Continuity of Carer

Hello my name is Justine Eadie and I am currently working as the Project Lead Midwife for Continuity of Carer at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals. I began my nurse training in 1991, working on an acute medical ward until commencing my midwifery training in 1996 at ULCAN.

My background includes working in a traditional community midwifery team for 22 years, during this time I felt passionate about caring for women and their families in my care.

I have had the pleasure of attending many home births of the families in my caseload and found the continuity of this so rewarding. Being a community midwife means you touch all aspects of people’s lives and I had great job satisfaction from feeling I could support and make a difference during such a life changing event, and during transition into parenthood.

I feel privileged to be part of those lives I have had the honour of being involved with and along the way have developed trusting, meaningful relationships that have had a profound effect on how I practise as a midwife. I believe that building a rapport with our women and offering choice and personalised care empowers both midwives and women. 

My passion is ensuring all women feel respected, cared for, listened to, and receive optimum care during their antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal journey to ensure the best pregnancy outcomes.

Embracing the implementation of Continuity of Carer has given me a new and exciting opportunity to be involved in the national transformation of our maternity services. This model of care will strengthen the relationships between women and midwives, and in doing so will have positive impact on outcomes, and health and wellbeing.

I have a background at both practitioner and leadership level in both midwifery and health visiting.

Previous roles have included Infant Feeding Coordinator for community services and then later within maternity, Specialist Health Visitor for Sure Start, Practice Development Lead for 0-19 services and Development Support Officer at the Centre for Early Child Development at A Better Start Blackpool leading on the transformation of Blackpool’s health visiting service.

Currently as Public Health, Prevention and Early Intervention Strategic Manager for the local maternity transformation programme within Lancashire and South Cumbria, my work nurtures a shift in culture to ensure that prevention work is embedded in the daily work across our maternity units and associated local systems. Our current priority areas are smoke free pregnancies, parent-infant relationships, infant feeding, maternal nutrition and trauma informed care.

Together with service users, services, commissioners and local public health teams we co-produce action plans which aim to standardise policies, guidance and training for staff and to develop or strengthen pathways of care for service users so that you can access care that is personalised to you.

alexandra.murphy5@nhs.net

Hello, my name is Ruth Deery.  I am the Midwifery Continuity of Care Lead at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust who provide services in South Cumbria and North Lancashire in the Morecambe Bay area. I am also a Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA) and hold a Diploma in Complementary Therapies which I use for women using our maternity services and for midwives. I believe that in order to support women midwives themselves need to be well supported and I have written extensively about midwives’ support needs and restorative clinical supervision. 
 
Over a career spanning forty-six years I have linked my academic and clinical knowledge to clinical midwifery practice to explore resistance to change and then promoted change management, reflection, action and inspiration in others. These skills have enabled me to market and communicate the benefits of new ways of working across several maternity workforces in England and Scotland. 
 
My last academic post was at the University of West of Scotland where I worked as Professor of Midwifery. Academically, I have undertaken research which focused on organisational change, midwife-led units and birth centres and where I was always committed to working with clinical midwives in order to help them change and better understand their often difficult work situations.  I now use these transferable skills in my role as Lead for Midwifery Continuity of Care where I support midwives at South Lakes Birth Centre, Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Kendal Birth Centre. I was awarded Emeritus Professor of Midwifery status when I left to return to clinical practice in January 2018 at Helme Chase Maternity Unit in Kendal. 
 
I truly believe that midwifery continuity of carer is the way forward for maternity services, focussing on women’s individual, unique needs, expectations and aspirations rather than the needs of the workplace. However, when designing midwifery continuity of carer, I think that flexibility is the key; designing services that fit our local context for women and midwives. This is certainly the case at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust where we have a diverse population and a huge geographical area to cover.