Midwifery Wisdom

Midwives know things. Things they learn from decades of sitting with women, watching, listening, and paying attention to what actually happens during birth rather than what the textbooks say is supposed to happen.

Dr Sara Wickham has spent her career studying midwifery knowledge in all its forms. In Midwifery Wisdom, she brings together the academic and the irreverent; stories and science; the rigorously evidenced and the delightfully strange, from the philosophy of woman-centred care to the practical wisdom of the birth room.

Among many topics, she explores how midwives use their senses to assess labour progress, why the maths behind obstetric boundaries needs rethinking, the value of postnatal tea and toast, when to put your gloves on, the role of risk in modern maternity care, and whether cats can tell us anything about birth. She also considers questions too taboo for polite conversation but too important to ignore.

This isn't a book that tells you what to think. It's a book that shows you how a skilled midwife thinks. Wide-ranging, honest, and unexpected, Midwifery Wisdom is a way of seeing that might change how you think about knowledge itself.