Virginia Howes, RN,RM,BSc(HONS)
Contact Virginia for your free copy
of the Home Birth Diaries DVD
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Hello I am Virginia Howes and I live in Ashford Kent with my partner Sean, my two daughters, Sophie 22 and Courtney 17. I have two other children Matthew who is 32 and Andrew who is 28.
When I'm not working I love going to our family house in Turkey and one day would like to retire there and help the local woman to give birth.
I love my job and feel passionate about the rights of women to have a good childbirth experience. I am a specialist in normal birth with a vast amount of experience in pysiological birth, home birth and waterbirth, including caring for women who choose a home birth despite having some risk factors, the most common of which is vaginal birth after cesarean section, (VBAC). |
I play an active part in the Independent Midwives Association as publicity secretary and am involved in the politics of how maternity services are delivered in this country.
I am qualified to perform the initial examination of the newborn traditionally carried out by a paediatrician. I have several birth pools, T.E.N.S. machines, birthing balls, a vast library of books and a wonderful birthing stool that I loan to clients free of charge.
Becoming a Midwife for me was a dream come true and I am as passionate about my job now as I ever was.
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I was young when I had my own babies but even then I had a great interest in childbirth and always wanted to know more than what was available in the books and magazines written for pregnant women. As the years past I always thought it was too late for me to go down that long path of education that would lead to achieving my dream of becoming a midwife.
Once I had made the decision that I was going to do it there was no stopping me. It was hard work juggling family and work but I really enjoyed all the education that went with obtaining my midwifery degree. I was really lucky that the very first midwife I learnt from carried her own case load. This meant that she cared for the women all through pregnancy, the birth and afterwards. I was able to see how wonderful, even when tiring, getting to know the families you are working with can be.
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I worked with different patterns of care after that in the NHS and often only met women for the first time when they were in labour. I hope all of those women found me caring and supportive. Yet after knowing how it COULD be, I always felt that the women did not know how, just a little bit extra, could make it so much better.
And so I decided to become an independent midwife.
In January 2000 I set up as an independent midwife and within 3 years had enough clients to ask my dear friend Kay to join me as a partner. Kent Midwifery Practice was born. Now many lovely babies down the line I can say it was the most positive thing I have every done in my career.
My vision is that the safe, supportive and positive one to one care independent midwives provide would be accessible to all women in UK enabling them to reclaim the birth process as the normal physiological life event it is rather than a medical dilemma.
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