Hannah Hulme Hunter, Midwife

Hannah is a registered midwife, freelance writer, and mother of three young children. She practises part-time as a midwife in Buckinghamshire, having previously worked in Ghana (with VSO), and in central London. Hannah writes for a number of parenting and midwifery publications, and is the co-author of The NCT Book of Safe Foods and The NCT Complete Book of Pregnancy. She is an experienced NCT breastfeeding counsellor. Hannah and her family live in a small village near Oxford.

"I am very proud to be a midwife. The word Midwife means, simply, 'with women'. Midwives are 'with women' as women pass through some of the significant - and most challenging - moments in their lives. This is a unique privilege. Yet a good midwife does not take over these moments. A good midwife does not 'deliver babies' - she supports mothers as they themselves 'give birth' - by whatever means.

"As a midwife, I believe that women's bodies know how to be pregnant and how to give birth, just as they always have done. Yet somehow today, in the West, it all seems a lot more complicated. There are so many pressures on women approaching childbirth - to have the perfect birth, be the perfect mother - the feeling that everybody else is managing so much better. Sadly, even the choices presented to mothers during pregnancy and childbirth can add to the pressure - when information is incomplete, explanations are hurried, and decisions rushed.

"This is why I am so pleased to be involved with Babyworld. I believe that Babyworld will make an important contribution to the provision of sound, honest information to UK parents. Information that you can read when you want, in the way you want. Best of all, I hope that Babyworld will help bring women together to talk openly, freed from the barriers so often created by appearance and circumstance. I think that we will all soon realise that having babies has nothing to do with perfection - and everything to do with sharing and supporting each other!

"Babyworld won't take the place of your midwife (heaven forbid!) - nor of your partner/sister/best friend/doctor. But I'd like to think that we are here when you can't get out of the house, when you have questions that you forgot to ask (or couldn't ask), when the nearest antenatal class is 30 miles away, when you've just got to tell somebody NOW!"