What does it feel like to hold a brand new life?

To witness that tiny flicker of existence become something real,

a first breath, a first cry, the very start of a journey that's only just begun.

In this episode, three midwives describe what it feels like to catch a baby, the pressure, the enormity, the magic.

I'm Giovanna Fletcher, and from Happy Mum, this is Life of a Midwife.

Sometimes, the moulding of a career starts long before the training, shaped quietly by the lives and stories around you.

This was certainly true for Demi,

who realised at a young age

the importance of supporting and nurturing women.

My name is Demi Anderson

and I have been a qualified midwife since 2017.

The first part of my life basically prepared me to become a midwife without realising it.

I was surrounded by quite a lot of difficult circumstances surrounded by birth.

So I was very much exposed from our young age.

My stepmother ended up with rheumatoid arthritis straight after giving birth to my first

sibling. So even my very first proper experience of having a child was that it doesn't always

go straight forward. She was needing carers into her home. It was that bad. It really made me

realise how much women need support and it's not just what you see on movies, books, that sort of thing.

And I was very much involved in that.

My mum had always idolised midwives as I grew up.

She had me at 15 years old and she always, always talked about her midwife every single day practically

and she always wanted to do it. She then had my little sister and then after a few years she went to school

...