A lecture on childbirth at the Royal Society of Medicine called “Blood, guts, loss and King Midas” hardly sounded like a jolly way to spend time. There was indeed much about miscarriages and risks and difficulties, and the ages at which motherhood could become difficult or unlikely. But by the time Professor Susan Bewley had finished one could actually glow with optimism in two ways.
The first, obviously, was realising that although miscarriages and complications still happen, contraception and modern medicine mean that now the whole thing is infinitely less risky than it was. People used to speak equally of war being “men’s mortal risk” and childbirth women’s, and there was a tendency to regard a woman who hadn’t had a baby as either sad or, if she was obviously cheerful, then unnatural or excessively religious.
But another plus that we take for granted is that Dr Bewley could be Susan not Stephen, as it were. There’s a bonus for us of having a woman as doctor, especially as a GP, and not just because it can be less embarrassing. She knows what our lives are really like and doesn’t unthinkingly say silly things like, “Rest!” to a working mother.
And where did Midas come in? He turned everything he touched to gold – but we were mercifully let off any chat about commercialising the NHS; a good morning.
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