Reflections leading to new beginnings

As a New Year commences many of us will take the time to reflect on what the Old Year was like for us and those around us.

As the Chair of the Midwifery Forum one of my tasks at the end of a year is to produce an annual report on behalf of the Midwifery Forum Committee. Whilst this is often seen as a daunting task it is always one which takes me by surprise and excitement as we begin to pull together all that we have achieved and been involved in as members of the midwifery forum. The most recent report was no different. For report highlights, see: Midwifery Forum Our Work

Project work

Transition from Fertility to Midwifery Care - This joint project succeeded in the development of online evidence based guidelines for fertility nurses, women's health (early pregnancy) and midwives around the transition to maternity care for women who become pregnant after fertility treatment. This was a joint multi forum project, which also engaged with a wide range of members and external stakeholders. The launch of these guidelines was undertaken through a well-attended webinar event, and was followed up by a patient focused seminar run by a Fertility Network UK.

Representation by Committee members

The Midwifery forum has been active in representing the RCN and its interest at a wide number of key events and groups throughout the year. Reports have been submitted to FGG on the details of these activities:

• MMHA (Maternal Mental Health Alliance) 
• Perceptions of Midwifery, Capital Midwife and Sub Group-Workplace Culture 
• ICM (Regulation Committee) and ICM Northern European meetings 
• HEE Maternity Support Worker (MSW) framework
• National Bereavement Care Pathways for Pregnancy and childbirth, including NBCP Scotland Core Group 
• NHSE Maternity Retention
• RCN Forum work on Clinical Supervision 
• Midwifery Preceptorship Standards
• NHSE Infant Screening and Genomics. 

Of course none of this would be possible without the commitment and enthusiasm of the committee members and of course the support encouragement and guidance from our professional lead Carmel Bagness. And as we bid farewell to Judy Evans who has been a longstanding member of the committee bringing her passion and commitment to promoting midwifery care we welcome our new member Keira McElroy a clinical midwife from Northern Ireland. We now have Scotland England and Northern Ireland represented on our committee so Welsh midwives we need you. Please do consider joining us when the application process opens during the summer.

This year we are undertaking a multi forum project which will develop resources around Women’s Mental Health and Trauma Informed Care and ultimately lead to a campaign to raise awareness about the impact of trauma on Women’s mental health.

We also have a fantastic opportunity to showcase the work of the Midwifery Forum on an International platform as I am extremely privileged to attend the International Confederation of Midwives in Bali where I will be standing proudly beside a poster we designed that reflects many aspects of work undertaken by the Midwifery Forum, alongside participating in the scientific meetings with midwifery colleagues around the world.

So as we move forward into 2023 and face the challenges we are already aware of and those still to manifest, let’s not forget to Reflect and Celebrate the tremendous amount of great work and initiatives midwives are involved in and all with the same aim of improving care for women and their families alongside strengthening and building on the development of support and encouragement for colleagues in whatever setting maternity care is provided.