BJM's birth story

It was one of those epiphany moments. I had driven up to attend a nursing conference in north Wales—I can't remember the focus of the meeting or the main reason for me wanting to be there, although only a few months previously we had launched British Journal of Nursing (BJN) and I had certainly come to help promote it.

It had been a very long drive and I was dying for a cup of tea. My luck was in as the participants had just taken a break. As I stood in the queue, I started chatting to the next person in line, and after I had introduced myself, she told me that she was a midwife.

Without prompting, she turned to me and said that she wished that we would launch a clinical and professional journal for midwives similar to BJN, which she had seen and admired.

That was all the encouragement I needed. It seemed such an obvious and good idea, and by the time I had arrived back in London, I had a plan in place.