WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

CHAPTER SIX
In the Face of the 'Known' and the 'Unknown'
When the coordinator arrives on duty the only certainty that awaits her is the physical,
inanimate geographical layout of the delivery suite unit; everything else is unpredictable.
The work of the coordinator is centred on the provision of safe care for mothers and
babies in the unit which involves knowing what is happening within an environment of
busyness and uncertainty.
Coordinators arrive at work with pre existing unseen, unspoken midwifery knowledge
and wisdom. They hold unspoken ‘knowing’ and ‘unknowing’ about the staff and LMCs
they will be working with. When they arrive on duty, coordinators reveal they have
different needs to ‘know’ about what is happening behind closed doors in the birthing
rooms to prepare themselves as far as they feel they need to be, for what may lie ahead
during the shift.
Coordinators will be managing the unpredictability of admissions into the unit,
discharges of women from the unit to birthing centres or home, emergency transfers in
and retrieval of call outs to emergencies within a large geographic region. This is all part
of their day’s work in addition to the busyness of everything happening for women in the
unit.
133