Midwives delivered in spectacular fashion at the South Wales Argus Health & Care Awards 2019, winning no fewer than three categories, with an additional finalist to boot. Sue Bradley discovers why.

MIDWIVES serving South East Wales are untiring in their work to make things even better for mums and babies, a mission that hasn’t diminished despite the challenges brought by Covid-19.

The progressive team from Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) is steadfast in promoting maternal choice; making families aware of all the options available.

It’s an approach that’s resulted in ground-breaking advances surrounding breech births, a project that won the ‘Together We Achieve’ accolade at the awards, while Emma Mills’ work surrounding female genital mutilation and its implications scooped the ‘Research Impact’ category. At the same time, the Midwife of the Year prize went to Consultant Midwife Louise Taylor, with Integrated Midwife Katy Jones among the finalists.

While Ms Mills was proud to be honoured for her part in establishing a greater understanding of FGM and its implications when giving birth, as Breech Project lead she gained most satisfaction from seeing team members from all levels being recognised for their work on a complication that affects three to four per cent of all babies at 37 weeks, although 30 per cent do go on to turn before delivery.

“It was wonderful to be able to raise awareness of this work, which grew out of our Birth and Bump Improvement (BABI – the Welsh word for baby) group, one of our engagement service groups,” explains Ms Mills, a consultant midwife.

“ABUHB has an active maternity Facebook page for women and their families and people come and talk to us if things could be improved or done better, and to give us positive feedback.

“One of the things that came out of this was the assumption for many women that when baby was breech, women would have a Caesarean section.

“While this approach is recommended by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, our ethos at the Aneurin Bevan is about choice and listening, and recognising it’s a woman’s body and she can choose what she wants through honest, evidence-based discussion.”

Along with providing mums with information from which to make an informed choice, the Breech Birth Project Team recognised that midwives and other health professionals needed to be fully trained to assist with vaginal deliveries in which babies were not in a head-first position.

“Over the last 20 years the culture was for less and less vaginal breech births, so we needed to look at how we could support women better with their choices,” says Ms Mills. “We carried out a robust evaluation of these births and their outcomes over five years, produced resource packs and upskilled our staff, arranging for specialists from around the UK to hold very intense training sessions for obstetric consultants, midwives and health care support workers, who then cascaded information to their colleagues.

“We’re proud of our Breech Birth Specialist Team and have been evaluating this service now that we’re at the end of its first year, and while the results are yet to be formally shared, the early findings are that women really valued the service, which made them feel listened to and empowered, and supported in their choices.”

A big thank you to one of our sponsors

THE South Wales Argus is delighted to announce that the Health & Care Awards 2020’s headline sponsor is t2 group.

The company is also supporting the ‘Outstanding Achievement’ category.

Aspiring to excellence and raising expectations lies at the heart of the work of t2 group, now one of the UK’s largest providers of apprenticeships.

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Dave Marr of t2 Group. Picture: Huw John, Cardiff

Formed in 1996, the South Wales-based company is especially active in facilitating Health and Social Care and Management Apprenticeships across England and Wales.

The t2 team uses its considerable experience to design and deliver programmes that build organisational capability and drive measurable improvements in performance.

“Our aim is to reduce unemployment and drive economic prosperity by helping businesses innovate, grow and prosper through our training and coaching solutions,” explains director Dave Marr.

“Throughout everything we do, we aim to provide very high standards in a positive, safe and supportive culture that aspires to excellence and raises expectations through a clear and realistic strategy for planning and developing our learning programmes.”

The structure of t2 reflects a company that’s ready to directly respond to the needs of government, with its divisions aiming to create the right conditions for businesses to succeed.

Since the pandemic, it has completed remote learning reviews to support all its learners and is continually looking at new innovative ways to deliver apprenticeships digitally.

“Our mission is simply to close the gap between performance and potential, and our brand promise is to get you where you want to be,” says Mr Marr.

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