Top honour for Maureen
Awishaw hospital midwife has been honoured for her amazing work in the community
Nominated by local mum Laura Abbott, Maureen Mcsherry has been awarded as Emma’s Diary Mums’ Midwife of theyear 2019 for the Scottish region.
The prestigious award is one of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Annual Midwifery Awards, recognising the incredible work done by exceptional midwives across the country.
Laura first met Maureen, of Carluke, when she was pregnant with her second child.
After suffering a traumatic hospital birth with her first, she was fearful of a repeat experience but with Maureen’s support she was able to have the dream home birth she’d always hoped for.
It was only when Laura went to the doctors to have a coil fitted that she found out she was pregnant again, with twins.
Still fearful of hospitals and desperate for a home birth again, Laura went back to Maureen, her ‘wonder lady’as she calls her, to ask to remain with the community team and have her twin pregnancy treated like any other.
Laura was told that once her pregnancy reached 37 weeks a home birth would be an option (once the risks of a pre-term birth had passed).
With her history of long pregnancies, she was positive, and 37 weeks came and went.
It wasn’t until an incredible 42+2 weeks that Laura met her two beautiful twin girls.
Maureen and her team, having carried out regular anti natal checks and having no cause for concern, delivered the twins at home in what was probably one of the longest twin pregnancies, and certainly home births, in the country.
Laura said:“maureen is truly the cream of the crop, she orchestrated a fantastic team who truly believe in women’s ability to birth, who are working hard to change the tide of highly medicalised births. Maureen and her dream team believed in me and my babies from the very start and quietly supported us along the way. She is just magical, and I will sing her praises to all who will listen.”
On winning the award Maureen, consultant midwife for NHS Lanarkshire adds:“i feel humbled that someone has felt I listened to what was important to them, which resulted in a memorable birth for all the right reasons.
“Support to women throughout their pregnancy and birth is a key role of a consultant midwife, but also to support my midwifery colleagues to feel confident in providing such a wonderful service to women too, especially when the request involved care to a woman requesting a home pool birth of twins. It was a privilege and an honour to witness and support Laura birth her babies with such confidence and a wonderful experience that I will never forget.” Health visiting services in Lanarkshire have once again been awarded the prestigious ‘Baby Friendly Award’ from Unicef.
The international award is given to services that display best standard practices to protect, promote and support breastfeeding and to strengthen mother-baby and family relationships. The award commended staff for their work to maintain their standards.
Anne Armstrong, divisional nurse director, said: “We are extremely proud that NHS Lanarkshire has been re- accredited as baby friendly. It is testament to the hard work and dedication of healthcare staff across Lanarkshire.
“The assessment included interviews with 21 members of staff and 44 new mums. All of the mums who were interviewed as part of the assessment said that they were very happy with the care that they received.
“The assessment team were impressed by the mother- centred way staff discussed close and loving relationships.”
The Baby Friendly Initiative, set up by Unicef and the World Health Organisation, is a global programme which provides a practical and effective way for health services to improve the care provided for all mothers and babies.
Anne Marie Bruce, infant feeding development midwife, added: “The team was also highly commended for arranging the 2018 Breastfeeding Summit, which engaged all staff.”