It’s a grey area isn’t it? As is a lot of this influencer culture, with no precedents as to what is or isn’t ok. My concern is that she *is* using her practising midwife status to promote this podcast, which will in turn increase engagement with her instagram and ultimately make her more money. She has chosen, or been advised to, wear her work uniform in the promotional images.
This, along with the guest describing herself as a women’s health “expert”, adds a degree of credibility to the content and their opinions, which could adversely influence people’s decisions at a time when they could be quite vulnerable/susceptible.
As a Healthcare Professional, Clemmie is duty-bound to use the best available evidence to support her practice and recommendations. A cursory internet search hasn’t brought up anything that would support this guest’s view of herself as an expert, i.e. participation in gold-standard research, publication in respected and peer-reviewed journals, presentation at conferences.
Clemmie using her midwife status to promote this podcast is, I feel, the issue. Potentially just a moral one but that is often the problem with influencer culture isn’t it? She could choose to not include the references to her being a midwife in the promotional materials, but that wouldn’t be as potentially lucrative, would it?