Sharon Robinson Midwife

I am a modern day midwife concerned about the current maternity care system and its focus on "risk management" and "safety." In 1982 Mason Durie developed a Maori model of care called Te Whare Tapa Wha which essentially translates: The House has 4 Walls (Spiritual, Mental or Psychological, Social and Physical) The risk management agenda of the current medicalized maternity care system focuses almost exclusively on physical safety. Unfortunately, there are many women and babies who are being cared for in this system who are suffering from great harm. A compulsion to tick the boxes, by those working in the current system, seems to be a need in and of itself even when the women's and babies' needs could be best addressed in other ways. Many of us careproviders seem to have unconsciously switched off our common sense and sensitivities in an effort to comply with and survive the assembly line system that has been created. As my son Adam put it  "Mom you are a chef, not a fast food midwife."