Meeting the catcher of babies and the lovely Joy

What  a joy it was to meet the lovely Sheena Byrom OBE.  I have a friend who has known Sheena for a long time (small world).  They are neighbours.  She said that it doesn't surprise her that we got along, we are alike.  So clearly that means that Sheena speaks nineteen to the dozen about everything and in my mother's words "has a lot of knowledge and likes to share it".


Sheena and the lovely Joy Horner IM (Independent Midwife) were called in to replace the wonderful Mary Cronk who had suffered a bereavement.  Joy started with a wonderful homage to Mary and talked about the breech births that they attended.  Joy was such a lovely speaker and there were moments when I wasn't sure she'd be able to continue as the tears welled to the surface and never really vanished.  This is a woman with a deep, abiding respect for Mary Cronk, a respect that was shared by most, if not all, of the room.  She showed us pictures of breech presentations and talked about how they were dealt with.  An IT man was at the side, watching to ensure the videos worked and the projections on the wall were the ones we were meant to see.  Oh but he had an education.  There was a beautiful moment when Joy asked us which part of the baby we saw birthing first.  It was the baby's scrotum!  Mr IT's face was priceless.  Sadly I don't have a picture of it.  It's one of those 'you had to be there' moments.  The entire room laughed, but he took it well.  Joy Horner is one lucky woman.  To have worked alongside Mary Cronk and to have seen the amazing births she's seen.  It was a wonderful tribute to Mary and whilst I would have loved to have heard Mary again (A Day At The Breech), it was lovely to hear the high esteem in which she was held. As she talked, Joy grew more and more confident and I really enjoyed listening to her.

Joy Horner IM

Sheena then stood and began to speak to us.  The title of their presentation was 'Unusual but Normal Births'.  So naturally they spoke a lot about breech births and the best way to deal with them.  Hands off the Breech people, unless it is contra-indicated. I think that it's such a shame the midwives and doctors are so de-skilled now in dealing with vaginal breech birth.  Sheena talked about the many people in the room and spoke about how good it was that we were all working together with a real spirit of collaboration.  She was warm and infectious.  It was so difficult to take notes because I just wanted to enjoy her words.  The way she spoke to her Sister Midwives about the ways in which they practice was inspiring.  I'm not surprised Sheena got an OBE for services to nursing.  Her bedside manner must be amazing.  She had a way of holding your attention and a fabulous smile.  She spent each session (except the one she spoke in) tweeting away like mad.  She even hosted a tweeting session, which she asked me to help with :proud: as she has only been tweeting for a few months, where she taught tweeting to those who wanted to learn.  In a moment of pure, unadulterated pride... I taught the legendary Ina May Gaskin how to use her hash tag to attract medical students to her tweets.


Both Sheena and Joy exhorted us to join Breech Birth Network so I do hope that you sign up.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a book to read.  There's a man climbing out of a bedroom window.

Sheena Byrom OBE