The Mule

The UK news this week has been dominated by the story of Jimmy Savile, the television presenter and media personality currently under investigation for a string of sex offences. It's emerging that Savile, who died in October 2011, abused a series of young people - the exact number is yet to be established - over a showbiz career that spanned several decades. Our reaction: shock, horror, sadness even, but surprise? Not really, because, we sort of knew, didn't we? We sort of know. We have uneasy feelings, gut reactions, hunches, intuitions, sixth senses. The hairs stand up, very slightly, on the backs of our necks. We don't know how we know. But we do. No one could capture this better than poet Simon Armitage , a former social worker, in his poem, The Guilty : They look us dead in the eye and deny it. They turn out their pockets - nothing but biscuits and shreds of a tissue. They will undress their children this very minute. Suggest their names, they are astonished. ...

This week I've been running a special series of posts on one of my favourite subjects, Birth. On Monday, Michelle told the story of her empowering VBAC , and on Tuesday we heard Anna's story of her adoption experience, with a very surprising twist. On Wednesday Maddie from Developing Doulas shared some passionate thoughts about motherhood and pointed us in the direction of the fantastic website, One World Birth . On Thursday, Awen Clement wrote about the Red Tent Project , which hopes to create a travelling space in the UK for women and their many rites of passage.  During the week an artist friend of mine has also been busy making a beautiful painting inspired by women's words about their 'post baby' bodies, especially for this blog. Late last night I shared images of her art work, and took the rather bold (or foolish?!) step of including a photo I took of my own tummy button, in the post Acceptance Nude . I'm so thrilled to introduce the f...

This week on the blog, I'm running a Birth Story Special. Every day I plan to publish a different birth story, with the hope that by gathering together the threads of different women's experiences, we might be able to weave a picture of what it is like to give birth in the UK today; of what is being got right, and what might need to change. So today I faced a difficult choice, which story first? A Caesarian might seem an unlikely place to start, but in fact this honest and gripping tale speaks volumes about having a baby in the UK today. For so many women, the dream and hope of a natural experience or even a birth at home, ends in a difficult, painful or traumatic way that they were not hoping for. Approximately 15% of births end in an Emergency Caesarean, and less than half of all births proceed 'normally' ie with no medical intervention. These traumatic experiences leave us with questions; most particularly, was there anything I or anyone else could h...