International Day of the Midwife at St George’s
Thursday 5th May marked the annual International Day of the Midwife, and St George’s hosted a whole range of activities to celebrate midwifery teams.
St George’s welcomed Kate Brintworth, Chief Midwife for London to their celebrations to cut the ribbon to officially open the brand-new maternity education room, which the teams won a £30,000 grant to create from QHealth. The space provides midwives with somewhere to have a well-deserved rest, and to keep up to date on their continuous learning.
The St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group has a total of 481 permanent, full time, midwives. Arlene Wellman, MBE, Group Chief Nursing Officer for the hospitals group shared:
“Happy International Day of the Midwife and thank you to all our midwives who provide excellent care to women and their families at St George’s, Epsom and St Helier hospitals and in the community every day.
“Over the past two years, midwives, maternity support workers and student midwives have met extraordinary circumstances to provide excellent care to women and their families. Now, it is time for us to celebrate their efforts and reflect upon our many successes, for which I am incredibly grateful for and proud of.
“At St George’s, we have met the Immediate and Essential Actions of the Ockenden Report and achieved Baby Friendly Gold Status while providing specialist services and excellent continuity of carer. The team have also launched a maternity helpline for pregnant women, as well as introduced a new Maternity Support Worker Development Programme to upskill our staff.
“Meanwhile, at Epsom and St Helier we have continued to provide continuity of carer to 85% of women and our equality, diversity and inclusion team were runners up at the HSJ Awards for their work around improving health outcomes for minority ethnic communities.
“None of this would be possible without the high standard of compassionate care we provide not least including the co-design of services with our patients while striving for innovation and effective multidisciplinary working, which overall enables us to deliver outstanding maternity services.”
It wouldn’t be a maternity celebration without some delicious treats, the team held an International Day of the Midwife bake-off, which was judged Kate Brintworth.
Janet Bradley, Director of Midwifery at St George’s, alongside Kate, hosted St George’s annual International Day of the Midwife Awards. St George’s delivered a total of 4,801 babies in 2021, so it’s no surprise that there were over 100 entries to the awards, testifying the outstanding midwives at St George’s. The full list of winners are as follows:
- Midwife of the year – Helga Rowling
- Lifetime Achievement – Maria Brown
- Non-clinical Support Staff of the Year – Anna Oprica
- Clinical Support Staff of the Year – Lydia Berry
- Student of the Year – Barbie Anang
- Medical Colleague of the Year – Eleanor Parker
- Inspirational Leader – Vicky Grayson
- Unsung hero – Sarah Thacker and Trudy Williams
- Mitie Staff of the Year – Alexandra
- Midwifery Supervisor of the Year – Maria Baraza
