Midwife of the Year
Adebola Aroboto has been a midwife for 20 years. Throughout her career, she has worked as a labour ward midwife, community midwife, African Women Well specialist midwife and currently works as an examination of the newborn/female genital mutilation (FGM)/perineal health specialist midwife. ‘These years have been an adventure for me,’ Adebola says. ‘Every time I supported a woman and her family through pregnancy, childbirth and beyond, I become part of that woman's journey and her story. To me, these experiences have been priceless.’
Winning this award has given Adebola a sense of self-fulfilment. Her mission is to continue to be the type of midwife who provides excellent personal care, always putting women's health first. ‘This award is almost like a milestone in fulfilling my passion,’ she says. ‘This passion is to ensure that no woman suffers in silence when it comes to their sexual health as a result of a perineal injury sustained during childbirth or the harmful practice of FGM, and to further raise more awareness around the emotional and physical complications of FGM in pregnancy and childbirth. I, along with others, am working towards the global eradication of FGM by 2030.’
Adebola strongly believes that winning this award will enable her to further raise awareness of these issues. As one of the Florence Nightingale's Windrush Nurse and Midwives leadership scholars, she plans to use all the leadership skills, confidence and knowledge from the course to contribute to FGM through evidence-based research. ‘It is a field that is not talked about or researched enough in maternity,’ Adebola says. ‘There is not enough published evidence to support postpartum perineal care. As a capital midwife and as a midwife in the future, I will thrive to be an excellent contributor in transforming care for every woman and helping to create long-term change and improvements to patient care and health outcomes.’
With midwifery being a profession that has had roots in healthcare of women for centuries, Adebola is proud to contribute to its progression in today's day and age by bringing relevant issues affecting women to the forefront. ‘The skills and experience I've learnt along the way has enabled me to provide excellent women-centred care. As passionate and autonomous practitioners, we are absolutely accountable for the care we give,’ she says. Adebola feels midwives don't receive the recognition they deserve and midwifery is not seen as an attractive career path to the new generation. ‘Midwives do not just deliver babies; there are a number of specialist roles that a midwife can fulfil,’ Adebola says. ‘It is important to recognise and celebrate a profession that produced the legacies of Mary Seacole, a business woman and nurse who set up the “British Hotel” during the Crimean War for sick and convalescent officers. Another great example was Florence Nightingale, who was a statistician and the founder of modern nursing, but only came into prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War.
‘This year being the international year of the nurse and midwife, as well as the bicentenary anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, this is a great time for midwives and nurses all over the world to use the opportunity to leave their comfort zones and showcase their passion. More importantly, it is an incredible opportunity to share our experiences and nurture new generations of midwives.’
Team of the Year
Collectively, the team − namely Emma, Rachael, Sophie, Tracy and Wendy − offer newly qualified midwives a wealth of experience from within midwifery. The team's focus is mainly on obstetric-led intrapartum care, labour ward co-ordinating, antenatal, postnatal and community care, and critical care/outreach nursing. ‘As a team, it is an absolute honour to be recognised for the previous, current and ongoing work we are doing within improving the preceptorship model, recruitment and retention at local level, and for the midwifery workforce as a whole,’ they said. ‘We are highly privileged in our role as we guide, support and nurture newly qualified midwives to develop their professional and personal skills to progress to safe, effective and passionate band six midwives, role models and future leaders.’
Winning this award, alongside the pride the team feels from the positive response from their newly qualified midwives, wider team and statistical evidence, it has empowered them to continue to improve and drive the agenda forward, both locally and nationally. ‘Our newly qualified midwives are highly valued within the profession and our organisation, and the clinical preceptor support midwife role has quickly become fundamental to supporting our local midwifery workforce,’ the team says.
Charity of the Year
Creating Equalz had been unincorporated as a charitable organisation since 2014. However, in 2018, following support from senior midwifery lecturer Alison Power, the UoN Change makers award and Hiten Vyas, the organisation became an officially charitable company (not for profit). ‘For many years, we worked really hard to establish effective partnerships with public sector bodies and other voluntary and community organisations around pushing the female genital mutilation (FGM) agenda forward, but struggled with health partnerships,’ says Laney Holland, founding director of Creating Equalz. ‘This award has personally helped me to realise those years were not in vain and that moving Creating Equalz forward, with the help of UoN in collaboration with my qualification, was a smart move for the women we support and the wider agenda around race, health and gender inequality.’
Laney hopes to set up a community led, midwife-supported women's clinic in the future. She believes women from practising FGM communities are the real problem solvers to ending FGM. ‘Until then, I will remain proud of my achievement and share this when delivering training through the charity,’ Laney says. ‘I believe the recognition of celebrating achievements for midwives is important as it keeps us forever striving to make outcomes better for women and their families.’
Midwifery leadership
Fiona Gwynedd Giraud has worked in the NHS in Wales for 36 years. She trained in North Wales and has a masters in midwifery. Her career to date includes both community and acute nursing and midwifery. Fiona joined the women and families service management team in 2005, becoming head of midwifery and gynaecology a couple of years later at the North West Wales NHS Trust. In 2010, she was appointed as the associate chief of staff for women's services in Betsi Cadwaladr University health board and appointed to her current position as director of midwifery and women's services in 2018.
‘I was very proud to be nominated and absolutely honoured to receive the 2020 British Journal of Midwifery's Midwifery Leadership Award, especially as it coincides with the year of the nurse and midwife celebrations,’ Fiona says. ‘The award to me is not about the individual, it's about the team you work with and the support we give one another so I would like to thank the team.’ With over 32 years in the profession, particularly in her current role, Fiona's focus has been, and will continue to be, on identifying, supporting and developing colleagues in their chosen career paths and in maximising opportunities for all future leaders to ensure that talent is retained, developed and allowed to succeed. ‘I hope that winning the award will inspire others, both locally and nationally, to do the same,’ Fiona says. ‘I think it is absolutely imperative that midwives are recognised and celebrated for all their achievements in order to inspire future midwives and positively promote the profession.’
Contribution to midwifery education
Anne Tomlinson's journey as a midwife started when she qualified as a nurse in 1991 at the Royal London Hospital and soon after deciding to specialise in midwifery. She was drawn to midwifery due the unique and privileged role the midwife has. Anne has practiced in all areas of midwifery; acute settings, team midwifery, traditional community midwifery and birth units. Throughout her career, Anne has always enjoyed education and supporting staff development. ‘With my passion for midwifery and love of teaching, I secured a secondment as a midwife lecturer at the University of the West of England,’ Anne says. ‘During this time, I completed a postgraduate certificate in education. This further inspired me to obtain my current post as practice development midwife at the University Hospitals Bristol.
In this capacity, Anne has been leading on initiatives to maintain safe, personalised and effective care for women and their babies. ‘Being recognised for my contribution to midwifery education is a great honour for me. I am passionate about delivering high quality training and education, and I am committed to improving outcomes for women and their babies,’ Anne says. ‘Receiving this award gives me the confidence to continue with this approach, and will encourage me to seek out other opportunities for collaboration to further develop midwifery practice at University Hospitals Bristol. Celebrating midwifery success in all its forms acts as inspiration and a reminder of the very best care and support that is available in the UK.’
Innovation in practice
Safiya Mohamud joined midwifery immediately after college and the overwhelming reason was always to empower women and help them when they are at their most vulnerable. The empathy she felt for the underprivileged seemed to find a niche fulfilment in the delivery rooms and antenatal clinic of East London where she trained and where some of the least privileged of society are looked after.
‘I came upon the need for services to treat women affected by female genital mutilation (FGM) while I was working as a midwife and it immediately struck a chord in me,’ Safiya says. ‘The work has been vastly rewarding to date.’ The award has served to reinforce Safiya's mission to make a difference. ‘Initiating a brand new service and running it is not an easy task in these days of financial austerity and one has to always keep the priorities of the services at the centre of one's driving force,’ she says. ‘I believe, and hope, that this award will enable my voice to be heard better in the right places.
‘There is still an enormous amount of work to be done in engaging the community and health personnel to action FGM. Recognition through this award evidences that the enormity of this problem is being officially recognised and I am grateful to the British Journal of Midwifery for the same. ‘Working as a midwife is a joyous and rewarding job, but at times it is arduous and challenging. Awards, such as this, will encourage midwives to have the courage to address areas of need in the society and stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.’
Use of technology in midwifery
The Digital Midwives Expert Reference Group brings together digital midwives from around England. The group meets several times a year to discuss the digital challenges and successes they experience first-hand; these conversations provide invaluable input into the work of the national digital maternity programme. Facilitated by NHS Digital, this group of midwives work tirelessly and often without recognition or additional resources to ensure that their services embraces technology to drive up safety and user experience. This group works tirelessly, and often without recognition or additional resources, to ensure that their services embraces technology to drive up safety and user experience.
The role of digital midwife has been gaining traction nationally, thanks to the drive of this group. It is hoped that the digital midwives currently working in the group will go on to have careers which advocate and shape the digital healthcare space, working alongside senior clinicians from other professions on a national and international level. The group collects feedback and resources to evidence their value. The midwives then use this back at their respective organisations to lobby their bosses of the value of their continued attendance. This award strengthens that case. Informally, the group has gained support from a wide range of high profile stakeholders across the system. Celebrating the group with this award is a great way to say thank you to those who have supported them over the past years, but will also be a great motivator for individuals to continue working with them and will drive the delivery of more great work in the future.