It goes without saying that 2020 was a year like no other.
We began the International year of the Nurse and Midwife as usual by hosting our annual London festival in January and were lucky enough to travel to Dublin in February to host our first ever All-Ireland Festival which was a great success. A few short weeks later the world was in lockdown.
With the pandemic taking hold and face to face events no longer a possibility we made plans to move our remaining schedule of festivals online. However we wanted to do more to help support the midwives and healthcare professionals who were working on the frontline in the hardest possible circumstances. So we launched the Maternity & Midwifery hour – a weekly programme live streamed through our Facebook page which would address concerns raised by COVID-19 along with wider midwifery issues.
With season 3 of Maternity & Midwifery hour streaming from Wednesday 6th January and in recognition of all of the fabulous speakers we have featured to date we thought we would look back at the top 10 most watched episodes from our first 2 series.
#10. “Pre-eclampsia”
Professor Andy Shennan, Professor of Obstetrics, King’s College London; Trustee, APEC and Caitlin Wilson, Consultant Midwife, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust / University of Worcester
#9. “Supporting Bereaved Families”
Marc Harder, UK Programme Manager, National Bereavement Care Pathway , SANDS Charity and Clare Worgan, Training and Learning Resources Manager, SANDS Charity
#8. “BAME Perspectives from the Frontline”
Lola Ornato, Midwife, Whittington Health NHS Trust and Mala Morjaria, Practice nurse / Midwife
#7. “Loss and Bereavement: an empty cot”
Clare Beesley, Bereavement Midwife, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust Bereavement Team and Kirsty Knight, Co-founder and bereaved mum, 4Louis
#6. “Educating Tomorrow’s Midwives”
Dr Anna Byrom, Senior Midwifery Lecturer, Facilitator of Learning, Placement Quality Project Lead; Sherrylynne Babolcsay, Midwifery Course Leader and Sarah Cordey, Lecturer in Midwifery, University of Central Lancashire
#5. “Wellbeing Matters”
Dr Sheena Byrom OBE, The Practising Midwife Journal and Jenny Clarke (Jenny the Midwife)
#4. “Dismantling Racism & Inequalities in Midwifery Education”
Alicia Burnett, Third year student midwife at the University of West London, Editor in Chief of The Student Midwife Journal and Sarah Esegbona-Adeigbe, Senior Midwifery Lecturer, London South Bank University
#3. “Sickle Cell & Blood Disorders in Pregnancy”
Rachel Kesse-Adu, Consultant Haematologist, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; Joyce Adu-Amankwah, Specialist Haemoglobinopathies Midwife, St. George’s Hospital NHS Trust and Dr Jenny Hall, Editor, MATFLIX
#2. “Midwifery Students Stepping Up”
Dr Anna Byrom, Senior Midwifery Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and Alicia Burnett, Student Midwife, University of West London
So on to our Number 1 most watched episode of Maternity & Midwifery Hour of 2020 which features Professor Amy Brown, Professor of Child Public Health, Department of Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences, Swansea University and Francesca Entwistle, Professional Officer – Policy and Advocacy Lead, Unicef UK discussing “COVID-19 and Infant Feeding.”
#1. “COVID-19 and Infant Feeding”
Professor Amy Brown, Professor of Child Public Health, Department of Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences, Swansea University and Francesca Entwistle, Professional Officer – Policy and Advocacy Lead, Unicef UK
We’d like to say a huge thank you to our host, curator and festival chair Sue Macdonald, Co-Editor of Mayes Midwifery and all of our speakers, who have been so generous in sharing their time, insight and expertise with the midwifery community and we look forward to (hopefully) seeing you again in person at some point in 2021.
Happy New Year from the team at Maternity & Midwifery Forum!