Body of Work

A feminist pushback against global f*ckery

Who am I and why am I here?

Not to get all existential, but I guess I should start by asking (and answering) the big questions. Some of you know who I am already, having migrated from other increasingly creepy social media platforms, while some of you might be new to my work.

Long story short: I grew up in the US, came to Scotland in 1999 to get a master’s degree, met my now-husband and stayed. After a brief and unglamorous career in television, the birth of my first daughter prompted me to retrain as a midwife. I qualified in 2013 and since then, I’ve rotated through almost every clinical area of NHS maternity, supporting countless families and yes, catching a few babies here and there.

A desire to show the public the complex reality of modern midwifery prompted me to write a memoir, Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s Story, which was published in 2019. Approaching reproductive health with a broader lens, I then wrote Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began, which was published in the UK and US in 2023 and has since been translated into 19 languages and won a few cool prizes (yay).

And now? Now, I’m still a midwife, still a mother (of 2 pretty phenomenal young women), still living in Scotland, and still, to my delight and disbelief, a writer. My next book, Birth Wars: The Hidden Battles Changing Our Bodies and Our World, will be published in the UK by Allen Lane in 2027. I also continue to moan about maternity on the telly and the radio, and in short-form print, on a regular basis. I’m a Trustee for the wonderful Amma Birth Companions. I have a very handsome and demanding French Bulldog named Pablo.

And yes, I’m experienced in multiple areas of f*ckery: the f*ckery of growing up American, the f*ckery of being a woman, the f*ckery of trying to survive in a crumbling health service and the f*ckery of a fickle publishing industry. I also would like to maintain at least the illusion of being a well behaved, registered healthcare professional, hence the asterisk in f*ckery.

Midwives are pretty good at knowing how and when to push. Guess what? It’s time.

But why Substack, and why now?

I’ve enjoyed following some fantastic writers on here for a while: notably, Emma Gannon, Katherine May and Glynnis MacNicol, for a start. I’ve toyed with the idea of ‘coming over’ here myself, while still building some warm, witty, interactive communities over on X and Instagram. Then Musk lost his (already questionable) mind, X became a hellscape and I left. Then Zuck started tilting hard to the right, and Instagram started auto-adding Trump and Co to people’s following lists, and I got the Massive Anti-Fascist Ick. I still love my Instafam (maybe you’re part of it!) but I don’t want my writing to feed the success of a medium whose creator has so easily slid his greasy little palm into the outstretched hand of a megalomaniacal dictator. So yeah. Here I am.

Also, this is a place where I can delve in greater depth into the stories that matter to us: headlines in my ‘niche’ of maternity and reproductive health, but also, cool stuff to watch, listen to, investigate and dream about. I have a seriously sensitive anti-f*ckery detector so I’ll be calling that stuff out while also redirecting us towards sources of joy, humour, insight and creativity.

And oh, hey, it’s also super cool as a woman to have a medium where I can write without being ‘perceived.’ Every time I post an image of myself to Instagram - because we all know the algorithm loves faces - I have to confront my visual self, and think about how the world will see it and judge it. Look, I’m a 47-year-old woman who’s moderately tired at any given time, and hasn’t had any cosmetic/aesthetic work done (not to judge anyone who has, AT ALL). I know the algo likes my face less than some others. And quite frankly, it really f*cks me off that women’s worth at any age and stage is so intricately tied up in our visual appeal. So while I might occasionally post a photo of myself here for sh*ts and giggles, it’s also a joy to bring you my words without the added semantic f*ckery of showing you my face.

We make this what it needs to be.

I always say that the best part of being a writer is when my work reaches its audience, and the same is true of Substack. I look forward to creating a space where we can have all kinds of conversations: serious or silly, affirming or questioning. Let me know how this stuff lands: what you want to see more or less of, what tickles your pickle, what makes you switch off, how you’re feeling in your body and in your world, what you’re loving these days and what you think others would like to know about.

The schedule is…a work in progress.

I’m going to aim initially to post a full newsletter once a week. This will be free for now, but in the future, if I get into some longer-form or more personal writing, there may well be a paywall at a certain point. I’m all about women valuing their own time and expertise - not doing so is (you guessed it) f*ckery - so I might as well take my advice if and when necessary.

For now: let’s f*ck around and find out!

Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash