What is midwifery?

The role of a midwife - video transcript

There’s a lot of misconception of what midwife’s role actually is, that, you know, that we some way carry a basket into birth room and take a baby out, and that’s about it.

The midwife is the most important role in the whole journey for women. So I actually think of my role as a source of comfort, as in if you’ve got a problem or worry, you can come and talk. And if I don’t have the right skills, or information, I refer you to those that do. We discuss every issue that comes up, and you get both a medical and midwifery point of view together. You’re the one constant in their life a lot of the time, and you can give them care all throughout the pregnancy, the birth and postnatal. We really try and make it about the woman and what she needs. We act as a conduit towards social services, mental health, we can liaise, we can relate to their GPs, we’re community-oriented.

Midwives really are specialists in normal pregnancy, which for the vast majority of the population, that’s exactly what they are.

Being with the midwife means that they get to build that relationship and then they feel confident that their body can help them birth their baby and that they can do it. We can be there for them and reassure women that you know, this is normal, and you can do this. I think that has so much power not just at that time of their life, but forever.

Something that always gets me to cry at a birth is if a woman says, “Oh my god, I did this.” If a woman says thank you, you did amazing for me, I feel like I failed because they feel that I had to be there to make it happen. Whereas if they feel like they made it happen themselves and they were empowered and that’s, that’s when I feel like I’ve made a difference.

My midwife and I - video transcript

Well people say that it takes a village to raise children and I honestly believe it takes a village to support pregnant women. I have a midwife that follows me right the way through right up until six to eight weeks after. They’re in a small team – it’s a familiar face that you get to communicate with all the time. I found it really helpful talking to midwives and they’re so well educated. They took time to get to know the family, not just me, and the little baby inside.

It’s your choice | Understanding midwifery - video transcript

For some people finding the right type of care or particularly finding the right type of midwifery care depends really on what’s important to them.

My words of advice would be to look around and see what models of care are available in your area taking into consideration the midwifery group practices, GP shared care, right through to you know your private midwives.

Word of mouth is definitely a really good way to find midwifery care. Ask your family and friends if you’re at a barbecue and there’s ladies that have just had babies, ask them about their experience and ask them if they saw midwives, why was a midwife important to them and how they found their journey with a midwife.

I chose a midwifery model where I had a team of midwives who supported me through my pregnancy, and I got to form a relationship with each midwife on the team. My partner was nervous that we didn’t have an obstetrician. So communicating that with our midwife and having the reassurance that there’s an obstetrician in the background and as soon as we needed or if you need that that will be available.

I guess our relationship with midwives kind of definitely kind of started before we even got pregnant when we used the midwives to understand what our journey would be with with having children. And then once I got pregnant, because my health was not great, we had to have obstetric care but we still saw a midwife regularly throughout the process.

Every single woman will need a midwife involved in their care. So it’s really important to choose a model of midwifery care that’s appropriate to you.

What is continuity of carer? - video transcript

Continuity of care is where we look after women through the pregnancy, look after them from the beginning of pregnancy, care for them during the birth and look after them postnatally for up to six weeks. It just means that you get the opportunity to build a rapport and partnership with the midwife and get to know them, and they get to know you.

This model of care really empowers women to feel that they’re part of their birth and to make the choices that they want to make, but in a way that is also supported medically, because I knew that I had to back up if I needed it.

You know, even just from the second appointment when I came in, and I didn’t have to repeat my history, what I wanted, what I was there for, what my name was – that’s a big deal.

But it’s also just, you know, having that time and pregnancy to get to know them so that they feel safe in the birth. You can help them to make those decisions throughout the birthing process, because we’ve already discussed it – I know they want. I can help to meet their needs because we’ve already talked about it.

Because I formed a relationship over time there was trust over time. So for me attending those appointments and asking as many questions as we needed to, and I never got the sense that I was being rushed out the door, I always felt like there was time in an appointment to have anything that we were unsure about or didn’t know about answered.

We’re really involved in education and information giving so that the woman can be well prepared when it comes to birthing a baby, even if they’ve had a baby before that, there’s lots of things that happen in pregnancy which can be quite concerning to women and being able to call someone and, and to get advice from someone that you trust helps them to know that that’s the right, you know, what the right decision might be for them.

I remember their names and I will always remember the role that they’ve had in creating our family.