Mary Cronk Explained

Mary Cronk (1934 – 21 December 2018) was an independent midwife from Scotland who was awarded her MBE for services to midwifery over her many years of practice.

Early life

Cronk was born in Glasgow in 1932, the daughter of a Clydeside ship worker.^[1] She first studied nursing at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and in 1957 started training to be a midwife at Queen Charlotte's in London.

Career

Cronk worked for the National Health Service in the UK where she facilitated more than 1600 births, mainly as home births.^[2] In 1991, she opened her own practice and started working as an independent midwife.

Cronk joined the English National Board of the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, and served on the RCM Council between September 1999 and August 2003.

Cronk also wrote many articles on midwifery, covering a variety of topics, including physiological breech birth, of which she was a proponent.^[3] These have been published in Midwifery Matters and AIMS Journal,^[4] as well as quoted in various books.^{[5] [6]}

Once retired, Cronk continued to educate by hosting study days alongside fellow independent midwife Jane Evans; the pair disseminated information on unusual but normal births, including breech birth.^[7]

Obituary

Cronk died on 21 December 2018, aged 86. ^[8]

Selected publications

• "The Midwife: A Professional Servant?". 2000. in Book: Mavis Kirkham. The Midwife-Mother Relationship. 15 September 2010. Palgrave Macmillan. 978-1-137-13276-5. 50–. Chapter 4.^{[9] [10]}
• "Community midwifery: a practical guide". with Caroline Flint 1989^{[11] [12]}
• Radical Midwifery: Celebrating 21 Years of A.R.M. 1997. Margaret Jowitt, Ishbel Kargar, with contributions by Cronk
• "Keep Your Hands off the Breech". AIMS Journal, Vol 10 No 3. 1998.

External links

Sharing the Skills website - http://www.sharingtheskills.co.uk/index.php?lng=en

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mary Cronk: A Professional Servant. | AIMS.
2. Book: Siobhan Scanlan. Hilary Walker. Studying for Your Midwifery Degree. 1 November 2013. SAGE Publications. 978-1-4462-9632-5. 136–.
3. Book: Rosemary Mander. Caesarean: Just Another Way of Birth?. 21 May 2007. Routledge. 978-1-134-14480-8. 94–.
4. Web site: Keep Your Hands off the Breech | AIMS.
5. Book: Denis Walsh. Soo Downe. Essential Midwifery Practice: Intrapartum Care. 7 May 2013. John Wiley & Sons. 978-1-118-70001-3. 2–.
6. Book: Vicky Chapman. Cathy Charles. The Midwife's Labour and Birth Handbook. 22 January 2013. John Wiley & Sons. 978-1-118-48010-6. 291–.
7. Book: Jennifer Block. Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care. 1 September 2007. Da Capo Press, Incorporated. 978-0-7382-1182-4. 76–.
8. Web site: Mary Cronk: A Professional Servant. | AIMS.
9. Book: Rosemary Mander. Jo Murphy-Lawless. The Politics of Maternity. 12 April 2013. Routledge. 978-1-136-73700-8. 145–.
10. Book: Lesley Ann Page. Rona McCandlish. The New Midwifery: Science and Sensitivity in Practice. 6 October 2006. Elsevier Health Sciences UK. 978-0-7020-3506-7. 104–.
11. Book: Elinor Clarke. Law and Ethics for Midwifery. 24 July 2015. Routledge. 978-1-317-42896-1. 19–.
12. Book: Tony Butterworth. Jean Faugier. Clinical Supervision and Mentorship in Nursing. 14 December 2013. Springer. 978-1-4899-7228-6. 107–.