Tribute song for mothers and midwives hits the high Cs

The songs of the sea meet midwifery with the release of a sea shanty in honour of the relationship between mothers and midwives. The song from Scottish singer Jazz Dey and midwifery staff and students Mhairi Kelly, Isla McMillan, Beverley Hagan and Katie McKenna, from the University of the West of Scotland, (UWS) was released to mark International day of the Midwife on 5 May.

Fittingly the song is called ‘With Women’ and can be heard and downloaded from Jazz’s Bandcamp site for £1. The song tells the story of a mother giving birth, and the support, compassion and care she receives from midwives. Proceeds raised from sales of the song will go to the UWS Student Midwife Scholarship Fund.

Jazz, a Commercial Music student, and the student midwives penned the song as a conversation between a mother giving birth and the midwives supporting her, and used the sea shanty format as the best way to put the song across. “I first heard about the song from another commercial music student, Lorna Futter, who pitched the idea at one of our lectures. I immediately thought that I wanted to get involved with this project,” said Jazz. “It was the midwifery staff who came up with the idea of it being a sea shanty actually, and it just so happened that this format worked really well as a way of expressing the thoughts and feelings of midwives and new mothers.”

 “When I heard With Women for the first time, I was absolutely blown away,” said UWS Midwifery lecturer Sheona Brown. “The reception to With Women has been overwhelmingly positive, and I’m so pleased that it is raising money for such a good cause.”

Lorna Futter, also a Commercial Music student, was the creative producer for the song, and she and singer Jazz got the ideas and themes of the song after a workshop with the UWS midwifery students and staff. “The song came from the stories of the UWS midwifery students and lecturers that would inspire the lyrics and Jazz and I had a workshop with them, with Jazz going off to write the song straight away,” said Lorna, adding that she was delighted with the end result. “Jazz has done an amazing job at putting together a powerful song, encapsulating the feelings felt as a baby is born. This was achieved in part thanks to inspiring meetings with midwifery staff and students – it was their stories that inspired Jazz’s lyrics.”