Katherine Ryan reveals her dream job if comedy hadn’t worked out for her

KATHERINE Ryan would have trained as a midwife if her career in comedy hadn’t worked out.

The Canadian star said she discovered her fascination with the job after giving birth to her 14-year-old daughter Violet when she was still early in her career.

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In an exclusive interview at The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Awards, Katherine, 40, said: “I always say if I could do anything in life that could bring me true life satisfaction it would be midwifery.”

“They are like good and bad police officers.

“I had a midwife who was like, ‘Whatever you want,’ and another who was like, ‘No, we’ll do that now,’ and I think I would definitely be the bad cop.

“I would like to do it if I was a little smarter, maybe a little stronger and a lot smarter.”

Katherine, who also has a two-year-old son, Fred, and a nine-month-old daughter, Fenna, gave birth to all three of her children in the UK.

Katherine praised her experience of having her children in NHS care, saying: “Violet was born in an NHS hospital, almost in a mini-taxi, and I didn’t have a midwife because I came in such a rush, it was all a blur .

“We had planned to have Fred at home but we decided I was too old so we went to hospital and he was delivered by a midwife.

“And as for Fenna, we just decided that we loved midwives so much that we would give birth at home, and we just had a fully midwife-led birth with Fenna.”

The toddler, born in December, was born back to back – with Katherine admitting she thought she would have had to have an emergency C-section if she had been in hospital.

She added: “Fenna was born in a way we call ‘bright side up’. The contractions took longer, but the midwives were there until 3am to get her out.

“I think if I had given birth in the hospital under the guidance of a consultant, someone would have said, ‘It’s enough, it’s time to go in.’

Katherine, who entered into a civil partnership with her partner and father of Fred and Fenna, Bobby Koostra, in December 2019, said she had formed a close bond with the midwife who helped with her last delivery.

She said: “I’m still friends with my midwife.

“She lives near me, we are still in touch, it is a very close relationship. It’s very tribal to give birth to a child.”

Katherine presented Valentina Burnett with the award for Best Midwife during the Who Cares Wins Awards, which aired on Channel 4 last night.

Valetina was nominated by Natalie Doyle, who suffered a brain haemorrhage while 39 weeks pregnant.

Natalie collapsed at home and remained in a coma while her daughter Gracie was delivered by caesarean section.

Valetina, who underwent surgery for a brain tumor in 2018, looked after Gracie until Natalie was well again.

Katherine praised Valentina and said more needed to be done to celebrate the work of the country’s 57,000 midwives.

She said: “Dealing with such a new, vulnerable life would frighten even the strongest of people, and they stay cool and get the job done.”

“Midwives turn it around, they do the work and then teach you to breastfeed.

“You do the work of ten doctors. Midwives are transformative and often life-saving.

“There are many unsung heroes in the NHS and midwives should be counted among them.”