‘This show has changed me'

Emma Willis is back on the wards Delivering Babies

2022-09-27 -

After a three-year break due to the pandemic, Emma Willis returns to life as a Maternity Care Assistant at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex. Working up to 40 hours a week, Emma, 46, will be assisting in high-risk Caesareans, vaginal births and working on the antenatal and postnatal wards to care for new mums and their babies. Over a period of four months, Emma takes part in a national upskilling programme designed to give MCAS more responsibility and take the pressure off hard-working midwives to address the current national shortage. This series, Emma will also be working in the community independently visiting new mums in their homes.

How did you feel when you first stepped back into the hospital?

It felt incredible to step back on to the ward, but it was also really overwhelming and emotional because it really hit me just what the team have been through over the last couple of years. Overall though, I felt a mix of excitement and nervousness, because I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I also do a whole load of learning. This time we brushed up on the MCA (Maternity Care Assistant) qualification that I’ve got, so I could go back on the ward and work, but we’ve also been working towards a level three, which is adding a brand-new skillset. I’m taking on an extra workload this time, which is really exciting.

What were you most nervous about this time?

Doing the job! It had been three years and I thought that I would have forgotten absolutely everything. In the first week or so when I went back, I literally couldn’t even get a thermometer under a tongue. I was all fingers and thumbs. Imposter syndrome kicked in a little but within a couple of weeks, after a lot of handholding and people pushing me to do things that I could quite clearly do but didn’t believe I could, I was back into my stride and felt comfortable again.

What new skills did you learn?

A big one that I learnt was how to do baby obs [observations]. It sounds quite straightforward but

then they explain to you that you’re actually looking for signs that the baby isn’t right, and you need to know what to do in that situation. You’re checking things like the baby’s temperature and heart rate, and you need to know the categories that they should be falling into to make sure they’re fit and healthy. I also learnt how to do discharge charts, which again seems quite easy, but there is so much information that you need to pass on to a woman who has just gone through a life changing experience. They may not be ready to get a barrage of important information that they need to remember when they leave. Throughout my time I also learnt how to do a baby heel prick test and I got to go out into the community and do day five postnatal checks.

Do you feel that your confidence in your role as an MCA has increased since series one?

It’s definitely increased but it’s been a very gradual increase, and when I went back this year, I felt like I was starting all over again. But, by the end of it and from a personal point of view, I really feel like this time I did a lot of self-ref lection. I’ve learnt quite a bit about how I think and view myself. I’ve come away with a different mindset and wanting to make changes, which I didn’t expect. I was ready to just go, learn and leave, but instead I went, learnt a lot about myself and left with a lot of work to do!

What sort of things did you learn about yourself?

A lot of it was around how negative I am with myself and that’s something that I really need to stop.

There’s a moment in the first episode when you discuss the impact of COVID on the hospital. How did that make you feel?

I didn’t really know what I was walking into and, I suppose, you build a picture up in your head of what it was like in hospitals from what you’ve seen on TV over the past couple of years. But really, none of us apart from the people that work there truly know what it felt like and the impact it had on them is huge. You never want to think about the people you care about going through such a traumatic and terrifying time. I didn’t realise how ill my colleague Tilly had been; that was a real shocker and really brought it home to me. When it’s happening or has happened to somebody that you know and care about, it hits you like a ton of bricks.

There are some new faces in this series, too…

Quite a few of the people I worked with before have now left – including Val and Naghmeh – so there are many new faces that you’ll meet throughout the series and they’re all really lovely! I can tell you a lot about Molly. She is a maternity support worker, and she does a lot of my upskilling and new training. She will no doubt one day be a midwife because she is absolutely brilliant. She loves her job, she’s very funny with a great sense of humour, she loves a dance and she’s just fantastic! What I enjoy most, every time

I go back, is the people that work there. Those individuals are the ones that make the unit and they’re the best bunch of people you could ever wish to work alongside and learn from. It’s always a joy to spend a day in their company.