Stories - Rule Breakers

"This journey of defiance, survival and return helped me in understanding the power that I gave to myself by rebelling against irrational rules."

"I was born and raised in Bosnia, but no, this is not that kind of story. It's not about the war."

'But it's more than that. It's also this philosophical underpinning of our profession whereby we're called to build this relationship and this working alliance with women and their families in order to empower them to get what they want out of this most fundamental of human experiences, which is creating more humans, giving birth, right?'

'In Colombia it matters whose daughter you are. I'm not the daughter of a rich mother and father. The way it goes traditionally in my home country is that it is expected for a woman to get married and stay at home raising a family, totally depending on their husbands financially.'

'At this stage in my life I was a little bit skeptical as the rest of the world seemed to be telling me that my options were maybe to marry the minister's son or even better the son of the farmer next door because that would extend the family farming empire. I used to think that they were my viable options in life.'

"Within 15 minutes, the environment was completely different. The car park was empty. It was silent. There was not a single person around. The airport doors were closed and I was standing there all on my own. I had no telephone. I had no way of contacting my colleague. I was in a foreign country, in a place that I didn't know. I didn't know where to go and I just didn't know what to do."