It is sad to hear yet another hospital midwife feeling under attack. It can
be argued that hospital midwives have an even greater role to play in
changing the maternity service and catering for women's needs. I turned down
the chance of working as an independent in the UK because I believed that
the women in hospital needed me more. They were birthing in a strange
environment amongst strangers, many in vulnerable social situations. The
statistics demonstrated the poor chances these women had of avoiding an
instrumental birth or c-section.
It is because most women give birth in hospitals, and because the statistics
for physiological birth are shocking - that hospital midwives are so
important. It is time we asked ourselves how we can improve these outcomes
for women and increase satisfaction rates. Many of us are, and as I have
said, I have come across far more motivated midwives in the Australian
hospital system than the UK. Let's not kid ourselves that there is not a lot
to fight for if we do not want to end up as obstetric nurses. We are
prevented in many ways from making our own clinical judgements by
guidelines, policies etc. We are prevented from developing and maintaining
midwifery skills such as waterbirth, suturing, full spectrum care - in some
hospitals even catching the baby.
It is only by acknowledging our position and refusing to accept that over
30% of women (fit and healthly by global comparison) are unable to give
birth without an operation. By looking at our own contribution to individual
care and to the midwifery profession. By standing together as midwives
regardless of where we practise that we can start to change things for
ourselves and the women we care for.
We need to stop taking discussion and debate personally and take a leaf out
of the drs book. Discuss, question, debate.... and learn. I am pleased that
this debate has drawn some lurkers out to provide us with their valuable
perspective we would otherwise have been ignorant of.
Rachel - another hospital midwife
From: "mariet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: [ozmidwifery] re: hospital based midwife
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 10:30:49 +1100
I wanted to respond to this because it touches something I've felt for a
while. I've been a lurker on this list for ages but not a contributor
because, despite many years as a midwife (and I use the term advisedly, I
don't consider myself an obstetric nurse) I've had the impression from the
language used on this forum that the work I do and even the women I look
after is somehow not as valuable or important as community based midwifery
or birth centre care. I don't for a moment think that this is the stated
position of most of the contributors to this list. But to a hospital based
midwife it certainly can come across that way. I've never been accused of
being a shrinking violet but I haven't cared to expose myself here, to
dismissive comments about the place I choose to work or the people I work
with. Not all hospital midwives do their 8 or 10 hour shift and ignore it
for the rest of the day.
People are people. I have had atrocious handovers of care from the midwife
on the shift before me. I have also had atrocious handovers of care, or
refusal to share antenatal findings, from homebirth midwives bringing women
into hospital.
Women who come to the place where I work come from a wide cross section of
the community. Many come from countries where English is not the first
language. Some are highly educated, some are illiterate. There are early
attenders and women having their fourth child in succession without booking
in or having any antenatal care. Not to put too fine a point on it, not all
families are committed to providing the best start for their babies. As
midwives we give care to all these women, the best we can.
I joined this list in the hope of learning more and gaining support for
some of the difficult times and knotty questions that arise. I've learned
heaps and am so glad I joined; getting different viewpoints from the ones I
encounter every day has been so valuable and opened my mind to many new
things.
But I can't say I've been confident that I would receive support, I came
to the conclusion long ago that my place of work would overshadow what I
had to say and I do not feel inclined to apologise for the fact that not
only do I work in a hospital Delivery Suite, I even feel satisfactin and
joy in much of what I do.
Another hospital midwife
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