Slow midwifery

Summary 

Some patterns of timekeeping and counting are fraught in midwifery. In this paper we suggest our societal love affair with all things fast can cause us, as midwives, to limit women's possibilities (and our own). We suggest that timekeeping and counting potentially disrupt the midwife–woman relationship and, further, timekeeping and counting contribute to us valuing particular qualities in women and in the health system, including the idea that fast is better than slow. Pondering how this could be different, we consider a beginning global trend about time and speed – the Slow movement – and suggest a new movement, ‘Slow Midwifery’, in which midwives bear the responsibility of trying to be more connected to the women with whom we work by being less connected to our watches.

Keywords: Midwifery, Time, The Slow movement, Feminism, Midwives, Women-centredness