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In year nine we did Frankenstein. We covered it for our SATS. We didn't go into as much depth as anything we did at GCSE but I think we spent most of a term on it.

I might be misremembering, it's been a long time since I was 15. But the one fact I took from these classes was that Mary Shelley had experienced a miscarriage. This was the unnatural, horrific event which explained the monster in the story.

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I wrote something today. I think it's better listened to rather than read so I've uploaded an audio file. I recorded it while walking down by the river Cam.

I put the text below in case you'd prefer it.

Hope it helps x

It's 6.45 am and I'm sitting here with a plastic purple mug of strong coffee reading 'It Didn't Start With You', a book about inherited family trauma. There's another book on white guilt I'd like to cover after that. I'm wondering about the time my great uncle spent living in Kenya. And I have one of my Mum's early nursing essays to look at, circa 1979. It's been done on a typewriter with hand-drawn illustrations.

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I've just finished watching 'Unorthodox'. This is a Netflix series based on the life of Deborah Feldman, a young woman who escaped the extreme Hasidic Jewish sect that she was born into.

The Satmar community are based in Wlliamsburg, New York. Their arranged marriages take place age 17. Wives are expected to be homemakers and get pregnant asap. Their native language is Yiddish.

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This is a post that started as an email to my list. It's from a series of reflections I wrote as coronavirus ramped up. If you enjoy it, perhaps subscribe here.

I've spent the last two weeks having more meaningful conversations than I've had in the last two years.

Turns out my upbringing was much more British than I thought. Growing up, I never felt particularly distant from my friends and family, but our boundaries were in place. We never talked about death or love, way too heavy for everyday.

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This is a post that started as an email to my list. It's from a series of reflections I wrote as coronavirus ramped up. If you enjoy it, perhaps subscribe here.

When I was a staff midwife in New Zealand, the small coastal town I worked in would be hit by 'weather bombs'. These swept in off the sea, whipping tree ferns and scaring the sheep. I was never one to accept a lift home; being beaten up by this new country was perfect immersion for 24 year old outdoorsy me.

On one wild afternoon, I cycled home from the hospital, battling headwinds, then pushed by tailwinds. I had something to do.

I was soaked to the bone, but I didn't even shower, just towelled off and changed my clothes.

I wanted to do something. I read through my first midwifery blog post for the tenth time, pulled my guts together and hit publish.

It sounds like I'm making it up but there was a shift. My brain gave me an auditory metaphor, the raindrops on the roof as individual readers finding my writing.

I knew it wasn't that great and I had a long way to go, but I also knew this was going to work.

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This is a post that started as an email to my list. It's from a series of reflections I wrote as coronavirus ramped up. If you enjoy it, perhaps subscribe here.

I'm going to be vulnerable walking onto a ward. I'll try my best and I think if I'm paying attention it'll all come back but it's going to be awkward and hard.

At the same time, I'm talking to a lot of registered staff who are working and not one of them knows what's to come or feels prepared.

All I can do is turn up with what I have. A willingness to help goes a long way.

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This is a post that started as an email to my list. It's from a series of reflections I wrote as coronavirus ramped up. If you enjoy it, perhaps subscribe here.

I started writing this email as a light-hearted recommendation to watch The Big Bang Theory. I've been enjoying it for about 3 weeks now and it's simple, a re-hashing of sitcom old ground, like Friends but with a group of PhDs who self identify as nerds.

If you don't know the show, the focus is on Sheldon, a theoretical physicist who isn't socially aware enough to know he's being taken care of by his mates.

Obviously, I was addicted from the first episode because my partner and his crew are software engineers. The jokes transfer to our social circle. Sort of.

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This is a post that started as an email to my list. It's from a series of reflections I wrote as coronavirus ramped up. If you enjoy it, perhaps subscribe here.

I was annoyed to hear my local triathlon club are still doing their usual long run session, albeit at a 2m spacing. Afterwards they hang out in their cars and chat through the windows. I'm tempted to ask - can they not just stay at home?

But I breathe, pause and remember that when I'm scared it's easy to cling on to self-righteous anger as a way of making myself feel better.

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This is a post that started as an email to my list. It's from a series of reflections I wrote as coronavirus ramped up. If you enjoy it, perhaps subscribe here.

I run a big midwifery community on Facebook, and we get questions.

The best ones come from our 'Anonymous Qs' form.

Here's a good example:

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This is a post that started as an email to my list. It's from a series of reflections I wrote as coronavirus ramped up. If you enjoy it, perhaps subscribe here.

I realised coronavirus was going to be a problem on 13th March. It's now the 25th. So it's been nearly 2 weeks of manic activity, and no space to breathe.

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