I was asked to help out with the writing of a review of maternity services in Queensland a few years ago. I wrote about mothers who’d had experiences of maternity care, starting with Debra who lost baby Lillienne and who became my friend. To me, it seemed as if the conflict in maternity care, which by now I could see was worldwide, was at the heart of the problem. Those ideas became The Birth Wars.

The Birth Wars was welcomed by both obstetricians and midwives, as well as by women trying to understand what had happened to them. Any woman thinking about having a baby should know  things are not as straightforward as they should be.