My legal life: Michelle Armstrong, Burnetts

I qualified in 1995 in commercial law, specialising in intellectual property. I enjoyed the academic challenge but always felt that there was something missing. Looking back, I realise I never felt passionate about my area of work, it was something I had just fallen into.

After a few years in commercial law, I became pregnant with my first child. Just before my son was born, I had this sixth sense that something was wrong. I had this increasing feeling of doom which caused me to go into hospital. It turned out he had severe cord entanglement and had to be born by emergency C-section there and then. If I had waited, then there was a real chance I could have lost him.

I always planned to have a natural birth. While I was delighted my son was delivered safe and well, I felt a failure for not experiencing labour. When I had a natural birth for my daughter, 17 months later, I found that a very healing experience.

I was aware of, and actually quite surprised by, how much my experiences of childbirth affected me and my sense of identity. I realised how for some women birth experiences can have such a positive and also negative impact on their life and how they feel about themselves. I felt strongly that women should be supported through this process and have their feelings and concerns validated.

It started to dawn on me that I didn’t feel as strongly about my own career as I did about supporting women through pregnancy and birth. This was something I was still trying to do as part of the breastfeeding and parenting support groups I was involved with.

'It is impossible to appreciate how quickly you can build a bond with a woman you may never have met and to share with them the experience of bringing their child into the world'

It felt wrong to continue working in law when I didn’t feel as invested as I should have been. But it was also difficult to just walk away from 10 years’ experience in commercial law. There was no real route by which I could start again in another area.

That led me to think about leaving law and training as a midwife. The application process was very difficult. I had to have evidence of recent study so had to do a human biology course in my own time. There was huge competition for places. However, I was fortunate to be accepted on a course for three years of intensive study and practical training at Northumbria University.

Supporting women and their families through birth exceeded my expectations. It is impossible to appreciate how quickly you can build a bond with a woman you may never have met and to share with them the experience of bringing their child into the world.

Looking after women who are going through the loss of a baby was heartbreaking, but even in those circumstances it was possible to find positives. It is difficult to explain how rewarding it can be to support families at this time and help them to make positive memories of the short time that they have to spend with their baby.

Once you are qualified and working in a hospital you start to realise what great stress staff are under and the huge responsibility on their shoulders in such challenging circumstances. I could see how stretched the service was, which meant that we could never spend the amount of time we would have liked to with each mother.

I began to feel that the restrictions were such that I wasn’t going to be the kind of midwife that I had set out to be. I had moments of real worry about whether what was going on was safe because of the numbers of women we were looking after. I started to contemplate the legal, moral and ethical issues around childbirth and found that very interesting. I realised this was an area where I could be useful and make a practical difference.

I studied a master’s in medical law with a view to becoming involved in risk management within the NHS. But towards the end of the course, I saw an advert for a birth injury clinical negligence lawyer with another north-east firm. The penny dropped and I instantly knew it was everything I wanted. Eleven years on, I have never stopped being grateful for the work that I get to do every day. Of course, I miss the excitement of working in the hospital, I miss the babies, but I probably miss the time I spent with women more.