MIDIRS and NCT – working as one

MIDIRS and NCT aim to improve maternity care and the experiences of expectant mothers, new parents and their babies.

Both organisations have long shared a commitment to providing evidence-based information for health care professionals and parents and encouraging continued professional learning and development of services to meet the needs of mothers, fathers and babies.

Increased joint initiatives and discussions over recent years have culminated in the formal signing of a merge agreement on 31st March 2011 between the two organisations. The new partnership is seen as a natural progression and aims to achieve common goals by working more effectively as one.

The merge embodies a vision of integrated communication through maternity services, health care professionals and pregnant women, their partners and carers. It also means individual subscribers to both MIDIRS and NCT services will benefit from greater opportunities, including increased access to the resources of both organisations.

Since December 2008, MIDIRS Midwifery Digest has been distributed with a copy of Perspective: the NCT publication for parent-centred midwifery. Since February 2010, NCT’s 2000 strong network of students and qualified antenatal teachers, breastfeeding counsellors and postnatal leaders have benefited from access to MIDIRS online subscription service.

Looking ahead, there are plans for the two organisations to work together to develop more visible products for consumers as well as resources for education and training.

Overall, the MIDIRS and NCT partnership provides a much stronger, evidence based entity which aims to achieve positive change in maternity care for all women.

This one day confidentiality and information governance conference will examine the practicalities of how to manage and share patient and service user identifiable data and how to meet the standards o...

by Ina May Gaskin, midwife and educationist. My first chance to learn about British midwifery came when midwifery tutors Cathy Warwick and Kate Newson visited The Farm in the early 1980s, when the caesarean rate in the UK was half of the US rate at that time (25%). I was amazed to learn how many thousands of midwives were working in the UK. Surely, I thought, such numbers should enable midwives to have a strong influence on how maternity care was organized.

Megan Faure focuses on ways to smooth the newborn baby’s transition from womb to world.

The Iolanthe Midwifery Trust:

‘Intriguing students, fascinating midwives’!

These words were written by Sue Macdonald, Education & Research Manager at the RCM, after attending the presentation of the Iolanthe annual awards in 2011.

‘Looking beyond, aiming to do that little extra’

Sue described: ‘… students doing intriguing electives all over the world, and midwives undertaking such a fascinating range of projects. ... It made me think of the energy that midwives and student midwives have, in not just doing the job we do, but looking beyond, aiming to do that little extra, improving the care even more’. She also said ‘If you haven’t heard of Iolanthe, take a look at www.iolanthe.org/Awards.html

For further information and application forms, visit www.iolanthe.org

The aim of the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust is to improve care for mothers, babies and their families through assisting midwives in their professional development.

Closing date for applications: Friday 27th JANUARY 2011