A Geordie in a Scots World

Today I got to see my first Yorkshire Storks booking appointment! It was a super early start, and as usual, a mile drive. I met Debs at her house, and we set off together for the short drive from hers. This gave me a really good opportunity to get to know Debs as we had only briefly crossed paths my first week at the team meeting, and had no other appointments with her. We chatted a lot on the drive down, about midwifery and her journey into independent midwifery after upping and leaving Germany rather abruptly! She talked a lot about her ethos, and sympathised with being a student and stuck in the middle of not being able to practice the way university teaches you, and so desperately wanting to give the absolute best care you can. The booking was 3 hours long, which i'm told is usual for a booking no matter the previous history. It was lovely to get to know the woman and her story, and hear what she hoped to get from her care and she got some of her more awkward questions o

So this week I have been in delivery suite, although I only managed a shift and a half!  My mentor was a lovely midwife of 15 years who'd worked up and down England before settling back home. Our first shift we were at 'the back', where inductions of labour are started, compromised of small bays with usually 8 women a day coming, it was 'Q' and we had 3. The women were being induced for various reasons, one was a previous caesarian. Usually prostin is used here generally up to 3 times, only once if the woman is planning a VBAC.  One really interesting thing is, they occasionally use osmotic dilators for their cervical priming. I'd never actually heard of this, the midwives refer to them as 'seaweed sticks', and the idea is a few of the sticks are inserted (depending on parity, comfort levels etc) into the cervix and the vaginal/cervical mucus and moisture is absorbed into the sticks which dilates them sort of like a sponge does. There is reportedly

So i've officially finished my shifts at the birth centre 😔 i'm gutted! I've had such a fantastic experience and learnt so much, the incredible midwives have taught me so much, i'm in awe of the women and saw true calm, physiological, undisturbed births. The birth centre is entirely different to anything i've ever experienced, and it's not till you go, you realise how birth CAN be. The births I had the privilege of being part of were some of the calmest i'd ever seen, no mad rush, no big trolleys with sterile delivery packs, and genuinely undisturbed first golden hours. No pressure for vitamin K or a weight and most stay over night in the birth centre, with partners! Around half of the rooms have pools in, and generally families are moved into the room directly opposite postnatally if they opted for a pool room for labour/birth. NONE, I repeat, NONE have beds! They have sofas with pull out beds for postnatal stays, but no 'labour' beds at all in

So today was my first postnatal appointment with a woman who had a few babies, and was the closest appointment of all! I welcomed the short drive (well, comparatively short) with a woman and her baby who were a few weeks postnatal. The woman had a complex history which she was open in explaining to me, and the appointment was mostly for feeding support. Entirely apt In my training, the practice I've generally seen is a visit the day after leaving hospital (very, very few home births and no MLU) then another visit day 5/6 for the newborn blood spot test and weighing the baby, and generally if no concerns a phone call on day 10 to discharge to the health visitor. So to see a baby and woman a few weeks postpartum was a new world! I felt strangely out of my depth considering university do teach us about postnatal care till week 6, but the reality is I've never put this into practice. For this reason, I think I held back quite a lot. The placement is observational anywa

Today there was just one antenatal visit in Sheffield, which is SUPER far! Google Maps for sympathy ✋ After a 150mile drive down, I met Claire at the house and we chatted for 5 when walking to the house. The appointment lasted just over an hour and we (well Claire 😂) covered lots of topics and went through all options from using a doppler, to dipping urine and the discussion of ultrasound scans and customised growth charts came up. I've never personally came across personalised/customised growth charts in practice, but have skimmed over the research of them being more accurate at detecting accelerated or possibility restricted growth. Claire, when she was a student, had asked why her training trust didn't use them and was told (if I remember right?) something about them not accounting for paternal factors such as height etc. Definitely something i'm going to look further into, and bring up in my own training health boards, especially as it seems to be a growi

Today I spent the day with Chris, a midwife of decades and has been an independent midwife for much of that. Chris recently let her registration lapse and now works as a birth educator and companion, doing birth preparation work and general parentcraft-y things. We *only* had 2 appointments! After a 90 minute drive to Chris' i'm greeted by her husband and beautiful dog, Meg. Before heading for the first appointment, Chris wanted to chat to me and I helped her with some admin things. She was very open about local trust policies and the state of maternity services in England and asked me about Scotland and the best start initiative  which is happening in the next 5 years. She was also really enthusiastic about the KCND pathways and care dynamics, even though they're going to be obsolete soon! KCND pathways I was absolutely shocked that she felt i'd had a good experience of physiological pregnancy and birth and the continuity i'd found in my team midwif

So today I FINALLY met the midwives! I was incredibly nervous, even more so because of the long drive and not knowing what to expect...at all... Rather apt Yorkshire Storks logo Tuesdays are the weekly team meeting, where the midwives catch up on the latest goings on with their clients and confirm the appointments and schedule for the upcoming week. I set off for my trek to Leeds early and arrived promptly, Debs arrived before Claire and got started cooking the porridge (their meetings revolve around a meal!) and I made a start on teas and coffee.  Both were incredibly welcoming and warm, inquisitive about my course and differences between Scotland and their local trusts which is quite considerable!   They gave me ample opportunity to ask questions and gave candid accounts of their experience as students and within the NHS, and about their philosophy of care and how this differs to what is offered by the NHS. Probably the biggest difference is their appointments are

Independent midwifery means truly with woman and family centred care, and apparently this Monday everyone is busy so a day of self directed study is in order! As suggested from the midwives, i've reacquainted myself with the blogs of Sara Wickham  and Midwife Thinking  and particularly on the posts around 'post dates' induction, as well as ordering myself a copy of Bump by Kate Evans which is a must read they say.  Local policy that i'm familiar with is to offer induction at 41+5, rationalised to me by the midwives as the placenta doesn't function as well after 42 weeks and the baby/ies will have grown more, as well as the risk of stillbirth this brings. The reason its at 41+5 is because of the time it will take for the induction process to happen. I'm ashamed to say the care i've participated in hasn't really reflected informed choice around post dates, mostly all I've observed is "So we'll book you in for induction on x date in case

Welcome! Cheers so much for taking the time to read about lil ol me 🙆 I'm Charlotte, a 2nd year student midwife at University of the West of Scotland originally from Newcastle. I stumbled my way into Scotland for my training in September 2016, after spending my first month in a motorhome on Strathcylde Park I somehow managed to survive until second year! I live with my rabbit, Hinny, those of you who are familiar with Catherine Cookson will understand and she's also a Geordie and my absolute world. Hinny💚 I'm starting this blog for my elective, my university haven't really had loads of students go for an elective and I think the ones who did went to weird, wonderful and exotic places. I'm going home, a poor (aren't we all?) student who wanted to experience something different so i'm moving back in with my mum for 4 weeks! My elective is in 4 parts, i'm spending a week with the fantastic independent midwives, Yorkshire Storks , hopeful