The contributors cover subjects such as: the role of pain in normal birth and the empowerment of women; midwives constructing 'normal birth' and women's stories of normal birth; fetal to neonatal transition; and much more.

Monique Dembele saves lives and dispenses hope in a place where child-birth is a life-and-death matter. Her passion to improve the lot of the women & children in her West African village is matched by her humour in the face of an unhappy marriage & hard work. This is the story of a rare friendship between a young volunteer & a midwife.

Anna Kent has delivered babies in war zones, caring for the most vulnerable women in the most vulnerable places in the world. At twenty-six years old, not yet a fully-trained midwife, she delivered a baby in a tropical storm by the light of a headtorch; the following year, she would be responsible for the female health of 30,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. But returning to the UK to work for the NHS, she soon learned that even at home the right...