Last Thursday 28th April was the Future of Midwifery Conference at the University of Salford. Midwives from across Britain came to Adelphi house to hear talks from a great variety of perspectives on how to best proceed in saving midwifery services in a time of crisis.
In 2014 the RCM announced that 82% of its members had voted in favour of a strike, and the number of births has historically risen year on year. Not to mention the rise in complex births and social risk factors; or the fact that a great percentage of midwives are over 50 and already short-staffed… These factors and more have lead to a huge pressure on midwifery services. The learning outcomes of the Future of Midwifery Conference included: Extent of the midwifery shortage, impact of ageing midwives, importance of continuity of care, effect of government legislation on staff and training, impact of ageing mothers, preventing industrial action and supporting midwives under pressure.
So that’s the doom and gloom out of the way. The good news is events like The Future of Midwifery are always bursting with the hugely positive atmosphere of a community who know they have to help each other out in every way they can. Isosec take great pride in meeting and getting to know midwives, and it’s great to hear their ideas and share knowledge for what the Future of Midwifery looks like to them.
Lesley Choucri was chairing the event as Senior Lecturer in Midwifery and Supervisor of Midwives at University of Salford. Lesley was expertly followed by Director of RCM England Jacque Gerrard who discussed some of the latest initiatives from RCM to improve midwifery services including the Better Births Initiative and the new Caring For You campaign launching in June. Tracey Cooper from Lancashire Teaching discussed how her hospital ensure mums and partners receive compassionate care that is tailored individually. Then we heard the moving tale of UHMB from Director of Midwifery Sascha Wells following the impact of the Kirkup report and how the future is looking bright for Morecambe Bay with new birthing units and a surge in patient engagement.
Dawn Jankowicz, specialist midwife discussed the process Bradford went through in becoming a paperless maternity service, a concept that Isosec’s Nigel Elson and Marc Poulaud expanded upon. We discussed how community maternity app MIA works on tablet devices to revolutionise midwives’ working lives. MIA has been proven to increase breastfeeding, promote team sharing of information, increase data quality, leave a clear audit trail of data for Information Governance, pay for itself in less than four months, increase staff satisfaction – even reduce staff sickness.
Some of the benefits of MIA Maternity, presented by Isosec at Future of Midwifery Conference.
Later in the afternoon we heard from Sisk Healthcare, Jenny Clarke (or Jenny the M as most of us know her!) from Blackpool Fylde and Wyre about her amazing Skin To Skin campaign and new Sidecots campaign. We also heard from Dr Prabhu at WWL.
It was inspiring to hear from so many people in the networking breaks too, all their stories from hospitals who have all felt the effects of recent pressures. Isosec are proud to have a place in the Future of Midwifery and to offer midwives a revolutionary digital tool that can ease the hardships facing our midwives today.
If you would like to know more about Isosec or book a demo to see MIA Maternity for yourself please do not hesitate to get in touch on info@isosec.co.uk.
