Meet your local midwives as part of International Day of the Midwife 2023
Today is International Day of the Midwife 2023, a day for us at UHDB and across the world to honour, recognise and pay tribute to the remarkable work done by midwives all over the world. Midwives play an invaluable role in supporting women and babies throughout pregnancy and during childbirth.
Across the NHS, around 1,600 babies are born every single day - around one birth every 54 seconds - and today we are celebrating our midwives who work tirelessly to deliver care to women and babies.
In this highly-skilled profession, there are countless career opportunities, with unique roles such as midwife researchers, digital midwives, bereavement midwives, diabetes specialist midwives, community midwives, and many more.
Many people choose to become a midwife for a number of different reasons, and as part of our celebrations today, we've spoken with three UHDB midwives at different stages in their careers for them to explain 'Why I Became a Midwife' and what motivates them put on their uniform every single day to care for women and babies across Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
Sarah Scrimshaw, Midwife for almost 20 years at Queen's Hospital Burton
Sarah started working at Queen's Hospital Burton, 'Burton General Hospital' at the time, in 1984, as a nurse, and a staff nurse until 2004. She decided to change her career path shortly after giving birth to her son, inspired by her pregnancy experience and the midwifery colleagues she met along the way, which included her sister who was her midwife.
Sarah said that becoming a midwife was 'always in the back of her mind'.
Sarah now works across all areas of maternity, supporting women through each area of their journey including the delivery suite, postnatal care and the assessment unit. In her 19 years as a midwife, and 39 years in total since starting at Burton, Sarah said she's started to feel "part of the fabric" of our maternity services, continuing:
"I've seen a lot over the years, and there have been some challenges, but I love what I do, the relationships with the women we care for, and our absolutely superb team here. I trust the team so much that I've had all of my children here - one of whom is now at University!
"It's a very unique and special role in frontline healthcare, and a lot of people wouldn't believe the kind of things you see. I have some very special memories, both happy and sad, doing this incredible job - but it is all worth it, and you are very well supported in this role throughout.
"As a service, we've embraced a lot of changes over time as the role of a midwife has developed, and our skillset has grown. I am so honoured to be a part of an extremely special moment in peoples lives.
"To my midwife colleagues across UHDB and beyond, keep doing what you're doing and enjoy it - and most importantly, be your best for the women and their babies in our care."
Katherine Taylor, newly qualified Preceptorship Midwife at Royal Derby Hospital
Katherine has been qualified as a midwife since November 2022 - and is working as a preceptorship midwife, to support her transition from student to midwife. This involves rotating across different areas of our maternity services, such as the labour ward, postnatal ward, and community midwifery, where she is working currently.
Katherine moved to the East Midlands from Worcester to study at the University of Nottingham, in a course that allowed her to do placements at Royal Derby Hospital in her first and final years. When deciding where she wanted to work after graduating, she chose UHDB for a number of reasons, she said:
"It's a challenging job, but an incredibly rewarding one. I love a challenge and the support at the Trust is incredible, and everyone is invested in helping you. I like that, as well as working in the amazing teams we have here, you do have some autonomy as a midwife and feeling that independence and trust in my ability is great.
"I have been fully supported through my transition from study to work and the maternity team around me are so lovely and I feel very comfortable here. You get a real mix of high risk and low risk maternity care, and so all of my expertise and training is being utilised and that really excites me.
Reflecting on what motivates her to put her uniform on and go to work every day, Katherine said that 'the patients and having a positive impact on their lives is at the centre of everything she does'. She continued:
"The best part of the role for me is the rapport you build with your patients. After they've given birth, you still get messages from people who you've helped along their pregnancy journey - and often, that's pictures and videos of the baby! You feel like you've made a friend, and they've made a friend - and you have that special connection which is so rewarding.
"It's a real privilege to do this job, and sometimes in the day-to-day of work, we can forget that. It's so lovely to have a day such as this to celebrate, and for us as midwives to take a moment to reflect on what we do and the impact we have. On this day we can remember why we're doing this incredible work in the first place - to make a difference and have an impact on people's lives.
"I love this job, and I wouldn't do anything else."
Claire Brackenbury, Lead Midwife in the Continuity of Carer team, Royal Derby Hospital and Queen's Hospital Burton.
Claire has been working at UHDB since 2009, following the completion of her training at the University of Nottingham which began in 2003, and a few years working in Birmingham.
Claire has worked as a midwife in a variety of settings, including as a community midwife, supporting the implementation of the Continuity of Carer teams in our organisation - a model of care where women are under a small team of midwives, in a hospital or community setting, which support women throughout their pregnancy. This includes during childbirth, and postnatal care.
While this is a model in our organisation that we're aiming to adopt more widely long term, initially, it is primarily focused on women who are known to experience health inequalities - for example, from those from more deprived socio-economic backgrounds, or from Black and Minority Ethnic Backgrounds.
Explaining her experience working in this role, Claire said: "Everyone is committed and passionate about delivering exceptional care to pregnant people, their families and their babies, and to continually try to improve the services we provide.
"The bottom line of what we do is improvement - to make sure that we always look for ways to make things better than they already are. Which is something all of us, no matter at what stage we are in our careers, are fully committed to.
Reflecting on her career, and how she got involved in this particular career path, Claire said that before she became a midwife she'd looked at a few different healthcare professions, but 'nothing quite felt right' until she began studying Physiology, and the science of the human body during pregnancy. She continued:
"I realised during my degree just how fascinating pregnancy and birth is. It is absolutely amazing what the female body can do.
"I was so interested that I gave my dissertation for the degree on the body during pre-term labour, and in the process and it dawned on me that this particular area of healthcare was what really what I wanted to do. Soon after I began my training, and I've never looked back - nor have I ever stopped being as fascinated as I was when I first began studying!"
On International Day of the Midwife, Claire was delighted for this opportunity for midwifery colleagues to reflect on their careers and the work they do, saying:
"I love what I do, and I love what we do, as midwives. I love the challenges we can face, and I love the thought of being able to progress the maternity services we provide - particularly around health inequalities. The people you work with - both colleagues and the pregnant people who use our services - make your job what it is and I feel very fortunate to have a team that's so supportive, and women, their families and babies who motivate us all to deliver exceptional care.
"I am really proud to be a midwife every day, and this international day of celebration is no different. Nationally, there have been some challenges in recent years, but we all work tirelessly to ensure a safe pregnancy journey at every step of the way - and to have this moment to stop and recognise what we do feels special.
"To my midwife colleagues - know that you're valued. You do a great job - and the people you deliver care for will remember you forever."