LATEST BLOG

The Choreography of Birth and Care
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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

'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
'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
'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

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.