...To the ones that I’ve lost

I’ve thought, fought, traveled a lot in this project and it’s not finished yet, I thought It will be easier to finish it. Right now, I’m close to the end.

I’ve failed in many things in my life, I won’t be the first neither the last, they say if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger. I’ve never believed in that quote, let’s see, time will make me maybe change my mind.

Everything started when I’ve lost my job in October 2016, or let’s say the triggering factor was the loss of someone who was really important for me. These two facts were putting me in situation that I had to move on and to work on something useful and not just for me. But let’s be honest, this kind of things you only understand them when you’re close to reach your destination. When you’re in the middle, mourning on the ones you’ve lost you can’t see really clear…Working about pregnancy, giving birth and midwifery was a good idea to get out of this. Since it is my first photography project. I’ve decided to give birth to it with the help of midwives.

The midwifery project

The last two years I learned a lot about German midwives and their conditions of work. I’ve never really knew exactly what a midwife is doing every day, I thought they are “just” bringing babies out! As you as and as lot of people, if you never had to deal with the process of giving birth you’ll never think about a midwife and about what they exactly do. Don’t feel guilty it’s just human, we are like this. Compared to other European countries being a midwife in Germany is good, but things are changing to something worst.

There’s a lack of midwives in hospitals in Germany, some maternity are closing their labor rooms. Still, midwifery is attractive, schools are full but after a certain time working in hospitals some midwives prefer to not practice there anymore. They go for birth houses or work as self-employee, doing home visits while some others open practice. According to the German Midwife Association, only one fourth of midwives attend births. I wanted to understand why and how some of them are getting to this point.

||| More coming soon |||

The midwifery project