The Maternity & Midwifery Hour

Series 9 - Episode 1: Safer beginnings – Increasing self-agency in maternity to reduce violence and harm 

Kay details the Safer Beginnings programme and how they worked with partners to develop a new set of resources to increase self-agency in relation to reducing violence and harm in maternity.  

Amity details the new Free From Harm resource that has been co-produced with their partners on the Safer Beginnings programme, covering the benefit and role of the resource in improving care.  

Hosted by: Sue Macdonald, Midwifery Expert, Mayes Midwifery 

Contributions from: Kay King, Director, White Ribbon Alliance and;

Register your free place today to get a personalised reminder from us. 

Join us at 7 pm on Wednesday at this hour-long online programme with live audience Q&A to update your knowledge. 

Live on Maternity and Midwifery Forum | 7pm London, UK | Wednesday's throughout 2022. 

Listen to the Maternity & Midwifery Hour Podcast  

Support us on Patreon.  

Catch up on demand Every episode is available free after the live stream – this is created especially for you by Neil Stewart Associates and filmed by Narrowcast Media Group and is available from Midwifery Forum’s YouTube – don’t forget to subscribe to our channel.  

Catch up on the highlights with our supporters - www.MATFLIX.co.uk

Contributions from:

Maeve is a Registered Midwife and Nurse. Coming from Cork in the Republic of Ireland, she is passionate about midwifery, intrapartum care in particular and has a strong presence on social media as a nurse and midwife promoting midwifery and maternal and new-born health. Maeve holds a Master’s in Advanced Practice from King’s College London and a PhD in Medicine & Health from University College Cork. Her PhD research concerns fear of childbirth and tocophobia in pregnant women which has been presented at international conferences and journal publications, which are widely cited, a Cochrane Review- Interventions for fear of childbirth (tocophobia) and a book chapter in an edited text about understanding childbirth fear and anxiety. She is also the author of the new updated Chapter on 'Care in the First Stage of Labour' in the newest Edition of the core Midwifery Textbook Mayes Midwifery. She has been an Associate Editor for Women and Birth Journal for three years and peer reviews for many journals.

Maeve is presently working as Assistant Professor of Midwifery in Fatima College of Health Sciences in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates where she is working with Dr Georgina Sosa to develop the first Bachelors Midwifery Degree Program in the United Arab Emirates. She has previously lectured in Midwifery and Public Health Nursing in University College Cork, Ireland and worked as Lecturer in Nursing at RCSI Bahrain, Bahrain and Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at Cardiff University in Wales in the United Kingdom. She is also a Fellow of the Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery at RCSI, which was awarded in recognition of her exceptional commitment, dedication, and contribution to the delivery of care.

Maeve believes that positive public promotion of midwifery is crucial for the survival of our profession. In her role as an educator, her mission is to educate, nurture, and foster independent critical thinking and learning in students. She is passionate about evidence-based practice and that women and midwives have access to the best available evidence to provide woman-centred care. Her methodological interests are systematic reviews, meta-analysis, meta-synthesis and quantitative epidemiological studies.

“We must continuously strive for high quality care for women and babies to give them the best start in life.”

Georgina Sosa has been a Midwife in the UK for 26 years. She trained and worked at the Whittington Hospital in London from 1995-2003, where she opened an African well women clinic for women with female genital mutilation (FGM) and completed a Midwifery MSc. In 2003, Georgina moved to the James Paget Hospital (JPUH) in Norfolk and worked as a clinical midwifery manager until 2010. Georgina has published a paper concerning her experiences caring for women with FGM in the Midwifery journal “Midirs” and written a chapter titled the “Midwife Manager” in the book “Becoming a Midwife”. Georgina then worked as a Governance Midwife from 2010 to March 2014 leading the maternity services at the JPUH to CNST - Clinical Negligence scheme for Trusts level III.

Most recently, Georgina has successfully completed her PhD which explored midwifery one-to-one support in labour. She has also co-published papers on the concept analysis of midwifery one-to-one support in labour in 2011 in the journal “Midwifery.” In addition, Georgina has travelled to Sudan to speak at conferences and carry out low risk midwifery workshops and emergency skills & drills. Georgina has worked in all areas of midwifery but has particular passion for the care of women in labour and caring for women with FGM and training professionals concerning labour care and FGM.

The importance of being aware of the limited resources of the planet, protecting our ecological systems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, may seem disconnected from everyday midwifery practice…This session will outline how these issues are affecting maternal health, how the care we provide contributes to the problem, and how we can all be involved in creating the change needed to achieve a liveable future for our children and the children we deliver.  

In 2020, the UK’s NHS was the first health service in the world to commit to being Net Zero carbon emissions by 2045. The initial steps have been heavily steeped in estates, travel and transport; but what about the care and services we provide? Are there practices that can be adopted in Midwifery and Maternity services that can contribute to more sustainable care? And if nothing changes, what are the potential impacts for our services?  

Hosted by: Sue Macdonald, Midwifery Expert, Mayes Midwifery  

Contributions from: Jo Frame, Midwife; Clinical Fellow, Chief Nurses Office, NHS England; Chief Sustainability Officer’s Clinical Fellowship and; Alice Clack, Obstetrician, SusQI Education Fellow  

Biographies: 

Alice is a consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with a special interest in Sustainability and Obstetric Education in low resource settings, and has worked in Obstetric and Midwifery education projects in Liberia, The Gambia and Sierra Leone.  She is currently working as a fellow in Sustainable Quality Improvement at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, and is in active member of the climate activist group, Doctors for Extinction Rebellion. She was also part of the Climate and Health score card project, and is currently working with other Obstetricians to develop a 'Sustainability and Health' e-learning module for the RCOG platform.  

Josephine is a Chief Sustainability Officer’s Clinical Fellow based within Greener NHS and Chief Nurse’s Office at NHS England. Josephine qualified as a midwife in 2014 and has since worked in all areas of midwifery in south-east London. Josephine’s substantive post is as Practice Development Midwife, planning and facilitating MDT study and simulation days. She has continued to have ongoing passion around parental education, informed choice and supporting those at risk of social disadvantage health inequity. As part of her fellowship, Josephine is working towards embedding sustainability within midwifery and maternity care by identifying areas for opportunity and launching sustainable QI projects and by identifying areas for opportunity and launching sustainable QI projects working towards achieving the NHS Carbon Net Zero plan.  

Register your free place today to get a personalised reminder from us. 

Join us at 7 pm on Wednesday at this hour-long online programme with live audience Q&A to update your knowledge. 

Live on Maternity and Midwifery Forum | 7pm London, UK | Wednesday's throughout 2022. #MidwiferyHour

Listen to the Maternity & Midwifery Hour Podcast - Support us on Patreon.  

Catch up on demand Every episode is available free after the live stream – this is created especially for you by Neil Stewart Associates and filmed by Narrowcast Media Group and is available from Midwifery Forum’s YouTube – don’t forget to subscribe to our channel.  

Catch up on the highlights with our supporters - MATFLIX.

Can you reduce and recognise severe tears?  

In this episode, Lizzie Phillips asks if midwives can change the story of women's pelvic health, sharing women's real stories following perineal damage.  As midwives, we are women's advocates and have opportunities to educate women, use techniques to reduce trauma during birth and give real choices throughout pregnancy and birth to the families we care for. It's midwives that recognise red flags and deviations from physiological birth, but is women's pelvic health seen as an essential part of our ongoing training?  

This talk will empower you with the knowledge you need to get started on your journey to improving your knowledge of life long pelvic health.  

Hosted by: Sue Macdonald, Midwifery Expert, Mayes Midwifery 

Contributions from: Lizzie Phillips, Specialist Perineal Midwife, University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust Clinical Midwifery Lead OASI2 and contributions from User representatives 

Biography: Lizzie Phillips Lizzie is an enthusiastic advocate for women's pelvic health and works at Plymouth Hospital. For the past 6 years she has been at the forefront of developing a new framework for reducing perineal trauma, improving recognition and repair and recovery from severe tears. She is a mum of two beautiful daughters and lives in the South West between the rugged moors and glorious sea.  

Register your free place today to get a personalised reminder from us.

Join us at 7 pm on Wednesday at this hour-long online programme with live audience Q&A to update your knowledge.

Live on Maternity and Midwifery Forum | 7pm London, UK | Wednesday's throughout 2022.

Listen to the Maternity & Midwifery Hour Podcast

Support us on Patreon.

Our research project examined informed consent during pregnancy, labour, and birth in the case of parents with limited English-proficiency (LEP) in Scotland and for whom interpreting services might be needed. It is often difficult for LEP parents to access adequate information in their own languages during perinatal care and this greatly contributes to poor maternal health outcomes.  

The main objective of the project was to understand informed consent from an interdisciplinary perspective of midwifery and translation & interpreting studies. We ran a series of expert focus groups and interactive workshops with researchers and practitioners, which allowed us to create an environment where the concept of informed consent in multilingual and multicultural settings in Scottish maternity services could be viewed through fresh eyes.  

Hosted by: Sue Macdonald, Midwifery Expert, Mayes Midwifery  

Contributions from: Dr Jenny Patterson, Midwifery Lecturer, Edinburgh Napier University and;

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The weeks following birth, also referred to as the fourth trimester, are a critical period for both mother and baby, setting the foundations for long-term health and well-being. Postpartum care should be an ongoing process, rather than a single encounter, with services and support tailored to each woman’s individual needs to optimise health and improve outcomes for women and the wider community.  Some of the issues that women and people commonly face in the postnatal period include discomfort following the birth, challenges with feeding, issues with bladder and bowel function, severe fatigue and mood disorders.  

Hosted by: Dr Jenny Hall, Curator Editor, Maternity and Midwifery Forum/MATFLIX  

Contributions from: Sheena Byrom OBE, Midwife Consultant and Director, All4Maternity and; Marie Louise, The Modern Midwife   

Register your free place today to get a personalised reminder from us. 

Join us at 7 pm on Wednesday at this hour-long online programme with live audience Q&A to update your knowledge. 

Live on Maternity and Midwifery Forum | 7pm London, UK | Wednesday's throughout 2022. 

Listen to the Maternity & Midwifery Hour Podcast 

Support us on Patreon.

Giving birth by Caesarean Section can be challenging for women and their families, as they cope with recovering after major surgery and caring for a new baby.

Janine and Leonie, two very experienced midwives, wrote ‘C-Section Recovery Manual: Your Body, Your Recovery’, for women as a unique resource.

In this session they will share how we, as midwives and maternity care workers, can support, educate and empower women and families, so that they can recover to full health and well-being and enjoy being new parents.

I describe myself as an author by accident, quite simply finding myself putting pen to paper all the clinical, trade learnt skills of a 42 year NHS career. Spanning general nursing, midwifery, and health visiting. In an attempt to leave a legacy of knowledge and skills to enhance the self management of mothers, so they can care for themselves, and in turn make that transition to motherhood, equipped and forearmed to navigate the hurdles of recovery and motherhood. The clinical path I have walked has exposed me to plan for the avoidable and innovate to make the difference you want to see. There is always a way through to share what is important, I look forward to sharing my maternity story with you.

Leonie is known for her C-section recovery advocacy and support. She is a nurse, midwife, author, educator, innovator and founding director of ‘Caesarcare’, an online service business helping support women after caesarean birth She has worked with thousands of C-section mothers during her forty years in clinical practice and has personal experience with her own six caesarean births. Leonie taught in the Bachelor of midwifery program for ten years at Australian Catholic University and Charles Sturt University. In 2010 Leonie was admitted as a Fellow to the Australian College of Nursing in recognition of her service to holistic healthcare in 2005 when she founded an Australian health promotion charity. Leonie’s recent achievements include creating a surgical wound splint, caesarean recovery journal pages, a scar tracker and six weeks of day planners. These innovations can be seen in the ‘C-section Recovery Manual-Your Body Your Recovery. which she co-authored with Janine Mcknight Cowan.

Listen to the Maternity & Midwifery Hour Podcast.

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In this session, two midwives from Norfolk and Waveney LMNS share their trip to Uganda as a part of a small faculty of midwives, to provide training workshops for midwives, with midwives.  

The aim of the workshops were to share learning on the main topics of haemorrhage, evidence-based care, respectful care, resuscitation and research.  

Mollie and Nicola will be exploring the midwives’ day to day experiences of international midwifery with reflections on their own practices  

Hosted by: Sue Macdonald, Midwifery Expert, Mayes Midwifery  

Contributions from: Mollie Haskey, Practice Development Midwife Norfolk and Waveney Local Maternity and Neonatal System, James Paget University Hospital, and; Nicola Lovett, Lead Midwife, Norfolk and Waveney

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Supported by MATFLIX: https://matflix.co.uk

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Watch the live stream: https://facebook.com/midwiferyforum/live

In this session we are looking at current challenges facing maternity care, and midwives. We will look at strategies to shine brightly, using different perspectives, and looking at how we as midwives can speak out, write and share what we do and what we can do.  

(SFA) We also explore how you can, as a midwife shape the agenda!  

Hosted by: Sue Macdonald, Midwifery Expert, Mayes Midwifery  

Contributions from: Alys Einion, Associate Professor; Author; Editor-in-Chief, The Practising Midwife and Oluwaseyi Akinlaj, Consultant Midwife: Midwifery Led Care and Public Health, Princess Alexandra NHS Trust  Listen to the Maternity & Midwifery Hour Podcast 

Support us on Patreon.  

Supported by MATFLIX: https://matflix.co.uk 

Register to watch the next episode LIVE or attend a Maternity & Midwifery Festival: https://mmf.eventbrite.com 

Watch the live stream: https://facebook.com/midwiferyforum/live