The following episode contains explicit and graphic descriptions related to childbirth

that may be distressing or upsetting to some listeners. If you feel this might be a difficult

listen, please consider choosing another episode. Some people seem to know exactly what their purpose is in life from an early age.

But for many of us, vocation is far less straightforward, discovered gradually, in unfamiliar places through difficult realities, in moments that remind us how much we still have to learn.

And often it's in those very moments that our purpose shines most clearly.

In this episode, we'll hear from two midwives whose stories are defined by that kind of calling.

The first is Anna, who has spent her life for answering the quiet pull to be useful where it

matters most, and Demi, whose instinct in a single, life-changing birth became the clearest confirmation

that she was exactly where she was meant to be.

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

Anna has been a nurse for 22 years and a midwife for 10,

working in some of the most challenging environments in the world, including war zones.

She's witnessed firsthand just how vital maternity care is in crisis settings.

Yeah. just how vital maternity care is in crisis settings. So I had a slightly unusual entry into being a midwife.

I had become a nurse because I always wanted to work within humanitarian aid,

and I was really fortunate to travel to some of the most extreme places in the world with

Medicine-Saint-F or Dots Without Borders. MSF for those that don't know, it's an international humanitarian aid

medical organization so it gives impartial medical aid to anybody that needs it on either side of the

conflict and that's regardless

of your race or your religion or who you choose to love or which politics you follow.

One of the first births I attended was actually the vaginal birth of triplets. It was definitely

a birth of fire for my career.

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