Why start blogging?

I'm about to embark on a 4 year double degree in nursing and midwifery, so I thought it would be interesting, helpful and an excellent way to debrief or vent. Also I have a few friends who are stickybeaks and have asked me to blog my way through the next few years :)

So a little about me-

I'm 32
I am married
I do not live in the city that I was born in
I have 3 children
I birthed one of them at home
I breastfed all of them for a combined total of 31 months
I love cats but don't have any at present
I totally fucked up my higher school certificate
I have worked in the public service, the travel industry and as a 000 police emergency calltaker
I am an only child from a dysfunctional family
I am pro-choice
I am against gential mutilation of any kind- M/F circumcision and routine episiotomy
I am a brunette
I am born in the year of the Dragon and am an Aries (I think I am a firey type..)
I love oysters
I hate raw onion
I think menstrual cups are an underutilised feminine hygene product
I trust my gut instinct when it comes to meeting people for the first time
I'm on the cusp of GenX/GenY- that makes me depressed and bad with money apparently LOL
I support the Fistula Hospitals founded by Dr Catherine Hamlin

Hhmm, that is enough for now.

I got my orientation information in the post yesterday and am getting more excited by the day regarding my journey into university. I want to become a midwife so I can work with women and their families, trying to enable them to have safe and instinctive births. The medicalisation of childbirth needs to be countered by midwives and other birth workers bringing it back to basics. There have been some wonderful advances made with regards to life saving interventions, yet it seems that defensive medicine has tainted the trust of women and their physiological capabilities. I am wary of the long slog through this degree perhaps dulling my passion for natural unhindered birth. I am hopeful that I have the support of others to help me ride out the scenes and happenings I am bound to see while undertaking placements in the 'system'. When I come out with my pieces of paper, I will find a private midwife, or a group of them, and be their understudy until I have soaked in enough to take on the responsibility and honour of being a primary care provider. For some strange reason I am also drawn to palliative care, as birth and death are feared in our society and are times when support, observation, understanding and assistance are needed. Is that weird?

Anyway, enough for today. I'll be back soon!