Heartbeat January 2019

New consultant midwife appointed
WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH
Lydia Nestor has been appointed as our new consultant midwife
Lydia Nestor, a long standing member of
the maternity team has been named as
our new consultant midwife.
Lydia actually trained as a nurse at Sandwell
Hospital, where she worked for six months
after qualifying, before realising that her
heart was set on becoming a midwife.
18 months of training followed before she
qualified as a midwife. Her first post was
a rotational role at New Cross Hospital in
Wolverhampton, before she returned to
Sandwell Hospital (where our maternity
services were based then) in 1986.
“I have been here ever since,” laughed Lydia
when Heartbeat caught up with her to find
out more about her new role.
“Throughout my time here I have had the
opportunity to work within integrated teams,
both in hospital and in the community and
I was able to gain an appreciation for a
woman’s care as part of their family unit
and seeing the impact of care quality on the
family for many years to come.”
Lydia was appointed as a midwifery manager
in early 2000 and has been given various
opportunities to learn and develop which
she says have helped her on her journey to
becoming our new Consultant Midwife.
“My experience in a number of leadership
roles has been strengthened by the
leadership programmes supported by the
organisation’s learning and development
department. This has really helped me to
further my understanding of links between
good leadership, team effectiveness and the
delivery of high quality compassionate care.”
One of the main functions for the consultant
midwife role is acting as an expert reference
point for midwives and the multi-disciplinary
teams, aiming to improve outcomes and
patient experience. It requires keeping the
woman as the focus of her care and to
normalise their experience of maternity care
wherever possible.
Lydia explained more: “For many women,
maternity care and birth is a normal process,
but due to our complex demographic area,
this is not the case for all of our patients.
“Our service provides a range of specialist
obstetric consultant clinics that care for
women in pregnancy with conditions such as
hypertension, diabetes, mental ill-health, and
other medical conditions.”
Lydia runs a weekly psychological
wellbeing clinic for ladies that require
additional care, planning and those are
experiencing anxiety due to a variety of
sources.
“The women who attend the clinic are
fearful of the maternity process and
particularly of giving birth, said Lydia.”
“At their appointment I try and
understand what has happened and
we talk through the options for birth,
including pain relief and place of birth.
“Some of the ladies feel better able to
cope after one appointment, but others
need more and some leave with an
open appointment to return if they need
to. I have also set up some telephone
consultation clinics for women that I have
already met, which will save their travel
time or time out of work etc.
“I also see women postnatally, so we
can debrief on their experience, which
reduces the chance of them developing
postnatal depression or trauma symptoms
and helps to keeps them psychologically
well as they move on with their family
life. For some, this forms planning for
their next birth.”
Aside from the clinics and work with
individual patients, Lydia will play a vital
role in shaping the future of maternity
care across the region as we implement
the recommendations from Better Births,
the maternity five year forward view.
A key priority for this work is reorganising
teams to provide improved
continuity of carer. Another key priority is
to set up a Maternity Voices partnership,
a local group which will consist of women
and their families, commissioners and
providers working together to review and
contribute to the development of local
maternity care.
It is clear from talking to Lydia that she
has a genuine passion and excitement for
her new role. As an internal candidate
for the role, Lydia was able to spend
time shadowing Kathryn Gutteridge (our
previous consultant midwife who retired
last year) at a number of clinics to ensure
continuity of this valuable service.
“Kathryn passed the baton on so to
speak,” said Lydia.
“I am really looking forward to carrying
on her work and to being able to make a
different to patients and their families of
Sandwell and West Birmingham.”
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