Frontline Midwife: My Story of Survival and Keeping Others Safe

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A quite matter of fact comment from the other aid worker, James, when he informs Anna, she will be solely dealing with the midwifery aspects of their job. Her story is laced with personal tragedy too, after having a miscarriage on her wedding day and giving birth to another daughter who sadly died of a brain tumour around six years ago. Frontline Midwife is an account of Anna Kent's time as a midwife in South Sudan, Bangladesh and the UK.

If you want to learn more about what women experience in other parts of the world, even though it will hurt your heart, this is the book for you. It would be easy to fall into the trap of comparing the dangerous birthing experiences of women in places such as south Sudan and Bangladesh with the relative comfort of women accessing UK maternity provision, and to portray UK mothers as ungrateful or overprivileged.Summing up this is an emotive memoir about a young woman becoming an aid worker, revealing what it is like for women giving birth in different areas of the world. The horrors at work continue for Anna on a daily basis, though she has a network of friends, mostly those she has worked with previously to talk to. This is at once an astonishing story of the realities of frontline humanitarian work, and a powerful reminder of the critical, life-giving work of nurses and doctors at home and around the world.

And the desire for a child is for many women so elemental to their lives and this doesn’t change whether you live in Nottingham or Sudan.It’s empowering and refreshing to read an account about birth written by a woman, a mother and a midwife. All because Anna is nursing in war-torn and poor countries where resources are minimal and what we might see as simple complications in the UK can be fatal in those conditions. This is at once an astonishing story of the realities of frontline humanitarian work and a powerful reminder of the critical, life-giving work of midwives at home and around the world. I couldnt put this book down, and was absolutely glued to the couch immeresed in her stories, life of service, and her own journey to motherhood. This is a very compulsive read but not light in any way-readers should be aware that the honesty and very fitting use of graphic language makes a range of trauma experiences (miscarriage, abuse, war included) feel real at a visceral level.

While the subject matter prevents the book from being described as an ‘easy read’, it is accessible, with short, powerful chapters and strong depictions of places and people. Having has a late miscarriage myself and gone through giving birth to a baby, in my case that I knew would never breath made me really identify with her. I’ve kept her book to one side for when I had time to sit and read it in quiet, knowing it would make me cry. This is not only a book about the work Anna has done but a look at how that work impacted her life, relationships and subsequent career. The 41-year-old mother-of-one who now lives in Weymouth, Dorset, said: "Everyone deserves access to healthcare no matter where they are.Knowing that you may die in childbirth, is part of the experience for women in so many parts of the world, and Although many of these deaths are unavoidable simple things, like providing a clean way to cut the umbilical cord to prevent neonatal tetanus make a huge difference. Read it and complain to your MP, MS and MSP to increase the humanitarian aid budget, particularly for the hidden crises that are not reported. In more recent yearsm Anna has worked alongside NHS staff during the pandemic, which she said posed a particular challenge for her as a mother as she did not want her duties as nurse to harm her three-year-old daughter Aisha. I really thought the stories that Anna chose to tell were written in such an engaging and interesting way. I also admire how open Anna has been about her pregnancy and baby loss story, we need more of these truths out there to make this less of a taboo subject.

We don't generally hear so much about aid work so this was a great read, and very squemish in places, medical practices that are completely unheard of in England with our medical facilities. Be aware the book does come with trigger warnings around baby loss, gender-based violence, birth-related injuries and maternal death. I recently started reading this book and couldn’t put it down (well apart from some shifts and uni work annoyingly getting in the way). This book is about obstetrics, heroic women, humanitarian workers, appalling contexts, mental health, and Anna Kent.Once she arrives at the area she will work, she is certainly shocked by the conditions she will have to work in, as well as those she is going to be working with. This contributes to the fact that despite the strong focus on overseas midwifery, the book feels relevant to all midwives currently practicing.