Saving Mothers' Lives: - Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland

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16 Issues for midwives
Midwifery practice: Specifi c recommendations continued
Supervisors of Midwives should contribute to every internal review and should share the key points
through the Trust’s Supervisors of Midwives forum.
Each Trust should have a clear, mandatory, induction process for all staff, including bank and agency staff.
This should include clinical protocols, emergency procedures, how to summon medical aid, the location of
resuscitation trolleys/equipment and the fi re procedures. This should be subject to regular audit.
Communications
Strategic
Maternity services must be commissioned as part of a locally managed maternity network, which
has clear pathways of care, and standardised protocols and guidelines, including rapid and effective
communication between specialities, units and health professionals.
Local
Letters regarding a woman’s care should be copied to all clinicians involved in the woman’s care,
including midwives.
Individual
Midwives should ensure that they have effective and clear communication routes with all other partners
in a woman’s care.
Midwives offering midwifery led care must include the woman’s GP in all communications.
Introduction
The purpose of this Chapter is to inform all midwives of the key issues and implications for midwifery
practice which have arisen from this Report and that need to be addressed. These fi ndings and
recommendations are based on the detailed assessment of all the relevant maternal deaths considered
by the midwifery assessors for this Report. In many of the cases in this triennium midwifery care was
exemplary and showed evidence of true partnership working. However, some of the cases mentioned in
this Report highlight pregnancies where midwifery led care was inappropriate.
This Chapter cannot provide an exhaustive overview of all the key fi ndings and recommendations
contained within this Report. However, although many midwives will wish to read the Report in its entirety,
all should read and act on the fi ndings and recommendations contained in this Chapter, the key overall
recommendations highlighted in Chapter 1 and also in Chapter 17 - Issues for General Practitioners, as
they are remarkably similar.
The role of the midwife
In order to explore the issues surrounding midwifery practice it is useful to revisit the defi nition of a midwife
and boundaries of practice. According to the International Confederation of Midwives 1 , midwives are
experts in normal childbirth, but also work in collaboration with other health professionals to ensure an