An eloquent, vigorous study by an NHS midwife speaks eloquently for the uterus, the organ on the frontline of the culture wars
By now, most organs have their own biography. Writers have advocated with visceral passion for their chosen body part, each structure apparently overlooked and undervalued. During Covid, a spate of non-fiction was published on lungs and breathing. While the UK is thigh-deep in controversy about what it means to be a woman, the uterus is having a moment. “For a very, very long time, western medicine has not given a shit about the womb apart from it being a container for the next male heir,” a doula tells Leah Hazard. But now, this pear-shaped muscle nestled in the bellies of half the population, has become a “clenched fist” on the frontline of the culture wars.
Hazard, a practising NHS midwife in Scotland, praised for her 2019 memoir, Hard Pushed, is here to speak – eloquently and vigorously – for this “most vital” organ. She is tired of the uterus being treated as a deviation from the male anatomical norm and sick of gynaecology’s routine excuse that “more research is needed” to understand it. Stitching together patient, academic and clinical testimonies, Hazard is herself “a celebrant” and “devout believer in the power and wisdom of birthing bodies”.
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