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Kent midwife’s national honour for lifesaving BAME work  

By Kent midwife’s national honour for lifesaving BAME work   on 13 March 2020 Midwives RCM Safety Safe high quality care Maternity Services RCM Fellowship RCM Member Research

A Kent midwife has received a prestigious Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Fellowship for her inspiring midwifery work. Sarah Chitongo, a midwifery educator and Researcher at Middlesex University, received her award at the RCM’s national education conference in Leeds yesterday.

Sarah said: “It’s a great honour and certainly a pinnacle of success to receive the coveted Royal College of Midwives Fellowship. I am delighted for the recognition in highlighting inequalities in maternal health for black, Asian and ethnic minority women (BAME).

 

The RCM Fellowship has been awarded to Sarah for her work in preventing deaths in pregnant and postnatal BAME women. She has also pioneered the use of computer and augmented reality technology (AR) in midwifery training. 

Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “The work Sarah is doing saves lives. Tackling the inequalities that lead to BAME mothers and babies doing less well than non BAME women is critical. Tackling the inequalities that lead to BAME mothers and babies doing less well than women from other backgrounds is critical. In this International Year of the Midwife she is showing the qualities of leadership, innovation and commitment that are a shining example to us all.”

Sarah’s many achievements include winning a Mary Seacole Award and she is also a Queen’s Nurse; both coveted marks of recognition. She also developed a pioneering use of augmented reality (AR) in midwifery training. This uses AR headsets and enables student midwives to develop their clinical skills is lifelike simulations. It is now used in eight other countries. Sarah’s is also a Specialist Advisor to the American Pregnancy Association.

Sarah added: “The Fellowship has been a team effort and I would like to thank all my colleagues at Middlesex University for their support over the years with this work as well as my practice colleagues from Princess Royal Hospital, Kings College NHS Trust.”

 

ENDS

 

To contact the RCM media office and for a picture of Sarah Receiving her RCM Fellowship call 020 7312 3456 or email [email protected].

Notes to editors

 

The RCM Fellowship is given to midwives who have shown exceptional leadership and deliver excellence in practice, education or research For more information on RCM Fellowships visit https://www.rcm.org.uk/influencing/rcm-fellows/.

 

For more information on the RCM’s Education Conference visit https://rcmeducationconference.org.uk/.

 

For Information on International year of the Midwife visit https://www.who.int/news-room/campaigns/year-of-the-nurse-and-the-midwife-2020.

 

 

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