EMMA MARIE SWIFT, RM, PHD

MIDWIFE

Emma Marie Swift has many years of experience in home births and midwifery services in birth centers and has worked in this field both in Iceland and abroad since 2011. Emma has served families with continuous care and has provided antenatal care, care during labor and childbirth and homecare in the postpartum period. Emma has developed a number of courses on birth preparation and parenting with a special emphasis on informed consent, strengthening self-confidence and reducing fear of childbirth.

Emma is a specialist in the process of normal birth and has written a number of peer-reviewed articles on the childbirth process, as well as a doctoral dissertation entitled “Promoting normal births in the age of technology.” She has also worked at Iceland’s largest birthplace, Landspítali Hospital, where she served on the Professional Council of Midwives (Icelandic: Fagráð ljósmæðra).

Since 2019, Emma has been an associate professor in the field of midwifery at the University of Iceland, where she supervises the education and training of midwifery students and leads, among other things, a research project on birth experience. She is also on the editorial board of the Icelandic Journal of Midwifery (Icelandic: Ljósmæðrablaðið) and Journal of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare.

Emma works as a midwife at the Reykjavík Birth Center and also serves as its chief executive director.

“The profession of midwifery is a visionary one – which neither begins nor ends. It surrounds me everyday – and influences all my decisions and dreams. However, I didn’t choose to become a midwife – it chose me. Because when I realized that the profession of midwifery first and foremost revolves around supporting women in finding the strength that already exists within them, I also realized that this was exactly what I wanted to do. I knew then that a career in midwifery would be my contribution in the fight for gender equality. My contribution to women’s empowerment – and the empowerment of families who are taking their first steps in their journey of life. 

Now, many years later, when I watch a woman in labor grow stronger and stronger in the belief that she is in control and that she feels surrounded by love and trust – I myself am strengthened in the belief that my biggest role as a midwife is to create an environment where she can flourish, where she dares to harness her inner strength and believes that she can face all the challenges that she faces.

But do I dare – do I want to – can I?

Yes, I dare, I want to and I will!”