Pro Bono Work 🤓

Sharing this again because I think sometimes it is hard for people to understand why I charge for services that should be free for all if we lived in a perfect society and it shows how much free services I really provide. I would MUCH rather not charge, but currently I have no choice:

I don’t think people realise how many hours of pro bono work IMs do on a daily basis.

I just spent several hours helping a woman desperate to find out her options when being presented with an unexpected diagnosis. Her usual care providers were incredibly prescriptive and prohibitive about her options and to top it off, she had been diagnosed outside normal NICE guidelines, meaning she wouldn’t have that diagnosis in the first place if she was booked at a different hospital.

I spent several more hours chatting to people on various Facebook forums, answering queries about random pregnancy or birth issues. Answered loads of PMs from pregnant and postnatal people and student midwives, midwives and doulas about issues around care, fears of recurrent miscarriages, breastfeeding support, their options, and issues in midwifery practice, how to set up as an IM, information on how best suppport *their* clients. The PMs often come in the evening when women sit down and think about stuff.....meaning I‘m usually answering them late during family time, or when I have finished my actual paid work for the day as I hate leaving women hanging when they need info that makes them feel calmer/less anxious.

Most of these questions come due to cutbacks on care provided by the NHS, lack of continuity of care and unwillingness/lack of time to really listen to women and truly present them with ALL their options, even if it goes against trust guidelines. Couple that with the frequent reluctance of employed midwives to give information online (understandably), these quests for information oftentimes fall to Independent Midwives to sort.

Then there’s also attendance of homebirth groups, conferences (we obviously have to pay for those out of pocket to keep ourselves as up to date in practice as possible) etc. I truly LOVE that facet of my job and truly truly give that time freely and happily (usually 😬) but feel like i need to point it out sometimes for my own sanity. I know we charge a good chunk of money as IMs, but our income per hour of the work we do is utterly pityful 🙄😂 and the impact on quality family time is often felt. I‘m done with my whinge/rant for the day now.

P.S: this is in NO way directed at my lovely friends who I often provide support for.....I‘m a midwife through and through and love the privilege of hearing about your pregnancies and babies and worries and concerns. And I LOVE to help in any ways that I can ♥️ I DO have a Ko-Fi now which enables people to support the pro bono work I do in a small way....and it has made me feel more appreciated in some ways: www.ko-fi.com/debsneiger 🤓