A few thoughts from me about how I have made peace with working inside the system. I've danced in and out of NHS midwifery and it has been very challenging at times. For me, understanding and coming to terms with why the system works the way it does has enabled me to stay in it this time for longer, along with working for a pretty progressive NHS Trust. I will always be a bit more radical than most midwives in the way I think about birth but sometimes we have to be realistic; finances and responsibilities mean some people need to stay working this way, and also the 700,000 births a year need midwives who care and can work in a holistic way, optimising empowered physiological birth from the inside out.