Reflections of a Midwife Part Thirteen

It’s October 2024 and my Legacy Midwife Contract completed at the end of March this year.

It was shall we say an “interesting” role and sadly didn’t pan out as I had imagined it would have. Many of the newly qualified midwives welcomed us with open arms, eager to learn, but sadly not all. Myself and Sara were offered extensions of our contracts, but Sara is much younger than me, has a new role and moved onto well deserved pastures new and I quite honestly didn’t want to stay on any longer. I’m older now and I do have a lower tolerance for shall we say “unhealthy working conditions”

Again certain things are not for here, but as I have limited years left I want to feel in control and set my own standards and more importantly I wanted to have unlimited time to support pregnant and new moms, and so I decided to concentrate on my classes full time and start daytime classes which include postnatal support, and so that’s what I have done.

Alongside Pregnancy Yoga Classes, Antenatal Classes, Hypnobirthing Courses and Baby First Aid, I now run Baby Massage and Mom & Baby Yoga Classes and I’m just loving every minute of it.

I’ve also had the time to reconnect with the school myself and Tony built in The Gambia 20 years ago and this led me to connect with an amazing lady called Del who cares for Orphan babies until they are one year old supplying them with milk, bottles, clothes, medication and anything else they need. I have been out there twice this year and between my lovely Yummy Mummies we have shipped 13 barrels of supplies to Gambia and sent in excess of £7000 for baby milk too !You are all just amazing  I will be back there teaching student nurses and supporting the clinic in December for 3 weeks.

Of course I am still a Registered Midwife and I’m on the “Hospital Bank” which means I can literally call up and do as many shifts as I choose to each week and it’s no secret how short we are of midwives right now. I haven’t done any shifts yet, however that may change as I had a call from the DOM two days ago offering me a contract.

I’m not sure what my answer will be, however I will do what I can to help as times are tough.

So watch this space