Friends book of midwife Willeke

Click on the questions to see the answers.

1. What is your nickname and why? +

I have a lot, Wil and Willie are the most used, but in my family we are very creative with nicknames. I have 2 brothers and a sister, and they all have a different name for me (Liddele, because my sister couldn't pronounce my name when I was younger, Willie Brandt Haus and Billabong Willie because my brothers are crazy). But I always listen to Wil.

2. What is your superpower (besides delivering babies) +

I always try to keep people together, maybe that's because I'm the middle child at home. I'm a good mediator, I can empathize with different points of view. I also like to bring people together and often keep in touch with people from the past.

3. What was your childhood dream? +

There were always 3 big dreams: maternity nurse, dancer and mother. I found the work of a midwife interesting as a child, but then I mainly wanted to take care of the baby (I think my mother suggested that I could become a maternity nurse). Actually, they are all still there, only I am a midwife instead of a maternity nurse.

4. What is a fact about you that you don't usually tell but secretly want to reveal? +

I have the strangest dreams, this is what I am known for among friends. Often there is no way to predict it and it can go all over the world, with everyone I have ever met in my life, mythical creatures, for this reason it can be an adventure to go to sleep.

5. Are there things that you secretly find difficult and for which you admire others? +

People who can focus very well on 1 thing. I often find many different things interesting at the same time. At home I often have 3 books open at the same time, from which I read small pieces. I have the idea that people who can focus better are faster in learning new things.

6. What do you like to eat when you have time to sit quietly after a busy shift? +

Fruit, I have quite a sweet tooth and I love fruit.

7. What does your ideal day off look like? +

The weather is nice, during the day I go swimming with friends, in the sea or at a lake and in the evening we go dancing somewhere.

8. Are you a morning person or a night owl (or both because of your job)? +

I have never been a morning person. Even as a small child, my mother had to struggle to get me out of bed. I have become more of a night owl over the years.

9. What does your ideal holiday look like? +

Warmth, sun and water. I love swimming. Preferably a combination of being active and relaxing. I would like to learn to dive. Beautiful nature, being outside a lot and preferably also good music.

10. What is a moment in your life that you always look back on with a smile? +

Many moments, but beautiful births are among them. And of course the day I heard that I had passed as a midwife.

11. What's the best spontaneous decision you've ever made? +

Stopping my master (African studies) to start the training to become a midwife. Actually I had already thought about it before I started this master, but I had rationally decided that this master was more in line with my bachelor.

12. When and how was your first contact with maternity care? +

As a child. My mother was a midwife for the first 14 years of my life. I always heard stories and listened to phone calls and conversations between her and her colleagues.

13. What's the most hilarious thing you've ever experienced during childbirth? +

I once saw a woman literally laugh her child out. She had an epidural and could no longer feel the contractions well. She was lying on her back and saw 4 faces between her legs: the midwife, the gynaecologist, her partner and mine. She found it such a strange situation that she started laughing and we with her. Because of the pressure of her abdominal muscles from laughing, she hardly had to push and her baby came out more with every laugh-cluck. I imagine she had a very funny child.

14. What would you do if you had to wait in a delivery room for an hour? +

I am quite good at sitting still and doing nothing. I would be fine with that in itself. But usually there is some writing or administration to do.

15. What is your “midwifery life motto”? +

It is often said, but it is also very true: every pregnancy, birth and postpartum period is unique. One of the last births was of a woman who was going to give birth to her 2nd child. Her first birth had taken a very long time. Now she had some irregular contractions with 4 cm dilation. She decided to go to the toilet, and within a few minutes she had the urge to push. Her baby was born completely unexpectedly on the toilet. It is therefore very important to continue to listen to your own body, deep down you as a pregnant woman or mother know best what is good for you and your baby. These are actually 2 mottos 😊

16. If you had to choose: always a water birth or always a stormy home birth? +

Always a water birth. I have had some really magical water births.

17. What's your favorite baby name of late? +

Abel, I hear him every now and then, he always reminds me of Abel's song 'Onderweg', a song we used to sing along to at home.

18. What music do you have playing in the car when you're on duty? +

Mostly happy music, danceable music, I listen to a lot of African music (modern and classical), South American music (salsa, cumbia, bossa nova), reggae. Sometimes I think I was not born in the Netherlands.

19. What is your favorite snack during a long shift (or during labor)? +

Something with chocolate 😊.

20. If people were to describe you, how would you want people to remember you? +

Social, funny and colorful.

21. If you were to give birth yourself, what would your ideal birth look like? And who would be there? +

Preferably at home and in the bath with my partner and at a later time the midwife. I would like to measure my dilation myself and from the beginning want to be in my own bubble as much as possible.

22. If you had a time machine and could relive one moment in history, what would it be? +

I think I would go to the 70s. I don't know if there is one specific moment, but I would like to experience the early years of the hippie movement.

23. If you could give one last piece of advice to all pregnant women, what would it be? +

Try not to worry too much about what is to come, but try to stay in the 'now'. This may sound cliché, but a lot of information and worries come at you during a pregnancy. Try to look at everything step by step, otherwise it quickly becomes overwhelming. In addition, you can experience the pregnancy more consciously.