To doctors, a normal death is a natural one, and a normal birth is not.

To veterinary surgeons, a normal birth is a natural one, and a normal death is not.

When my father was dying, I was terrified. I’d never seen animals die without assistance, or without a lot of medical intervention trying to avoid it. I couldn’t understand how things could happen differently. My medical friends talked with me, and those conversations reframed my entire view. They helped me understand what was going to happen - what I could control and what I couldn’t. Their kindness and clarity helped me to make sense of an overwhelmingly difficult time.

Ten years later, I had the opportunity to repay that favour.

I was asked to give the speech at my college’s Medical and Veterinary Society Annual Dinner.

I thought back to the conversations I’d had with my medical friends, and how much they’d influenced my views on death.

I thought about the trauma that medical students see on obstetric wards throughout their training. I thought about how their time of seeing nothing but worst-case scenarios must influence their own ability to give birth years later. I thought about the fear that cause many of them feel, and how they might perpetuate that fear in their interactions with their patients throughout their career.

I recognised that fear. It’s the same fear I’d felt around death. And just as they’d helped me, I thought that I could help them.

I decided that the one talk I most wanted to give to the medical and veterinary society, was about exactly where vets and medics cross over, and what vets wish medics knew about birth. Normal mammalian birth.

This is that talk.

Fancy listening to something else?

Want to learn more about birth and the challenges of birth in healthcare systems?

Here are a few articles I’ve enjoyed recently:

And a couple on breastfeeding

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