Hannah Elizabeth

I took a little break from vlogging to catch more up to date so this is spread over a couple of weeks!

Click here to watch the vlog or see below.

With the hot weather forecast I finally convinced dad to get the hot tub set up again! To be honest, it didn't take very long because it was still set up from last year, it was just stored in the garage so needed to be moved. By the time it was filled up and up to temperature, it was the next day...VE Day!
We didn't particularly celebrate VE Day and to be honest, with all of us sticking to new routines, the day didn't feel very different. I wore my swimming costume all day waiting for the pool but before I headed in, we enjoyed a bbq because the weather was gorgeous.
Luckily, with meetings and commitments dotted about the week, it is still forcing me to get dressed (and showered!) regularly and I am actually loving my blue hair. For those that missed last week's weekly, it is a temporary and slowly washes out of 10 - 15 washe…

Would you believe that I actually bought these for my niece and nephew a couple of years ago now, for Christmas 2018! I don't often think this, but when it comes to these, time is flying by so fast and I wish when it comes to the kids in my life, time would slow down so I could enjoy them being small for a little longer. 
I absolutely love the message behind Cuddle + Kind. For every Cuddle + Kind doll sold, they give 10 meals to children in need. In fact, when I bought these, they were donating 20 meals per purchase and so the meaning was even more wonderful.
The doll quality is superb. Natural high-quality cotton makes them safe, soft and cuddly. They are all handmade and created in a way to further support communities, made by incredible women artisans in Peru, providing them with a sustainable, fair trade income. They each come with a story explaining them and it was lovely to talk this through with the kids, although they didn't particularly understand at the time. I felt…

With so many people studying from home I thought I'd give a few tips of my own. Exams are stressful and the exam season is just about starting again. Due to the current situation, examinations are happening a little differently to normal, so hopefully some of these tips will help on that front too.

First of all, when working from home, it is incredibly important to set SMART goals. Read here to find out more about them but they should be specific to each task, relevant and time limited. The best advice I can give is to write a list of a few tasks that can be completed the next day. That way, you exactly what is expected of you the next day and you can tick the list as it is accomplished. Make sure you prioritise tasks.

Importantly, it is really useful to have a private study space. Make a study area which is free from distractions, comfortable and if possible, private. Let your family know when you are working so that they will - hopefully - stay away. If you're struggling, ma…

As promised in yesterday's post, I wanted to share my experience presenting at VIDM.  First of all, for those that don't know, VIDM is the Virtual International Day of the Midwife Conference which takes place every day and involves a 24 hours worldwide conference of presentations, posters and collaboration. The staff were all amazing in the lead up and it was real honour to be apart of the programme. I believe we were once again the only students on the oral presentation programme, but I learnt, we also had posters up too! I actually felt awful because I hadn't informed any of the others involved but nevertheless, with an emailed certificate, I hope it was okay. 
We've presented the research a number of times now, at IDM last year we presented it preliminary, but also at two faculty level events and to out cohort. Of course, I've also presented it at the RCM Research conference but sadly Bea couldn't make it to that one. I was so excited to have her with me th…

This year, for obvious reasons, International Day of the Midwife was very different to usual. Nevertheless, it was a day to celebrate (perhaps even more than usual) and there was a full day of events scheduled!

Click here to watch the vlog or see below.
 According to the International Confederation of Midwives, International Day of the Midwife began in 1951 to recognise the life-saving work performed by midwives around the world and to bring attention to maternal and newborn health issues.

I woke up bright and early and got ready for the day. Of course, I had to wear red because it is the Royal College of Midwives colour of the year. Although, I was quite surprised to see on twitter that other bodies were using yellow as the colour. I hadn't heard of that before.
I was super excited to log onto the Midwifery Society's MS TEAMS page and watch the first live of the day. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what I had anticipated and it turns out that the day's events weren'…

It was a while ago now that I went to the City of Caves in Nottingham, and obviously, no one is going anywhere at the moment. In fact, it was back in September! I went off vlogging and blogging for a little bit, as life got a little too hectic to manage everything at the same time, but you can see the post and vlog here.  In all honesty, visiting the caves was never particularly something I wanted to do, but my boyfriend did so of course, I happily obliged. My biggest concern was that I would feel too claustrophobic. I am no where near clinically unwell with it, but I do struggle with enclosed spaces sometimes. It's worse when I can't see an exit or a quick escape but it was defintely a concern. Luckily, the caves aren't small and crowded so it wasn't a problem at all for me. Also, the helmets are optional and so we didn't wear them, which was helpful.
The groups are kept quite small, so there are never too many people in each tour. Ours happened to have 12 people…

Today's Welfare Wednesday is a little bit different because this week is actually Mental Health Awareness Week. This year's theme is "kindness" and it is such a lovely one and one I have written about myself because I really do think it is crucial.

Here's some words about it from the campaign runners. We all have so much going on in our lives - including competing strains and stresses – not to mention the current coronavirus pandemic. This can see kindness pushed to one side, in favour of what is urgent or trending now.  It can be easy to signal kindness by posting online and following a trend, but harder to commit to kindness in our daily words and actions, but if we take the time to be kind to other people, we can reap the emotional dividends. It can really make a difference and especially for people who are vulnerable or struggling. Now is the time to re-imagine a kinder society that better protects our mental health.

Kindness is choosing to do something that …