WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

eginning of January so she was brand new. She replied “Well, I don’t really
have one”. I remember saying to her “Well you must have some kind of back up
in place”. I ended up ringing the midwife whose name she gave me and said
“Look your extremely new colleague is in here and needs the support that we
cannot provide. She basically said to me “Well, I’m at the beach and I’m not
coming back so you lot have to deal with it.”
I thought that was really unfair. First of all it was hugely unfair for that poor new
grad LMC, and awfully unfair for the woman who probably hadn’t got a clue. I
remember that particular incident because we didn’t have time, so you just pray
that it is going to go okay because you don’t have any staff to put into that room.
Sally as a coordinator reveals her professional allegiance to the new graduate LMC
midwife and her frustration managing the busyness of the unit in a situation where her
lack of staff means a lack of time to support this midwife. She knows these consequences
may impact on the safety of the mother and baby being cared for. Sally can rationalise the
midwife is an autonomous practitioner but recognises that she has been asked for support.
Sally can rationalise she holds no legislative responsibility to provide support but
recognises how vulnerable this midwife will be feeling. She can tell herself the midwife
should have arranged LMC support but the reality is this was not done.
This leaves Sally knowing on that particular shift, because it was busy, she could not
support the midwife and all she could do was ‘pray’. Van Manen (1990) discusses “lived
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