22/01/2026
Sara Wickham speaking wisdom into the latest news which is trying to lay the blame at the door of a Doula. • Every so often, the media launch an attack on women, midwives, home birth, straightforward birth and/or the low-tech tools that we have used to support each other for tens and sometimes hundreds or thousands of years.
Usually, such pieces are very one-sided. Relevant facts are left out. Data are cherry picked to suit the journalist’s or editor’s own views.
Frequently, there’s no consideration of nuance, the bigger picture, or the downsides of interventions.
We all need to be able to look critically at information. To understand the importance of not taking stories at face value. To know the importance of looking at things more deeply, so we can make the decisions that are right for us.
Why, for instance, are so many women being ‘offered’ induction of labour when there often isn’t evidence that this will make a positive difference, and there IS evidence that it carries risks?
Why is it that midwives and midwifery services are being denigrated, cut, and stretched beyond measure when we have so much evidence that a midwifery-led approach is the most beneficial thing that we can offer women, babies and families?
If you’d like to know more, see https://www.sarawickham.com/articles-2/birth-in-the-media-whats-the-problem/
But whether or not you want to know more, I have one simple message:
Don’t believe everything you read in the papers. There’s always a bigger picture.
