ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses why women's voices are often muted within maternity services. It shows that this can have traumatic consequences for women's physical and emotional well-being and can undermine their confidence as new parents. For some women, this results in long-term health problems which impact detrimentally on them and on their relationships with family and others. The chapter suggests why midwives are unable to overcome the impact of an institutionalised, medicalised and fragmented system of maternity care and give the care they want to give, and what needs to change. Women coming to the Pregnancy and Parents Centre want and value the support of their midwives. Women's experiences of birthing are etched into their bodies and minds and have long-term consequences. Challenging work by feminists and birth activists since the late 1970s has consistently defined the potential of women to be strong givers of birth.
