It must be fate that this topic is up this week because I was trying
to think of a way to post to the list about someone. A friend and
colleague I've worked with since I became a midwife, Anne Marthe
Urdal, sewed the breast models we use at work. She just sat down and
made them, in all different colors and various sizes, when we were
working to go Baby-Friendly and needed teaching models. They became
known outside our hospital and she sold some to other hospitals as
well. Anne Marthe was a maternity care aide and the person in my
workplace who taught me the most good tricks of the trade of anyone
it's been my privilege to work with. She was mild as could be in
working with mothers, and fearlessly tough as nails toward her
colleagues in all professions when we didn't uphold her high
standards. She was also a wise, caring person and the mother of three
and grandmother of four children, and she died of cancer last
Wednesday, aged just 60, without getting to hold her fifth grandchild,
due any moment, a girl who will be named Marthe, after her. What more
fitting monument could there be for any of us?

No one else on this list knew Anne Marthe. I am honoring her here by
name because she is typical of so many people who work in maternity
care: practical, down-to-earth, efficient, but with the ability to see
and call forth the magic between mothers and babies so mothers felt
more confident after meeting her - just the kind of person who should
be caring for new mothers everywhere. Whenever I use one of the models
she made I will give thanks for having known her. Most of all I am
thankful I had a chance to tell her to her face what she meant to me.
And when her death has time to sink in, I will miss her even more, as
will we all who worked with her.

If there is someone in your workplace you'd be devastated to lose,
tell them today. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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