Feedback: August/September 2009

Midwives magazine August/September 2009

Why the labour ward first?

Dear editor

I am a newly-qualified midwife, who has chosen to begin my career working in a birth centre. I would be interested to know why it is regarded by many within the profession to be imperative for newly-qualified midwives to have experience of the labour ward first, in order to be fully competent, safe practitioners?

I qualified last summer and was fortunate to find no shortage of job vacancies in my local area. However, I decided to travel further afield as I wanted to work in either a midwifery-led unit or birth centre, because I wanted a firm foundation in normal birth – I felt that this would equip me to recognise deviations from the norm and therefore act accordingly.

On my first day and intermittently ever since, I have had to justify why I want to work on the birth centre immediately upon qualification, explain why I like to help facilitate normal birth and describe the skills and knowledge that I am gaining are equally as important and relevant as the skills to be gained on the labour ward.

At the point of qualification, I am required to be competent to work in any area of midwifery. If that is the case and I have decided to firstly develop my skills in facilitating physiological birth and recognising normal birth behaviour, then why do some individuals feel the need to question this and give me the impression that until I have ‘done my time on labour ward’ and looked after high-risk women, I cannot possibly be a fully paid-up member of the midwifery profession?

Trapped in a hospital setting

Dear editor

Two of the letters in Midwives’ feedback section (April/May 2009) made me want to respond, and have stirred up mixed and confused emotions in me. Firstly, The pressure is too much – I am currently off sick with depression and have found returning to work very difficult to cope with. I am due to try a phased return very soon and am absolutely dreading it. I know I want to be a midwife, but I don’t know if there is a problem with the job, or the place I work or the people I work with! As I drive myself crazy trying to understand why I feel as I do, I keep coming back to the reasoning that it is because I am frustrated in the busy hospital setting and cannot provide the level of care I want to for the women and families I meet. Gwyneth is absolutely right – ‘our job should carry a government health warning’.

This brings me to Midwives making a difference – I would first like to congratulate Gina Augarde and her team at Huddersfield, though I cannot help but feel jealous that they are allowed and empowered to work in this way. To be nurtured as an employee and a midwife must be a wonderful feeling – and I think this is what I am striving for. I envy them as Gina has ‘watched them grow – change and become confident and happy’.

This value that is placed on these midwives obviously reflects in the care that they give. So ‘why don’t you get a job in a birth centre?’, I hear you cry! Because I have not been nurtured in the same way to feel valued and confident in my work. I am unable to get the basic requirements needed for me to apply for these jobs. I cannot get the mentor and mentorship qualification, because there are so many others wanting to do it who get given a chance first. I can’t even get the supervision I need to do suturing, because I do not get enough time on the labour suite, and when I get that rare chance, everyone else is too busy to supervise me.
I need a chance to show what a confident and happy midwife I can be, but at the moment I am well and truly trapped.

From
Name and address supplied

Editor’s response:

We hear many different stories and experiences from midwives across the country. Opportunities to develop midwifery practice vary across the country and also within regions. You are very obviously a passionate, caring midwife who wants to be a more confident midwife. Would it not perhaps make sense to attempt to find a unit/birth centre where you may better access the opportunity for mentorship, supervision and midwifery-led care? Perhaps the opportunity to access a professional mentor outside your place of work or even outside the NHS would help?

We really need midwives to remain in the profession and not to give up when times get hard. It is great that you have found some positivity in reading our Feedback page and great that you have used the opportunity to write to us at the magazine. Thank you.

Good luck and we hope you will be feeling better very soon.

Help wanted

Dear editor

Although the consultant-led unit within which I work has an outreach midwifery-led birthing centre, we are interested in setting up an aromatherapy service within our unit that will hopefully be able to run at both sites once established.

I am interested to hear from other units that have managed to set up a similar service. Obviously we have to put a business proposal together to put before the Trust, but I was just wondering how easy others found it to start the service, whether they charge for it, do they have to provide evidence of updating and if they have come across much ‘red tape’ in providing the service. Any help would be much appreciated.

From
Sarah Chalmers, midwife working in a consultant-led unit - Email: motherearthfor2@hotmail.com

National Forum for Specialist Midwives in Drug and Alcohol Use survey

Dear editor

I am writing to you about the National Forum for Specialist Midwives in Drug and Alcohol Use (NFSM). Meetings are held quarterly and are open to any UK midwife who has a specialist interest or works in this area. As a forum, we would like to ascertain how many midwives work within this specialist area, in order to feedback information, share best practice and extend invites to those unaware of our existence.

We would like to know your name, title, grade, employer, contact details and hours of work with any further comments you would like to add. Please download a survey form here, and forward it to the chair’s secretary Nadia Rabbani at: nadia.rabbani@sth.nhs.uk.

From
Sheena Prentice

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The main RCM section of the website and RCM Communities are published by The Royal College of Midwives. Midwives magazine, Evidence Based Midwifery and Midwives Jobs are published by Redactive Publishing Ltd on behalf of The Royal College of Midwives. The Royal College of Midwives, a company limited by guarantee, registration number 30157. The Royal College of Midwives Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registration number 1345335. A charity registered in England & Wales under registration number 275261. RCM Trust Trading Company ltd, registration number 5399453.

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Feedback: August/September 2009