Frontline Midwife: My Story of Survival and Keeping Others Safe

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At twenty-six years old, not yet a fully-trained midwife, she delivered a baby in a tropical storm by the light of a headtorch; the following year, she would be responsible for the female health of 30,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

It’s only then she can see the other side of some of these rules and restrictions and the sense and reasons behind them. I once had a rose coloured tint of working for MSF but that is no more and I revere my fellow health professionals who have worked for MSF even more. Summing up this is an emotive memoir about a young woman becoming an aid worker, revealing what it is like for women giving birth in different areas of the world. This is a very compulsive read but not light in any way-readers should be aware that the honesty and very fitting use of graphic language makes a range of trauma experiences (miscarriage, abuse, war included) feel real at a visceral level. For Anna's tale is a very personal one, and I don't want to share too much here in case you want to read it.The other quote is in a section towards the end, where the author is trying to reconcile her experience of working in first world countries with all the difficulties and dangerous women faced getting pregnant and delivering compared to her own difficult experiences of childbirth in the UK. Having has a late miscarriage myself and gone through giving birth to a baby, in my case that I knew would never breath made me really identify with her. Before I had read this memoir I thought that the people that worked for MSF were somehow extraordinary people and reading this novel absolutely confirmed this.

However, Kent manages to avoid this and treats all the families she describes with dignity and respect. Highlighting the side of aid work that you don't hear about: the pain, frustration, anger and trauma that these wonderful human beings go through was heartwrenching to read.I also learnt a lot about the work of MSF (Médecin sans frontières) and am in awe of the men and women from all over the world who give a piece of their hearts and minds to try and relieve the suffering and shocking conditions of others. Frontline Midwife is Kent's compassionate testament to the critical work of healthcare professionals around the world. Anna also comes across as smart and funny and there are parts in the books where you will laugh out loud at some of the absurd scenarios she encounters.

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You can tell she really cares about her patients and profession and this shines through in the way she tells her stories. If you want to learn more about what women experience in other parts of the world, even though it will hurt your heart, this is the book for you. I recently started reading this book and couldn’t put it down (well apart from some shifts and uni work annoyingly getting in the way).