Maternity Staff at the Women’s

Staff will provide you with the care you need during your pregnancy birth and afterwards.

During your pregnancy

For the majority of women your main carer will be a community midwife, usually your named community midwife.

Should your pregnancy be more complicated then you will receive additional care from other midwives and doctors.

During your labour and birth

During your labour and birth you will be cared for by a midwife. If all is progressing normally and there are no concerns about you or your baby, a midwife will be the sole carer. Sometimes we have either a junior midwife or student midwife working with us. If there are concerns that either we know about in advance of labour starting or during the labour unexpectedly, then doctors will be involved in providing your care alongside the midwife.

After your birth

Midwives on the ward will provide you with your care. We also work in close partnership with maternity care assistants. Once you are at home, a midwife will see you, either at home or in a postnatal clinic. On some days a maternity care assistant might visit you.

Midwifery Staff

Midwives work in teams and have varying levels of knowledge and responsibility. We have a Head of Midwifery and managers for each of the areas. Within the areas there are:

• Consultant Midwife we have a midwife consultant who works closely with midwives in the trust. Her main remit is to support and promote normality.
• Senior or band 7 midwives who are responsible for running the area and allocating work load.
• Band 6 midwives have been qualified for at least a year and usually rotate and work in more than one area
• Band 5 midwives have been qualified within a year and rotate through all areas of midwifery during their first year of qualifying.
• Maternity Care Assistants assist midwives to ensure that your stay in hospital or care in the community is enhanced.

Ward Clerks are usually at the reception of most areas who will welcome you to the department.

Medical Staff

Doctors also work in teams together with the midwives to provide your care.

Each consultant obstetrician has a team of more junior medical staff working alongside them. Women are often booked under a named consultant. Although you might not see your named consultant, usually more junior staff discuss you with your named consultant. The medical staff also have different levels of experience like midwives:

Registrars are in training but have at a level with a greater responsibility for planning care.

Senior House Officers (SHO’s) are junior medical staff. Some SHO’s are GP trainees and others are at the beginning of their career in obstetrics.

Anaesthetists are responsible for epidurals and any anaesthetic required for surgery. They are also involved in the care of women with high risk medical complications. We have a number of consultant anaesthetists as well as more junior ones similar to the levels of medical staff mentioned above.

Community Midwives

Antenatal Clinic

Fetal Medicine

This page was last modified on Thu Jul 29 2010