FLOURISH FOR MIDWIVES
Reality and possibility; rawness and hope
The only book addressing the stark psychological impact of midwifery, while giving you the tools to choose a future that works.
Flourish truly is a guidebook - a tour of discovery that reveals how ‘standard’ maternity environments and practices might be impacting you personally, which then invites you to reconnect with the core of your personality and purpose.
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Part I The Emotional Landscape of Midwifery
The landscape takes us to explore places barely mentioned in midwifery education or practice: to the oxygen-starved, semi silent volcano of trauma experienced by midwives. It will guide us through the valley of moral injury as we live and work in ways that undercut our deeply held values. It will take us to the hazardous, desert lands of burnout, where the brain gets confused and thinks the only answer is to press on regardless, working more rather than less, just to survive. We will examine the cultures of leadership we swim through day by day; the historic legacy of what is tolerated and role-modelled. We will see how vulnerability can beat armour in shaping alternative, courageous environments.
And we will find our way back ‘home’.
And by this I don't mean a boring or prosaic place. I mean a place where the fire of our original BIG WHY - our sense of motivation for being a midwife - crackles once again into flame in the hearth; where we reconnect to our values, strengths, the world we want to live in and our unique voice; where we find and claim our tribe of like minded people who inspire and encourage us.
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Part II Experimenting with new ways of being and choosing
is a unique invitation not just to 'look at' but to 'look in'. I invite you into enjoyable, practical exercises to reinvigorate your sense of self, your purpose and your ability to remain authentic even in times of challenge or conflict. By the end of the journey, you will have answered the questions Who am I really? How did I get from there to here? And how do I get from here to there? You will have a bag packed with practical and emotional resources to support you to choose well and flourish in the day to day, and on the road ahead. From this place of resourcefulness you will no longer be stuck with the old stories or postures, with the disheartened shoulder shrug, but can make rich, raw choices from a place of clarity about your life and career.