Country news: England

Happy birthday
The Maidstone Birth Centre has celebrated its first birthday, with Cathy Warwick as special guest. Midwives there have birthed 390 babies in the first year of operation.
Pictured is the fabulous cake baked by midwife Zoe Manclark, with a baby to celebrate every single birth at Maidstone over the last year.

Twinning update
The RCM’s global twinning project got off to a fine start as two RCM midwife volunteers, Sue Reed and Chantal Winstanley, went to Cambodia. They spent two amazing weeks learning about midwifery practice from the Cambodian Midwives Association. We hope to hear more from them soon.

New London SMO
Well done to Jess Read on her appointment as local supervising authority midwifery officer in London. We look forward to working with her in supporting supervision across the capital.

Iolanthe winner
The RCM was delighted when Elaine Uppal, lecturer at the University of Salford, recently won the Trish Anderson Iolanthe Award for her outstanding art of midwifery work with student midwives, which promotes normality and teaches the physiology of pregnancy.

Working together
Partnership working in England is developing at a fast pace. We have been invited to work with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy on bladder care and improving education on advising women in the postnatal period. Also, the Obstetric Anaesthetists Association (OAA) has welcomed me onto their committee. The RCM’s Gail Johnson has been involved with the OAA for some time and has contributed to its pain relief information leaflet and app. A link to the leaflet can be found on the NHS Choices website: tinyurl.com/cy9n49r. It is a useful resource for advising women about pain relief.

Event success
Congratulations to RCM Solihull branch stewards, Carla Jones-Charles and Veronica Morgan, on their excellent learning event. Speakers included coroner Aidan Cotter, RCM regional officer Suzanne Miller and Corrine Slingo, partner at the trust’s solicitors. They were joined by the trust chairman, Lord Hunt, as well as the HoM.

Jacque Gerrard
Director
RCM England