ALSO

I've just spend the weekend doing the ALSO course - which for those of you not in the know (and why would you be?) stands for Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics. It's for midwives and doctors (or anyone else who's prepared to pay £400) and is notoriously hard work. I'm bloody shattered but I passed with somewhat flying (or at least hovering steadily) colours, so that's nice. I actually really doubted that I'd passed the written exam, because it was very very hard (although a multiple choice exam so at least you had a 1 in 5 chance of getting each question right) but it seems I knew more than I thought! The practical was pretty good and I got 100% (yes I am showing off. Wanna make something of it?) after doing a ventouse delivery (all by myself! Imagine!), then managing a shoulder dystocia and a subsequent post partum haemorrhage. Anyway, it was all good fun and they've (unofficially as yet) asked me to come back and train to be an instructor for them (no, it's not paid), so that's nice. I think I probably will, if/when I get a formal offer.

I really want to sleep now (even though it's only 9.15pm) but may - for long-winded and boring reasons I won't go into here - have to go into the labour ward tonight and work through...bloody hell I hope not. I'm not fit for anything after all that...