It is hardly surprising. She had never met me before, and never would again. I was just another mother and baby to visit that day. The majority of pregnant women do not have the opportunity to build a trusting relationship with a midwife. Instead, most are filtered through a sea of different faces.
Midwives are no happier than mothers with the system.
On my post natal ward, they complained of impossibly long and erratic hours, making parenting impossible. Ironically, many midwives change profession when they have children. The government is promising to address this haemorrhaging with a recruitment drive. By 2004, the NHS plans to have 20,000 more nursing staff, although it is not clear how many of those will be midwives. If I did not have such strong, fond memories of my first child's birth, perhaps this time around would not seem such a cold, cynical encounter.