A celebration of life
Opunake midwife Sharon Robinson is having a party for friends, families and children she helped bring into the world to celebrate being alive.
Robinson, who has helped deliver hundreds of babies in Taranaki, Auckland, Tauranga and the Far North has metastatic stage 4 cancer.
“I was told late January that I should think about what I wanted to do with my life and do it while I can.
“That treatment options were probably going to be a choice between quality versus quantity,” she said.
The diagnosis was a shock.
“I didn’t have any symptoms. So it was like nothing changed but everything changed.”
She could have four or five years. Or more. Or less.
“I have taken this news as a wake-up call. I don’t see it as a negative. We’re all going to die.”
Some of the families who had babies with Robinson in Auckland found out about her diagnosis and are coming down at Easter to spend time with her.
So, she thought she’d open it up and invite friends and families she’s worked with who want to come along.
Robinson worked in Stratford for years after she came to New Zealand from the United States in 2003.
“I had trained in two big city hospitals in the Bronx, which was extremely medicialised. Midwives had to perform circumcisions, that was part of your job.
“So, I came to New Zealand where I thought I could practice midwifery in a way I had been called to. ”
Robinson left Stratford when the maternity unit was closed in 2014.
“I was the clinical director. When that closed it was a very, very stressful and highly politically charged time.”
Since then she has worked in Auckland, Tauranga and the Far North.
This isn’t her first time living with cancer. While in Auckland she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy.
“I was told on Thursday I have breast cancer and on Sunday that my son is trans.
“It made breast cancer seem like no big deal. Because it was so huge. Now I’m fine and he’s fine and I’m so proud of him.“
She also spent time travelling, including in South America, where she delivered a baby in the jungle, she said.
“We went down the Amazon in Peru and spent a month in the jungle and I helped a European couple have a home, or a jungle, birth and it was a three hour walk and a boat ride from the nearest village.”
Robinson moved to Opunake in 2022 and hopes families from her Stratford and Opunake days will attend her party.
It will be held in the hall next to 74 Domett St, Opunake on Saturday, March 30, from 11am onwards. Bring some food to share.