The wisdom of storks.

© www.sarawickham.com This article first published 2005 Practising Midwife 8(6):33. Republished with permission for personal use only. Page numbers do not correspond to the original. Please do not reproduce/reprint without prior permission, thank you. The stork is well loved as an image associated with birth and midwives; a good number of midwifery practices in the English-speaking world feature the word in their name, and images of the birds often appear on logos and web sites. Many midwives still use the expression ‘stork marks’ rather than the medical term naevi for the temporary red marks (apparently left by the stork’s beak) which some babies have on their face or neck at birth. But I wonder how many midwives know that the question of whether babies are brought by storks or created by meetings of eggs and sperms has recently been under heated discussion in some areas?