Frontline Midwife: My Story of Survival and Keeping Others Safe

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The affects that working in such a hostile environment with life-and-death decisions constantly left up to her clearly caused a huge amount of mental distress.

I was immediately drawn to her very calm presence and how she talked to honestly and openly about her life and career. For Anna's tale is a very personal one, and I don't want to share too much here in case you want to read it. I was an outreach nurse, in a place that had seen 50 years of civil war, covering a geographical area of Belgium. Anna I am so sorry about your darling daughter Fatima but my heart screamed with delight at Aisha’s birth with the lovely and divine Nicky in attendance (what a gorgeous human being she is).The author really bears her soul, and I imagine that writing this book must be quite must’ve been quite cathartic . A quite matter of fact comment from the other aid worker, James, when he informs Anna, she will be solely dealing with the midwifery aspects of their job. Once a trained midwife, Anna went out to Haiti in 2010 and also Bangladesh, where she was responsible for women's health in a refugee camp, caring for those who had become stateless – not under a country's protection.

Anna Kent not only lays bare her own struggles and losses but those of the pregnant women and babies she cares for in some of the world's most deprived places. It also put how those who lose babies, be they full term or not have been treat in the UK, and the improvements that still need making and put into action.

Anna tells stories of her time working as a nurse with MSF in South Sudan, then later on working as a qualified midwife in Bangladesh and Haiti, and some mention of her time as a midwife in the NHS. As a student midwife aspiring to partake in humanitarian aid further down in my career, this book was life changing! Being an aid worker doesn’t just change and affect Anna’s work life and career path it also changes her personal relationships and her whole life path.

I recognised parallels with Life and Death Decisions by Dr Lachlan McIver, a doctor who like Anna finds himself working in medicine in countries with huge issues. Frontline Midwife is Kent's compassionate testament to the critical work of healthcare professionals around the world. A wonderful story of how important providing the right nursing and midwifery care is in some of the most needing areas of the world. I have read books about controlling and coercive behaviour and books about guilt transference or guilt by proxy or whatever phrase you want to use. It’s only then she can see the other side of some of these rules and restrictions and the sense and reasons behind them.

I have always stated that political sanctions don’t work and this book is the reason why since it demonstrates fully how those already suffering get to suffer even more. So many amazing and heart wrenching experiences that affected her on a personal level, I just wanted to give her a hug. I really wanted to reach into the book and hug Anna when she went through the birth/death of her baby. Few can lay claim to a career as eventful as that of Anna Kent, a midwife who spent years delivering babies in war zones and refugee camps across the world.