Mother of Many

When her alarm clock goes off early one moring, a woman leaves her sleeping husband and sets off for work. No sooner has she arrived at the hospital in which she works than she encounters the first of many of her unique patients - would-be mothers. Some still have a while to go, some are imminent parents and so she sets about ensuring that this life-giving process can go about as painlessly (?) as possible for the rest of her shift. This engagingly simple animation illustrates well the variety of tasks she and her fellow professionals undertake as they ensure the baby is the right way up; isn't going to be strangled by it's own umbilical cord or even drowned in the birthing pool - all whilst the mum's require an epidural, or gas and air, or just the usually hapless husband to hold hands with or vent their severely constricted spleen at. This also captures something of the conveyor belt approach that this midwife must take to her job, and as she disinfects her hands for the umpteetnth time before heading back home we see her car passed by another coming into do the very same thing for some other folks. There is some humour here, again probably essential for anyone to do a job like this day in day out, and it has an honesty to the artwork that is as far away from the glamorous as you could ever imagine. This is nature at it's most creative, vulnerable, noisy and bloody - and it will likely make you want to cross your legs on occasion, too.