Sarah Evans is a Christian who worships at St John’s Church in Hinckley and has been a midwife for more than 15 years - her entire career working at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. Here she talks about how her faith sustains her and how prayer carries her through each and every day…
It was having my own children that made me want to be a midwife and leave behind a job in retail management. I found the whole experience fascinating, from pregnancy through to birth, and was totally awestruck with how midwives supported women with such non-judgemental care.
God was most certainly in that decision, too. It was a calling. In what could have been a nightmare juggling childcare for my two small children, finding the funding and being selected to train in such a competitive career, everything simply fell into place. God provided.
I think about Jesus as a servant king and I try to see myself as the servant, by loving my neighbour. When it comes to the women I care for, I treat them as I feel Jesus would. We encounter all walks of life and some women are in the most tragic of situations. I’m not their judge; I’m their advocate and there to support them.
There’s a psychologist who has a term, ‘unconditional positive regard.’ That, for me, epitomises how I try to be, in the way I would expect Jesus to be. It’s their journey and I’m meeting them at their need.
In church we recently talked about the Hebrew word ‘Chesed’ which means being kind and loving, showing piety and God-like love towards people. That quite literally sums up the way I see my midwifery role.
Prayer is fundamental to my life and work. I tend to pray on my way in before every shift and covering the day with prayer makes such a big difference to me.
Though I am unable to share my faith with patients, I am very open about it with colleagues. When we’ve had a traumatic time I’ve been asked by colleagues to pray for the day and the team.
I try and bring God into conversations at opportune moments and festival times, and explain a little of what Jesus did for us. I often pray for colleagues and their families, even laying hands on people when they are in pain. No one has ever said no to my prayer, even when I didn’t know them to be Christians, or when they have been of other faiths.
There are several of us at work who have come together to pray over a number of situations, all from different denominations and nations. During the height of the pandemic, we occasionally met in the stairwells.
Prayer is so powerful. People who have passed by us during these times have commented on how brilliant and uplifting it was to witness. I love praying for others – it’s such a privilege. I can get quite excited about it, but I am gentle in how I approach people and wouldn’t offer it if I didn’t think it would be well received.
God sustains me throughout my days as a midwife. In the difficult times, I know that I am not alone. I believe I see things in people through the eyes of God - that God is working through and in me - and that the love He feels for all the ladies I encounter is reflected through my care.
I really cannot imagine doing my job without having God by my side.
Being a midwife and witnessing new life coming into this world is like being involved in creation and God saying to me, ‘you can share in a bit of this’. When you think about the glory of what He creates, and then He gives you permission to do the same - it’s just overwhelming and truly a blessing.