My name is Lydia and my role involves working with women and their families throughout all stages of pregnancy, birth and postnatal period.
Lydia Community Midwife
A typical day includes lots of driving between different postnatal visits - to new parents and their families soon after their baby has been born and they are at home. As community midwives we love to get to know the families under our care and for them to have continuity of carer which means we have known the family since first becoming pregnant through to their baby being born - up to six weeks of age. This is important to both families and midwives and has been shown to improve the families experience of care and also their overall health.
Our job during a postnatal visit is to do a health check for the birthing parent which includes asking health questions and undertaking physical observations such as blood pressure and pulse or checking stitches. A big part of a postnatal visit includes checking on emotional wellbeing. Having a baby is a big change to all new parents and especially important are mental health assessments - which is why it is so important for the family to know the midwife who is visiting them to feel comfortable in opening up about how they feel.
We also physically check the new baby over. This check varies depending on the day of visit - there are statutory visits however we can visit as much as the family require us to and provide an on-call number which can be called 24/7 for advice or to request a midwife to visit
We will always strip a baby off to check he/she over during a visit. The types of checks could involve weighing the baby, taking observations or undertaking a heel prick blood test as part of an all Wales screening programme. We are trained to be constantly risk assessing both birthing parent and baby during the visits and referring to other health professionals if this is required. There could be a number of reasons for referrals but an example could be for an infection for the mother (who would be referred back into the hospital to see an obstetrician) or if the baby has excessive jaundice (yellowing of the skin) then he/she would be referred to have blood tests at the hospital.
A massive part of our job includes feeding support- particularly breastfeeding. We work closely with our maternity support workers who are fabulous support for families in regards to feeding. Supporting breastfeeding is one of their most important jobs and if we visit a family who is struggling with feeding, we will of course give them our support and then ask our maternity support workers to visit them also for further support.
Part of our job also includes supporting families suffering a bereavement and we visit families whose baby has sadly died in pregnancy or birth. We will visit these families in the same way we visit any other family to check over the birthing parent and support them in any way we can such as talking to them about their baby. We also have a bereavement midwife who works closely with us whose speciality it is to support these families.
As you can see our day to day can be extremely varied going between families who are experiencing very different circumstances. We are part of a busy service between driving around visiting families and answering our on-call phones as well as being on call for the hospital. No day is ever the same but our role is to support and care for women, their families and newborns.