, during my training. While we were all being trained as hospital midwives, midwifery in Holland was a four-year degree programme. When the student accompanying us was asked which hospital she wanted to start at after graduation, she replied in complete amazement: „No, of course I'll go to the home birth centre for normal births first. I wouldn't dare go into hospital until I had more experience!“ I was very impressed by this statement and her view of things. It seemed to be more normal there than here to give birth at home. Planning a birth in a hospital from the outset was mainly done in the case of abnormalities or existing pre-existing conditions. Otherwise, women preferred to stay at home where it was safe. A paradoxical view of the world, so contrary to what I experienced.

For me, hospitals are machines and as grateful as I am for medical progress and conventional medical options, I don't think that normal births belong in this place.

After my exams, I had plans to go to The Gambia. My plans were thwarted by my first child. Two more wonderful home births with a very strong, great home birth midwife followed (THANK YOU). In between the births, I worked freelance in all areas of midwifery, giving up midwifery due to being on call / shift work.

After the births of my children, I was faced with the decision of whether to return to freelance work or start studying. At the time, returning to freelance work would have meant working without obstetrics. I decided in favour of studying. So I started studying interdisciplinary healthcare and management with the aim of improving the situation for women and midwives at various levels.

Why choose out-of-hospital obstetrics now? I decided to campaign for as many women as possible to have the opportunity to choose their place of birth freely and in an informed manner because I knew it was good and right. Because I feel that birth needs a protected space that supports a healthy transition into the world. This space should be available to all women giving birth peacefully and undisturbed. As a result of my studies, it made sense for me to help open a birth centre and so I joined this team.

I want midwifery work on an equal footing with the pregnant woman as an expert for her body. I am against the abuse of power and no longer want to be part of it.