midwife's muse

This and that

Saturday was a good day, collected a trike I had 'won' on E-Bay, and used my satnav for the first time to get there, wasn't sure whether I should trust it so had also downloaded a route from the AA, but it worked really well. On the way back from my excursion I saw a little hedgehog at the side of road, alive but obviously not right, so I stopped and picked him up. No sign of injury, blood or anything, but one back leg doubled under him, plus he was really tiny, so I bought him home. Before now I have rescued hedgehogs and kept them until they are large enough to cope alone and then let them go. This one needed more than I could provide so Hubby and I took him over to St. Tiggywinkles. It's wonderful how this wildlife hospital has grown, years ago it was just a venture in an ordinary semi-detached house, now it is a training facility and much, much more. On Saturday night Jack and Izzy stayed at our house, both were a true joy to have around. I was reading Jack a bedtime story, John Burningham 'Husherbye', I thought it was slightly weird but it did the trick as half way through Jack gave me a kiss and then announced that 'Jack snuggle down now and go asleep Nanny.' Izzy accepted, reluctantly, her first bottle of EBM at 11pm, demonstrated her phenomenal regurgitation power and quite happily slept through to the morning.
Yesterday was the family meal in honour of Son's birthday, roast beef and all the trimmings, lemon meringue pie  followed by the cheese-board. Jack and Amy behaved impeccably, for the first 15 minutes, then Amy decided she was bored, can't blame her really.
Spring has sprung, well at least as far as the birds are concerned. The birdsong in my garden this morning is verging on the cacophonous, a real fillip to the soul. Boy, does my soul need a little boost. I have officially transferred to the other maternity unit now. On Friday job-share and I had the meeting with our new manager and our lives, for the next four weeks, were organised. One week in the community, two weeks in the hospital, working early shifts, starting at 7.30, that's the middle of the night for me, and one weeks annual leave. At last some organisation has shown itself. Very strange at the moment though, no on-calls but, even odder, no work mobile phone. It seems too calm. no waiting for phones to ring and summon me out of my cosy environs, I might get used to this.
Two other blog entries have caught my eye over the last two days, the first is the G.P whose blog have become addicted to. When it comes to midwives, homebirths and birth units we stand on opposite sides of the pool and will never agree. However, this entry talks about Midwives and although he still gives the impression that he considers midwives an irritant, verging on adversaries, he is arguing well for an increase in funding for maternity services staff and the abolition of Patricia Hewitt. (On most other subjects he is a wonderful read). The second is an American blogger who has some very strong views about childbirth, I think Hubby would refer to her as a 'tree hugger' but she has written a blog here which cites a multitude of research about the use of epidurals in labour, excellent reading for any midwives or midwifery students needing to find research for coursework.
Looking back over my blog for the past year plus, I have been predicting the state of affairs the NHS, and maternity services in particular, have sunk to. I feel rather like the character in 'Up Pompeii', Cassandra the soothsayer, who used to roam the streets crying 'Oh yeah, oh yeah, and thrice yeah', like me her doom and gloom predictions never got her anywhere either.

Thank you Disgruntled Commuter for your tip about Notepad, makes blogging a whole lot easier,

5.3.07 18:24