I want to be respectful to everyone, a hard task, when we all differ in our opinions and care so much. I’ve had to consider whether I’m advocating not being professional. I’ve had to think about whether my discussion of bullying will hurt and offend some of the best midwives I know. I’ve had to balance the pain of midwives and students who have had their careers ended through bullying, with those who feel talking about these things openly will only scare away aspiring midwives and make women and families worry.

As an educated woman, I still feel I have to speak up with my opinion. If you’re living in a society where you can express yourself, you are unusually privileged.

Across history, most of humanity (especially women) had no say.

I and the Bradford Midwifery Society really hope to get challenged on what we think as debate means people want things to change. I want to encourage you to bring your opinions and experiences on this, as they really are, to ‘The Kindness Conference: Getting Positive Midwifery Cultures To Flourish’.

In my experience, nothing changes until we start to have these conversations in person, with our colleagues, students, mentors and lecturers. The social interaction is when everything gets real.

You’ll also gain the best resilience, behavioural, self care, and practical tools and strategies available to help kindness to flourish in your workplace. These are from world class speakers on this topic.

We’d love to see you there, the whole of you, working in sync, ‘Head, Heart and Hands’. We’ll be holding space for you.

Whatever your beliefs around this, your opinions matter. You will have different experiences and points to bring, but if you're passionate about changing midwifery, whatever your level of expertise, you fit with this group of people trying to promote kindness.

We hope to see you there.

To kindness in midwifery,

Ellie and the Bradford Midwifery Society

P.S. we’ll be going out for dinner and drinks afterwards at The Bradford Brew-Haus. God knows we’ll need it! Love to see you there x
P.P.S. Info on the conference can be found here: The Kindness Conference.

If you know someone who will want to come to the conference, please forward this series to them!