Call the midwife: three NI women reveal what the job’s really like
A series of events is being planned to mark the centenary of the Midwives Act in Northern Ireland. Three women who have carried out this very special role — ranging from one whose career began in the Sixties to another who qualified recently — tell Stepha
They are the men and women who we entrust with our most precious possession — our newborns. Now, the stories and experiences of some of the province’s midwives are to be recorded in a special publication to mark the centenary of the profession this year.
Northern Ireland’s Royal College of Midwives is planning a series of events to mark the 100th year of the Midwives Act in Ireland. Midwifery became legally
Iworked in the Royal Maternity Unit in Belfast and in the community as a midwife. Things have changed quite a lot and there have been a lot of medical advances since I started out in the Sixties.
When I first began working there was a lot of home confinement, where women chose to have their babies at home and the community midwives would go out and care for them at home.
But gradually in the early Sixties that all changed as women chose to come into hospitals to have their babies.
Also, back then husbands were not allowed into the delivery rooms and that too changed in the early Seventies — though at first a lot of men didn’t want to be in the delivery room and instead would have sat in the waiting room.
Technology has evolved a lot over the years and that has changed the way midwives do their job.
In the late Sixties and Seventies we didn’t have any heart monitors and as midwives we would have had to use our eyes, ears and hands more.
We would also have had to check the baby’s heart every half recognised in Britain in 1902, but it was in 1918 that the profession became regulated here with an act designed to ensure that only qualified midwives could attend births.
The RCM is hoping to mark the centenary with an ecumenical service of thanksgiving and a civic reception to celebrate the role of the midwife.
One of the biggest events of the year will be a book which draws together 100 accounts, experiences and photographs from midwives throughout Ireland — hour whereas now with technology they are constantly monitored.
Pain relief has also changed considerably. Women used to get injections of quite strong drugs which also sedated the babies. Now we have epidurals which are great and it means the babies are not sleeping.
There also used to be a lot of forceps deliveries if the baby was in difficulty at the very end of the in particular from midwives in Northern Ireland.
The RCN will also be collecting birth stories from women to include in the publication and it is hoped the stories will reflect changing birth practices over the decades.
The first service to mark the centenary will be held in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, this Friday night at 5.30pm followed by a buffet supper. And there will be another one in St Eugene’s Cathedral, Londonderry, on June 21 at 5.30pm. birth but now caesarean sections have meant there is not as much need for forceps.
Nowadays the mother and the father will know what’s happening and are encouraged to ask questions, but I remember a time when we weren’t allowed to tell a mother if she was expecting a baby with Down’s syndrome.
It was thought that it would be better to let her look after her baby for a while first before
We talked to three midwives who shared their experiences and talked about the rewards and challenges of what is recognised as a very special job.
If you would like to share your birth experience as part of the commemorative book you can send your memories to the RCM NI by post to The Royal College of Midwives, 58 Howard Street, Belfast, BT1 6PJ, or by email to centennial@rcm.org. uk, or call Anne Marie O’Neill, tel: 0300 303 0444 before September 1, 2018 breaking the news to her as it was believed that shared time together would encourage her to bond with her baby.
During my career I would have helped deliver hundreds of babies and I never ceased to marvel at it, as no two babies look alike.
It is just amazing.
I think it is a happy job and just seeing the happiness of the mothers and fathers is fantastic.”
Ihave a really lovely job which involves a bit of teaching and some clinical work so I get the best of everything. I had always wanted to be a children’s nurse and I was a nurse before I was a midwife, but while doing midwifery as a student something about it just captured my attention and I ended up specialising in it.
I think the key to it for me was that the women tend to be well which was very different from nursing people who are ill and we develop really nice relationships with the mums.
That’s not to say we don’t have to deal with people who
‘Men were only allowed into delivery rooms in the Seventies’ Elizabeth Duffin (77), who lives outside Randalstown, was a midwife from 1962 until she retired in 1984 and has seen many changes in the profession over those years.
She says: