• Home
  • About
  • Projects
  • Presentations
  • Activism
  • Archive
  • Publishing
  • Get in Touch
  Laura Godfrey-Isaacs

Publishing

Laura publishers her work in a variety of forms from creative non-fiction, to blogs, articles/chapters in arts, midwifery and interdisciplinary contexts and often illustrates these texts with her own drawings and paintings.

All illustrations below by Laura


The MATERNAL JOURNAL BOOK 

The Maternal Journal Book - a creative guide to journaling through pregnancy, birth and beyond, co-written with Samantha McGowan, was published in October 2021 you can order on all book platforms.

It is an inspiring introduction & support to journaling. Featuring >80 journaling guides created by artists, midwives, doulas and therapists.
Picture
Picture

AN ARTIST AND A MOTHER 
'You can read my essay, How to be a Mother Artist' in this excellent anthology of 37 contributors - An Artist and a Mother, published in March, 2023 by Demeter Press, that speaks to the diverse ways artists balance creative life with the demands of mothering. 
Picture

Mothering Performance

A recent essay & a painting ‘Despatches from the Front’ about my experiences of midwifery during the pandemic, is available in this brilliant book Mothering Performance: Maternal Action, published by Routledge, December 2022 - edited by Emily Underwood-Lee & Lena Simic

Lots of other brilliant contributions by international artists and scholars on maternal matters and actions. With Alice Entwistle, Ruchika Wason Singh, Eve Dent, Zoe Gingell, Christine Watkins, Roiyah Saltus, Elena Marchevska, Kristina Gavran, Carrie Westwater, Aleksandra Jones, Tracy Breathnach, Freya Verlander, PrOphecy Sun, Rachel Fallon, Jodie Hawkes, Helena D. Lewis, Leah Salter, Sara Motta, Jennifer Chicago
Picture
download for free or order a copy

​BIRTH, ART & Culture blog
​Read here

Laura's blog is hosted by All4maternity. It explores the links and interconnections between culture, art and midwifery, providing interdisciplinary perspectives and provocations on birth, intersectional feminism and the body.

LATEST BLOG

The Choreography of Birth and Care
Picture
Being a midwife, this experience – stewarding the passage into life of a new person, and the birth of a family – is no ordinary job. It requires training, expertise, and exceptional concentration and stamina. It also requires incomparable sensitivity and awareness of your body, your presence, your movement, and your interactions in the space, particularly in relation to the woman or birthing person.
Read more

'When a baby's feet tell you everything' - for World Prematurity Day - a version of this piece is available in The Eden Reader

Picture
What appears to be a small bean or peanut emerges on the screen. An animated creature that moves, dances and evades the stenographers grasp.
Read more

ARTICLES 

Laura writes for a variety of publications including: Midwives Magazine, MIDIRS, The Practising Midwife, Perspectives in Public Health, ARM Journal, Mental Elf and Maternal Mental Health Alliance blog.
Picture

Keep Our NHS Public 

A recent article for campaigning organisation, Keep Our NHS Public.
​As a community midwife, based at a London hospital, I stand in solidarity with all healthcare workers, and others, who are protesting against this government’s wilful neglect and destruction of the social fabric of the UK, and particularly of our great National Health Service.
Read More

Perinatal Care for Trans and Nonbinary People Birthing in Heteronormative 'Maternity' services: Experiences and Educational Needs for Professionals - in Gender & Society

Cisnormative, heteronormative, cisgender, and heteropatriarchal services, administrative procedures, structural forces, and interpersonal treatment combine in the perinatal space. In this study, we provide evidence that such institutionalized “support” is designed to reinforce a gendered experience of pregnancy and childbirth that marginalizes childbearing trans and nonbinary people who do not conform to cisgender ideals. 
Co-authors Sally Pezaro, Rebecca Crowther, Gemma Pearce, Adam Jowett, Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, Isaac Samuels, and Vic Valentine
Read more - open access

My Uterus

​My Uterus is a blog about the invisible, ignored & under-researched experiences of menstruation, uterine disease, pregnancy loss, procedures I’ve experienced vs the unwelcome interest in my use of contraception & abortion.
Published by The Maternity & Midwifery Forum in relation to the challenges of the revoking of Roe vs Wade.
Picture
Read

OTHER BOOK CONTRIBUTIONS

The Eden Reader 
The Eden Reader is a book about vegetables, ideas and art. Sometimes poetic, sometimes frank, this international collection of specially written texts are all prompted by Eden – an art project by Canadian artist Mary Catherine Newcomb, where strange living creatures are moulded from aubergines, squash and peppers, whilst still on the plant.

Laura contributes a chapter, including original paintings, looking at the artworks as if they were premature babies, referencing her own experiences of giving brith and issues of prematurity, antenatal testing and midwifery care.

Picture
'On Care'
When Care has no Boundaries - text and drawing 
'This week I went to a baby’s funeral. I went to the funeral alongside three other healthcare professionals. All of us had been caring for the mother, an asylum-seeker, who had no family in the UK..'
On Care, an anthology discusses the politics of caring, support, and the role of welfare in an increasingly neoliberal society.
Edited by Rebecca Jogoe & Sharon Kivland
Published by MA Bibliotheque, 2020
Picture
'Salon for a Speculative Future'
Anne Frank - text and drawing 
75 Women Artists nominate an influential woman, share insights and experimental thinking towards a positive future.
Edited by Sharon Kivland & Monika Oechsler
Published by Mabibliotheque 2020
Picture
'Understanding Anxiety, Worry and Fear in Childbearing: A Resource for Midwives and Clinicians' Edited by Kathryn Gutteridge.
Published by Springer Nature Switzerland.
'Gathering Storm' - a chapter about Birth in the Media is written with Dr Tracey Cooper.

Mother Art Magazine

Picture
MAM is a new art magazine focusing on artists from around the world producing work about the maternal. The first issue, Stay At Home is a response by 22 artists to their experiences of working at home during the COVID-19 edited by Helen Sargeant, an artist and academic based in Todmorden, Yorkshire, UK. ​The magazine is for sale with proceeds going to charity, Women's Aid.
I have published a series of images of my mastectomy scars, an operation I had during the lockdown - see my blog The Big C in the Big C above, for context.
  • Home
  • About
  • Projects
  • Presentations
  • Activism
  • Archive
  • Publishing
  • Get in Touch