On Witches and Midwives

Why have midwives been linked to witches in European history? by Helen King and Tania McIntosh What is your image of the midwife? For many people today, it’s the one we see in the long-running BBC drama Call the Midwife, about to enter its seventh series. This drama began as a fictional reworking of the … Read more

Risk, Ideology, and ‘Normal Birth’

On Saturday 12 August 2017, The Times published a piece by Chris Smyth on changing attitudes towards terms such as ‘normal birth’ in the UK, which has sparked a chain of letters to the editor, a controversy in the blogosphere, and a range of follow-up articles from publications like The Guardian and the Evening Standard. … Read more