RCGP Heritage

Well, Les was quite, was pretty much involved in the home births, but I think the midwives here would say that I was a very important person in the home births business and we also did GP births at the hospital and there were some really difficult old fashioned consultants. The obstetrician at the time. So there are a fair few women around who are really appreciative of the role that I played and a fair few midwives likewise. 

And interestingly it's now taken for granted that straight women are going to want their male partners with them at deliveries. And some of the most joyful and life enhancing deliveries I've been at have been where it was all women. And they're all so different. It's so lovely that women have a chance to express their individuality. I remember one birth when they actually had a parrot. And the parrot was downstairs, and he kept talking. And in the end we put a blanket on this parrot. But me and the midwife and she were sitting upstairs and we were just talking endlessly about shopping, not something I normally talk about. But she was comfortable and happy talking about shopping. And she had a really lovely birth, and I'm sure that the baby was all the better for having had, you know, whatever neuroendocrine mechanisms were involved. 

And on the and I remember another one, people. Yeah. I remember another one which was on a hot weekend and Les and I had agreed that one of us would take over from the other. Which way round was it? I think I may have been the person and he was there second, but anyway we this was in a Council house very crowded, loads of people in the room. Patient was smoking and they had the telly on and which no one was taking any notice of. And anyway it was a, you know, just that particular atmosphere and the woman has had several babies before I think. And then Les arrived and I was about to go and he likes football. So and there was a. I think the World Cup was on and he asked whether he could turn the channel over and so he did. And I think the crowning of the head coincided with an important goal. Everybody applauded.

What's the I mean, where you getting sort of support nationally around the home birth movement? Was this something very unusual that you were doing here or was there?

In my mind, all the encouragement came from limes Groves. That was definitely where it started in my head.

Because you'd had the experience, you then felt able to progress experience.

Yes, I would say that I had a lot of local encouragement. Yeah. Now there was, I think. But it definitely was a national maternity organisation. I remember going to a conference of it in Berwick on Tweed, which is a very nice place, can't remember what was said or anything like that. I  mean, so yes, I was peripherally connected to stuff like that. But it was more of the local conditions, the support that I had in the practise and above all.

And your own vision

Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.

If you want to find out more about the RCGP oral history collection you can visit the Museum heritage webpage

Switching to general practice

Aaron: And I remember thinking, I miss going away. I miss deploying. I miss the army side of things. The way it works, when you deploy most of the time, as you send people away overseas, most of the time, it's actually 90% of the time, it's GPs who do the medical cover for it. And I was like, well, I miss that. I quite like that. I was feeling a bit of a crisis. I'm like, well, explore going back, switching to general practice. And then I kind of, just sort of like a right fit at that time. So I did, I switched general practice, started my GP training in the August of 2019. And because I've had done, I'd completed core medicine training, I cut six months off. And I did two and a half years of GP training. So I've had a very long way to get to a CCT.

Amanda: But that switch, Aaron, just to clarify, I mean, you called it an identity crisis, but it was part because you wanted to go on with the military service adn teh people you saw mostly being posted abroad in practice were GPs so you thought...

Aaron: Yeah, so I was still a military trainee doing core medicine training and I would have gone on to be an army trainee in higher specialty training. But I very much was getting itchy feet with wanting to go overseas and just do stuff and have a bit more autonomy have the ability to decide my diary.

Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.

If you want to find out more about the RCGP oral history collection you can visit the Museum heritage webpage

Why choose general practice?

Why do people choose general practice as well, right? Because actually, you do have more control if you want to have a better quality of life. If you want all the things, you know, it's a great specialty to join. And actually, why should everyone want to do all this? Like, why should they want to publish? That's not validating you. And I think that's the big thing in part of my identity crisis. It was about recognising what is validation, what's important and what is driving decision making. What was it that was driving me to think I wanted to be this big, big, hospital doctor, do all this high-end stuff? I said, well, actually, it was my ego. It's ego driven, right? And I look back and I think, it's ego.

Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.

If you want to find out more about the RCGP oral history collection you can visit the Museum heritage webpage

In this audio recording Dr Aslam discusses her experiences of being pregnant whilst continuing her professional duties during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Recorded as part of the RCGP Covid Collecting project 28 March 2022.

Dr Mowle discusses the awareness gained from working through previous pandemics such as Swine flu, SARS, and HIV, and how this compared to the more recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Recorded as part of the RCGP Covid Collecting project 30 November 2021.

Women as patients Image credit: Under Wraps by Liz Lee and Susie Freeman ©2021 Chloe Stewart 

It takes for someone to kind of relate to their own and I think equally perhaps for South Asian people perhaps because they’ve always felt like they’ve never been taken seriously, actually when someone sits down and talks to them about their problems and how they feel and how it’s affecting them and they actually understand what you’re saying it can make a huge difference. My brief experience with some South Asian patients has been, is that I think for example, you know living in a multi-generational household, the kind of pressures that might be faced by South Asian professionals, or you know, females, men from South Asian households. Try to explain that to a white doctor that, for example, I don’t know, your mother-in-law has a problem with you going to work, and that’s a big source of your depression, and actually how are you going to deal with that because you somehow have to get your marriage to survive, and also you want to do what you enjoy. Those things aren’t necessarily unpicked unless it’s from someone from that background who might be able to actually divulge into that with confidence.  Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.

If you want to hear more, you can listen to the full TeamGP Perspectives podcast about Being a South Asian doctor

Acceptable roles?Image credit: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, 1889 

So my journey into general practice may seem a little bit unusual compared to most GPs, but I do think it’s got a lot of common themes with some of the experiences of other South Asian heritage women trying to balance their cultural and religious identities with a professional identity. So although I completed my degree and everything without any concerns, I did kind of grow up with a cultural expectation to be married by a certain age and an understanding that I’d have the main caring responsibility for children. And it can often be the case that South Asian women have career disruption, but because of these and other things, I had a much longer interruption than most, and left the NHS for about 15 years. The community kind of shamed me for wanting to go back to work and it’s quite an internal conflict that I find a lot of women in my position have. It’s kind of a disconnect really between the patriarchal view that women shouldn’t be working and yet females should be seen by a female doctor. Twitter @Aaliya_UK 
Instagram: @draaliyagp 

Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.

If you want to hear more, you can listen to the full TeamGP Perspectives podcast about Being a South Asian doctor

Women GPs at work 

Image credit: Women in Medicine artwork, Kate Charlesworth 

Being a trainee and in the first few years of being a GP, it was difficult, because as a black woman in health, or in GP, what you would see then is sometimes patients misjudge you when they come in and they see you for the first time. Even some staff misjudge you, some of the staff they misjudge you when they see you for the first time. When you finally build the rapport, things are fine, but that initial stage…I’ve had instances where patients will come into the room and look around the room for the real doctor [laughs]. Yeah, initially it used to hurt me but, you know, I learnt how to deal with all that stuff and, you know, it’s one thing I’ve found was even if you are trying sometimes, there’s always still that barrier which is something that we need to start talking about more.Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.

If you want to hear more, you can listen to the full TeamGP Perspectives podcast about Black women in health

Women as patients Image credit: Under Wraps by Liz Lee and Susie Freeman ©2021 Chloe Stewart 

And then also I think being a black woman we’re kind of seen as being at the bottom of the totem pole, especially in like health inequalities, and for me that helps me to advocate better for my patients I think, on many different levels and being able to empathise with them better, especially in practices and hospitals in south east London where a lot of the patients are in poverty. A lot of them are people of colour, immigrants from different countries, from war-torn countries. I think being a black woman in healthcare just helps me to build that empathy and advocate for my patients a lot more and a lot better.Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.

If you want to hear more, you can listen to the full TeamGP Perspectives podcast about Black women in health