Calling all community midwives #HowDoYouCarryYours

By Sara Ledger on 23 November 2018 Midwives Magazine Community Midwives

What do community midwives need from their baby bag? Baby Lifeline’s Sara Ledger wants to hear your opinion.

Births in community settings are gaining more attention as an option for some low-risk mothers, and to support continuity of care for mothers generally (Cumberlege, 2016; NICE, 2014; Birthplace in England Collaborative Group et al, 2011).

WHO’s ‘respectful maternity care’ recommendation has also meant that more women may now choose to give birth at home, even if they are at higher risk than the usual low-risk cohort (WHO, 2018).

Baby Lifeline has trained over 1000 midwives, community midwives and paramedics in the last 18 months, and found a common conversation on all courses was the lack of standardisation in midwives’ practice in the community.

Gold standard of care

As a much-needed step towards standardisation, Baby Lifeline and its multi-professional panel of experts have devised a list of ‘essentials’ and are now working with the RCM to launch this project.

The project aims to create a gold standard of what should be carried by midwives in the community, as every mum and baby deserve the safest birth experience possible. The community birth bag will form the focus of Baby Lifeline’s fundraising campaign early next year.

We need to hear from as many community midwives as possible in order to ensure that the bag meets the needs of safe community practice, and also the practical needs of the people using it. We therefore launched a social media campaign with the RCM in October: #HowDoYouCarryYours? Please be part of the social media conversation, and send us a picture of how you carry your community birth equipment.

Your opinion is essential for ensuring the bag meets the needs of mums, babies and midwives. So, if you feel that you’re happy with your bag, not happy with your bag, kind of happy with your bag – we want to hear from you at babylifeline.org.uk/home/community-midwife-bags

Sara Ledger is research and development manager at Baby Lifeline.