Welcome to 2022…

In this new year message Sue Macdonald, Curator and presenter of the maternity and midwifery forum festivals and midwifery hour, reflects on the year past and looks forward to 2022.

Well. Whatever happened to 2021? It seems to have flown past, and now the Advent calendars are complete, Christmas cards arrived , and plans are done for festive celebrations. Covid-19 is still firmly on the agenda, bringing in another nasty variant, and bumping up the infection rate alarmingly. So this has, and continues to impact on people’s plans, visiting families and friends and on visiting loved ones in care homes.

The new agenda seems to be to reduce our contact with others as much as we can, don masks and face coverings, and avoid crowded places. Nowadays, I personally find social distancing more comfortable anyway, but the news is grim, and everything feels very grey.

The new variant and the statistics rolling in every day take us back to those first few weeks of the lockdown, and I can imagine that many people are going to feel anxious, fearful and, above all, tired and dispirited. My NHS colleagues especially, who have been working so hard and with so much commitment over the last two years, will be feeling tired, and we all need to recognise that, and support and care for them, as they care for us. In the maternity services, I have been very aware that this whole period has meant changing and adding to roles, and having to be very creative and VERY determined in providing quality care to mothers, babies and their families. Overwhelmingly I am so proud of how midwives, student midwives, maternity care support workers and all of those within the maternity services have risen to the challenge and continue to do so.

The Maternity and Midwifery Hour will be celebrating its 2nd birthday in March. It was developed in response to the Covid Pandemic – as we really wanted to provide digestible, interesting information and debate to midwives and students, along with an opportunity to connect. As a midwife, I know we love to meet, discuss, debate and share experiences, and the MM hour has given at least a flavour of that, online. As we end our 5th series, and I start planning the 6th, I am reflecting on our wonderful speakers, and the topics we have discussed, and pay tribute to their generosity, enthusiasm and commitment. My role is challenging, but a delight – I get to chair the hour, meet wonderful practitioners. I feel as though I know many of our fantastic participants – midwives, student midwives, doulas and mums (and dads too), and I sincerely thank them for their attention, their feedback and also their challenging questions!

The Maternity and Midwifery Forum have been providing online Festivals over the last two years, and developed a hybrid model in Cardiff and Edinburgh. This meant that a significant number of students and midwives were able to meet face to face – masks, hand sanitiser and social distancing firmly adhered to – and that was great. The next Festival in London promises to be as delicious… though we are always vigilant for any new developments or regulations and, if the government Covid restrictions change, we will adjust however necessary and ensure that participants will still get a great event.. whether online, hybrid or face to face. Whatever happens, the events are all recorded and accessible ‘on the day’ and beyond.

Over the last few weeks, many colleagues have been unwell with the new variant, and I wish everyone a speedy and total recovery to good health. I am also very conscious that we have lost colleagues, friends and loved ones, and those cannot be forgotten.

What I have learned personally over these two years is about the things that really matter – the hug of a loved one.. being in a group of friends, and also actually telling the people you love, that you love them NOW.

As we start a new year, I want to say a big thank you to all of you, and also ask you to make sure you are caring for yourselves as well as you care for others.

So I hope you had a good, peaceful Christmastime, and hope you could be with your friends and family in whatever way you felt safe. I am hoping, like many of you, for a better 2022, where we can have some new normal, meet, laugh and do some of the things we have not been able to do easily over 2020 and 2021.

Love Sue