to be worried about this midwife?

[maize]

Recently did a clinical induction to a local health trust, I will be working almost exclusively with adults.

There was a midwife who had previously been an independent midwife on the same induction.

She commented that resuscitation training was 'useless' to her because she would be working in the midwifery led unit and they only looked after 'healthy women' she said the same thing about moving and handling and huffed and puffed her way through the whole session.

She also stated that she felt additional training was useless because experience was all that matter and as she was in her 50s she could learn nothing new from a 'young inexperienced upstart'

If she was presented to me as my midwife I don't think I could be comfortable with her. I found her attitude very very worrying.

Should she be practicing with this attitude?

"People with 'radical' views looking after your pregnancy are not a good idea, especially when they tend to amount to 'birth is a routine event, don't worry about, it's completely normal, no risks at all'"

That's bollocks - they don't assume that birth has no risks. 'Radical' midwives believe that routine intervention in normal birth - as has been practiced over the past few decades in this country, is often dangerous and unnecessary, and they've largely been proved right, hence the increasing trend towards promoting low tech and woman centred birth within the NHS. It used to be 'radical' to suggest that not all women need episiotomies, and that women should have freedom of movement in labour.

Now these things are common practice - but only because there have been brave and committed midwives out there who've been willing to put their reputations and their jobs on the line in order to stand up for what they believe to be best for women and babies.

"This is a graph of maternal mortality rates over the last century in the UK: www.ajcn.org/content/vol72/issue1/images/large/011384a.jpeg which show that this is not the case."

I suggest you read Marjorie Tew's book "Safer Childbirth" for a different take on these statistics. She makes a very strong case that the drop in maternal and infant mortality is largely down to better antenatal care and maternal health, rather than because of the huge increase in instrumental and assisted birth over the past 30 years. Healthy women giving birth at home in this country are just as likely to emerge with a health baby than low risk mothers giving birth in a high tech unit, and are about half as likely to end up on an operating table. I think that statistic tells you all you need to know about the value of routine medical intervention in normal birth....

BTW - my baby needed resucitation after being born at home. My two IMs were superb, calm, totally on the ball, fully prepared and drilled to within an inch of their lives.... I have heard of so many hospital midwives panicking and flapping in similar scenarios, which makes the whole situation so much more traumatic for the mum.

Have you read this comment by Chris Warren of the Independent Midwives Association?

"Even if the wishes of a mother impair the safety of a birth, we will accept that."

That is pretty alarming IMHO. And hardly "standing up for what they believe to be best for women and babies."

What do you suggest they do - refuse to provide care for the mother if she doesn't do as she's told? Or try to force a woman to accept treatment against her wishes?

As long as the mother is making an informed choice and is aware of the risks to her and her baby of any particular course of action then the midwife has fulfilled her role. The midwife's role is to advise the mother as to what is safest for her and her baby, and to provide the best care she can.

yanbu.

i do agree with that sabire, and i think i posted earlier that women have to take some responsibility for what happens if there are risks and they make an informed choice to take those risks

neither being in hospital with a NHS midwife or at home with an indie midwife is a cast iron guarantee that all will be well

The risks women agree to take don't though, include being attended by someone who has failed to absorb a resus update because they don't expect to ever need it. That's the situation outlined by the OP and regrettably in every profession you get some people who just aren't safe in their jobs. Unfortunately HCPs are not exempt from that.