Once again midwives, student midwives, midwifery support workers and midwifery leaders came together for the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) 2-day annual conference, held in Harrogate in October. This year's conference was entitled ‘safety, standards and experience’.
There is little doubt that 2016 has been a year of importance for maternity services. We have seen the release of Better Births (National Maternity Review, 2016), the launch of the RCM's Caring for You campaign (Leversidge, 2016) and the announcement of the planned changes to midwifery supervision and NHS student bursaries. The RCM conference this year brought together a variety of speakers, all of whom encouraged, educated and empowered the delegates. Speakers ranged from midwives with many years of experience imparting their wisdom and knowledge, to senior members of the RCM, NHS and Department of Health informing delegates of upcoming, up-to-date, relevant information regarding changes to maternity services.
The sessions covered themes including: transferring evidence into practice, advancing midwifery leadership, organisational approaches to safety, and celebrating midwifery excellence.
I particularly enjoyed the sessions with the ‘celebrating midwifery excellence’ theme. In the midst of the day-to-day practice of being a midwife, we can sometimes forget why we do what we do. Staff shortages, paperwork demands, time restraints and other internal and external factors can all have an impact on the care we wish to give. These sessions that focused on celebrating midwifery excellence offered delegates news about some of the positive midwifery work taking place across the UK. It was encouraging and inspiring to hear about the great work that is happening in maternity units. I'm sure these sessions left us all feeling motivated to make a change in our own practice and workplace.
Special guests
A great addition to the conference this year was the special attendance of nearly 500 knitted midwives. These mini midwives were part of a campaign started on social media by midwifery lecturers Lindsay Hobbs and Jenny Hall (tweeting as @knittedmidwife), which aimed to highlight the huge shortage of midwives. The challenge was to create 3500 knitted midwives and put them on display at the RCM conference to demonstrate what the national shortage of midwives looks like. This was a truly powerful display, which served its purpose in demonstrating the need for more midwives. The knitted midwives were on sale, with proceeds going to the Benevolent Fund of the RCM Trust.
A conference to remember
This year, the RCM conference facilitated delegates to gain knowledge and share ideas through collaborative discussions during programme sessions, and even during allocated break sessions where we had the opportunity to network with other delegates and senior maternity figures, along with visiting the wide range of exhibition stands. I left the conference feeling encouraged and proud to be a midwife today—exciting plans are ahead for maternity services in the UK.