Addendum

I have re read my last entry and realised that i went off at a bit of a tangent!

I have decided to take a step back from full independent midwifery. There are several reasons, the main reason is my children. they are still so small and I want to spend more time at home with them. To be an IM means that I need to have childcare available 24/7 so I can head out at the drop of a hat if necessary. this means I need to pay a retainer to our child minder even if i didn't send my son, so she kept his place. to do this I needed to earn a certain level of money just to pay for childcare. This meant I was out working more than I wanted to. Also something always needed to be done, letter to write, notes to file etc. so even when i was at home my mind was else where and I was missing my kids growing up. The third reason is the thing that's affecting us all, the credit crunch. Enquiries have been very slow this year, everyone is feeling the pinch. Those women who have had Independent Midwifery care would class it as an essential but I suspect that if someone hasn't expereienced one to one care in pregnancy and birth they don't realise what a difference it makes to your emotional well being. I hope that one day when my kids can fend for themselves I can get out there and work full time as an independent midwife. In the meantime i get my fill of birth from doing some bank work at a local hospital birth unit and from passed clients who book me if they have another baby.