Main cause of stress
The most frustrating thing is that a lot of difficulties you encounter at work are outside your control.
While you are called a Master, you are certainly not a master of your destiny. You don't control the workings of the hospital. If you require funding to introduce a new service, you have to take your place in the queue.
The shortage of midwifery staff is one of the biggest difficulties. Another cause of stress is the increase in medical legal problems.
Obstetrics now accounts for 50 per cent of pay-outs in medical legal cases. Does it affect how people work? I would think that everything that happens in the hospital is in the back of people's minds as they work.
Another frustrating thing is trying to find out who is in control of a particular issue. A long time can pass before you can unravel who has the authority to make a decision.
The number of women who die in obstetrics nowadays is very few - maybe one every two years - but when it happens, it's extraordinarily stressful for the whole institution.
The death of a baby is always sad, but the level of stress depends on the circumstances.
Coping with stress
I cycle to work and that takes your mind off work - all your concentration is on surviving the journey. It's good for clearing your mind of other people's problems.
I have a wife and four children and obviously they have plenty of things to talk about other than my worries, so family life is a most welcome distraction.
An uplifting job
You would need to be a very hard-hearted person not to get enormous pleasure from what goes on here. Birth is always uplifting, especially when you see a couple who have had difficulties in becoming pregnant. You never become blasΘ about it. If you do, you shouldn't be in the job.
In conversation with Alison Healy