A ‘United Nation of midwives’
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic it is business as almost usual for the Southland Hospital midwife team.
Apart from limited visitors, the team wearing protective equipment and communicating with other hospital staff through video calls, not much had changed in recent months.
Southland Hospital acting midwife manager Sheila McIlwrick said the lack of visitors to the hospital because of Covid-19 had positive effects on how parents have been able to bond with their newborn.
‘‘We are now seeing these new families being completely absorbed in each other without having to worry about stopping to breastfeed or not being able to eat because people have come to visit them.’’
The Southland Hospital team would celebrate International Midwives’ Day today.
McIlwrick, originally from Scotland and had worked for the Southern District Health Board for 20 years, said they call their Southland team the ‘United Nations of midwives’ because of the many nationalities that work there.
With staff who were Welsh, English, Scottish and Finish it was sometimes hard to spot the New Zealander, McIlwrick said.
‘‘It was quite interesting when it was the Rugby World Cup.’’
One of the challenges to working in a large region such as Southland was maintaining a strong relationship with the women they were looking after, she said.
It’s an unpredictable job but McIlwrick doesn’t think many people in her team would cope with another job.
Welsh midwife Sara Evans had been in Southland for eight months and while she described Wales as ‘‘God’s country’’, Southland was a close second.
One of the main differences working in Southland was mothers came in on helicopters instead of ambulances.
Evans wanted to be Indiana Jones when she was little but when that didn’t come to fruition she decided to become a midwife.
Evans did not want to be a nurse, but she did want to help people and midwifery fitted the bill.
‘‘It was the one time in a woman’s life that they need women more than any [other time].’’