In the week of International Day of the Midwife (5 May) our Trust joined other healthcare organisations in highlighting the vital role of midwives. We employ 494 midwives and maternity care support workers who come from 54 different countries of origin.

They were invited to have breakfast and listen to presentations from our Chief Executive, Matthew Trainer, Chief Nurse, Kathryn Halford and Director of Midwifery, Abiola Jinadu.

We also celebrated the dedication and hard work of our midwifery staff at our annual midwifery awards that recognised individuals and teams who have demonstrated exceptional performance over the last year. 

Midwives, maternity support workers and student midwives play a crucial role in supporting mothers, babies, and families during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care.

Abiola Jinadu, our Director of Midwifery, said: “More than 7,000 babies are born at Queen’s Hospital each year and we are the third largest maternity unit in England. Our Trust is determined to improving safety for mothers and their babies to ensure standards of maternity and neonatal care are of the highest quality.

“We have increased our listening events with women and their families and are reaching out to local mum and baby groups for feedback. We hope this will improve the safety and experience of those using our maternity and neonatal services.

“Around half of our women do not speak English as their first language and our aim is to reduce health inequalities. We are working with the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) and have launched a ‘cradling culture’ pilot to improve the experiences of Black Minority Ethnic (BME) women who have limited English.

“We’ve recruited bilingual volunteers to help communication with clinical staff and have received positive feedback.”

Kathryn Tompsett, Clinical Group Director for Women’s and Children’s Health added: “I am proud of what our midwifery staff achieve every day and it’s right we should take time to celebrate them. We also need to constantly think about how we can improve what we offer.

“In the coming months we will continue our push to provide services outside our hospitals, including working with partners on the development of women’s health hubs that will deliver care in community settings.”

We met all 10 safety actions associated with the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) Maternity Incentive Scheme in the last financial year. CNST is a key component of monitoring the quality and safety of maternity units.

We have been recognised with the following awards:

• Winner most effective contribution to patient safety – HSJ Partnership Award 2023
• Highly commended award for Placenta Accreta team - HSJ Patient Safety awards 2023 after introducing an innovative way of treating women with Placenta Accreta Spectrum
• Two maternity support staff from our Trust have been awarded Chief Midwifery Officer Awards 2024, recognising excellence in caring for women and their babies.