The Maternity and Midwifery Hour is a regular weekly event, discussing all things midwifery! It is now entering its 15th season. Sue Macdonald, as curator for both the Maternity and Midwifery festivals and Midwifery Hour, reflects on the last year, and the one just beginning.
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” —John Steinbeck, author
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They say a week is a long time in politics – what does that make a year? Yet sadly many things have not changed for the better – notably the growing conflicts in the Middle East and in the heart of Europe. As the wildfires tear across California, it is also a painful reminder to us that the ever present and growing danger of climate change is ignored at our peril. This can really feel a bit hopeless, as I think about what I can do as a midwife, or as an individual, to make the world better.
Of course, the answer is that each of us can add our individual stamp on the world… to contribute to each woman’s journey through pregnancy and childbirth toward new parenthood.
I am aware that time is rattling past, and my work with curating the Maternity and Midwifery Festivals and the Maternity and Midwifery Hour continues apace. In this article I am focussing on The Maternity and Midwifery Hour, which is now coming up for its fifth birthday. You will recall that the Hour was born in 2020, as we were all grappling with the first lockdown in the UK in response to COVID-19. In some ways that seems a lifetime ago… and then I will notice that my handbag still contains a clean and ready facemask and a bottle of sanitiser, and then it seems disturbingly close. Currently in the UK, with a growing influenza crisis impacting on the NHS, it does feel as though we should use some of the knowledge and habits learned during the COVID pandemic. So maybe it is time to reflect on the longer terms effects of COVID-19 – particularly on midwifery and maternity services.
This train of thought really highlights how the Maternity and Midwifery hour takes shape… sometimes it is awareness of a topic or issue we need to return to… sometimes it is a piece of research or practice development I have read via BlueSky, Twitter or online journals… The Practising Midwife for example, is a real treasure trove; or Facebook where there are a number of groups where student midwives and/or midwives highlight practice and workplace issues that merit a deeper look. And sometimes a practitioner contacts the Maternity and midwifery forum to suggest a topic or put themselves forward to speak. That way, I think we have a lively and relevant programme.
It also underlines some of the really good things we started doing at that time, such as highlighting the need for health and well-being of staff, the ‘wobble rooms’ to just get a breather in a busy days shift, and of course the better use of technology.
So, in this context, what does the coming year hold for the Maternity and Midwifery Hour, and the Festivals?
I continue to be truly grateful to colleagues who generously contribute their time and expertise to the Maternity and Midwifery Hour (MMH). Many of you will know that all of these seminars are offered free, and accessible via MATFLIX.
During 2024, we had some wonderful sessions, which explored so many aspects of midwifery practice. We started series 12 in January (11 sessions), Series 13 in April (12 sessions) and then series 14 in September (13) , so that is 40 hours! Topics explored in the year included looking at uncertain times in UK Midwifery, and Ukraine, which highlighted the challenges faced by midwives and students in the UK, and what one midwife is doing to lead humanitarian work for women and babies in Ukraine; the seemingly intractable problem of bullying in midwifery; living with obesity; nurturing connections and infant feeding; resting reading and writing; midwives in genetic and genomics; the virtual caseload in the classroom; anti oppressive practice in midwifery and maternity services and Hypermobile Ehlers- Danlos syndrome.
The team identified the ‘Top 10 Hours’ which was captured just before Christmas and shown in below. However, this is based on viewing figures, and as more midwives and student midwives in the UK and around the world access different episodes, the top ten will change.
The 2024 Top 10 Maternity and Midwifery Hours
- Pre-eclampsia: From labour to postnatal and beyond
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-12-ep-8-pre-eclampsia-from-labour-to-postnatal-and-beyond/
Anja Johansen-Bibby, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Lead for Maternal Medicine, Milton Keynes University Hospital and Layla Lavallee, Registered Midwife and NIHR Doctoral Fellow, University of Oxford
2. The power of inclusion – language matters
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-12-ep-6-the-power-of-inclusion-language-matters/
Dr Calvin Moorley, Professor of Diversity and Social Justice, London South Bank University and Maria Rowntree, Community Midwife and Dame Elizabeth Anionwu Inclusivity Fellow
3. An ABC of Eclampia
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-12-ep-3-an-abc-of-eclampsia/
Dr Erum Khan, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, National Senior Maternity Advisor to NHSR; Specialist Maternity Advisor to CQC; RCOG patient Safety Committee member and Hsu Chong, Consultant in Maternal and Fetal Medicine, Birmingham Women’s Hospital
4. Reflexology and Acupressure for Pregnancy and Birth
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-12-ep-5-reflexology-and-acupressure-for-pregnancy-and-birth/
Amanda Redford, Midwife, Acupuncturist, Maternity and Fertility Complementary Therapy Specialist and Dr Denise Tiran, CEO / Education Director, Expectancy; Visiting Professor, Qingdao Huikang School of Midwifery, Shanghai, China
5. Emotional intelligence to improve your midwifery
Dr Mo Tabib, Midwifery Lecturer, Robert Gordon University and Stella Nwogu, Matron, Newham University Hospital – Barts Health NHS Trust
6. Waterbirth – A bigger splash
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-14-ep-3-waterbirth-a-bigger-splash/
Dianne Garland, Midwifery Consultant and Author of ‘Waterbirth – an attitude to care’
7. The lithotomy challenge: delivering kinder care
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-12-ep-4-the-lithotomy-challenge-delivering-kinder-care/
Florence Wilcock, Consultant Obstetrician, Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Podcast Host, The Obs Pod, Deepa Santhosh, The Desi Midwife and Helen Green, Preceptorship Clinical Support Midwife, Kingston Hospital NHS
8. Improving care after pregnancy loss or the death of a baby
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-14-ep-4-improving-care-after-pregnancy-loss-or-the-death-of-a-baby/
Marc Harder, Head of Bereavement Care & Hospital Liaison and Lisa Rich, Healthcare Education Lead at Sands
9. Epilepsy – in pregnancy and childbearing
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-14-ep-10-epilepsy-in-pregnancy-and-childbearing/
Kim Morley, Epilepsy Specialist Midwife Practitioner, Epilepsy Action, Catherine Owens, Midwifery and Epilepsy Coordinator, Epilepsy Action and Alison Fuller, Director of Improvement & Influencing, Epilepsy Action
10.Caring for pregnant women with substance dependency
https://www.matflix.co.uk/series-12-ep-7-caring-for-pregnant-women-with-substance-dependency/
Dr Elaine Moore, Retired Midwife, Ayrshire, Scotland
If I was asked to name my favourite… like a mum with children, I wouldn’t be able to choose. I have enjoyed them all, found some more challenging than others, but I have learned something valuable from every single one.
What is chosen for the MMH is selected to be contemporary, interesting and relevant to practice – whether that be in terms of clinical, education or management work. The aim is for this all to be enjoyable, peppered with some challenge.
Just a snapshot….
This year we start the series with what promises to be a really interesting session. Ann Remmers and Laura Lewinson will present a project designed to improve black and brown women’s experiences and outcomes in the maternity services… We are then privileged to be joined by Professor Mary Renfrew who will be talking about her independent report into the Northern Ireland Maternity Services, and what is needed to improve care and experiences of women, babies and families (Renfrew 2024). This transformative report has significant implications for the other countries of the UK.
We will then look at the challenge of homelessness for pregnant and childbearing women as Sara Cumming and Dr. Monica Lakhanpaul–Misession share their recent clinical research and we hear from two key workers in this field.
At the following session we will be joined by Dr Myrto Chronaki, an independent researcher, with private practice who will present her doctoral work exploring the perinatal experiences of women with disabilities in Greece, alongside Angelina Ankomah who will be sharing her work with supporting women and families with learning disabilities, in the UK.
This takes us up to the London Festival… and the day after that we will have an hour centred on the work and functions of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
So… if you have yet to join us, please do… you just need to register via the Maternity and Midwifery Forum on Facebook… https://www.facebook.com/MidwiferyForum . The sessions are free to access. And, because we know how busy our students and midwives are, we record all of the sessions, so if you cannot join us on the day (Wednesday 7-8pm), you can catch up anytime later. The advantage of joining us ‘live’ is that you can send in a question to the speaker/s.
We at the Maternity and Midwifery Forum are totally committed to supporting midwives, students, and other practitioners and workers supporting women, babies and families in the maternity services, and ensuring that there is access to quality professional development opportunities such as provided by the Festivals, the Spotlight events and the Maternity and Midwifery Hours.
We appreciate that life is challenging at the moment wherever you are in the world – though the challenges will be different. Many midwives are women and have to balance the variety of life’s responsibilities alongside their role as a midwife. In some parts of the world, women’s practice as midwives has been forbidden – which has huge implications for women’s and babies’ future health. We are fortunate in the UK to have both a degree of autonomy in practice and education and regulation. However, this is tempered by a shortfall of midwives within the NHS (RCM 2024) which impacts on the service we are able to provide, and brings a high level of stress and potential burnout. I talked last year about strategies for coping, this will be very individual to you… and will include the support of your family, friends and fellow midwives. It will include being kind to yourself and sometimes accepting that we cannot always be perfect. Ensuring that you get breaks, and that you are caring for yourself as well as others really is crucial. But especially, remember why you came into midwifery, think about the difference YOU have made and recapture the joy that comes from being a midwife – the special moment of birth, the moment when you can see the growing confidence of the new mum, and when the student turns to you to say… now I understand.
“There’s the chance that with every new person that comes into the world something genuinely new could happen, because every person is different. So every birth is potentially a new beginning, and it’s a chance for other new beginnings that could change the world.” – Hannah Arendt
See you on Wednesday I hope!
Love Sue
Sue Macdonald,
Curator Maternity and Midwifery Festivals and Midwifery Hour
January 2025
References
Matflix (2025) https://www.matflix.co.uk/
Renfrew, M (2024) Enabling Safe Quality Midwifery Services and Care in Northern Ireland – Full Report Department of Health Northern Ireland https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/health/doh-midwifery-renfrew-report-oct-2024_0.pdf
Royal College of Midwives (RCM) (2024) RCM evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body 2025/2026 https://rcm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/RCM-PRB-Evidence-2025.pdf