Hamilton news

Yea, very sad and scary

I have been following it too but I would like to see the name of the MW but haven't seen it anywhere

Yip been following it on fb. Terrible!!

I wonder how badly the young MW's career will be affected from now on. She was a student with my first child's MW - Colleen - and I thought she was an outstanding student (out of the ones you meet).

Completely agree Mrs B, I definitely will not be selecting her when I finally get my BFP.
She may be fantastic, and I am sure this will have made her even more careful -but I feel you need completely faith and trust and I just don't think I could ever have that

Yeah, this is such a tragic event, isn't it.

I'm going to put the cat out amongst the pigeons....
This case involved a new midwife, with little experience of working & decision-making independently...only a few months before this occurred, she presumably was deemed fit by her lecturers and supervisors to graduate with this qualification. ..........I tend to agree with the point of view that perhaps "newbie midwives" could do with further clinical supervision before they can work independently.

Other professions have so much more supervision - for example doctors spend 6 years at med school and then work as 2-3 years as a house surgeon (close supervision) before working as a registrar (under supervision of consultant) for a period of generally 6 or so years before they are "unsupervised" as a consultant...
Likewise, psychologists spend 6 years minimum at uni, and then a further 2 years close supervision...
Midwives have 3 years training.....I am not sure of the level of supervision following this, but this case suggests that there is perhaps not enough. I chose an experienced midwife who had a nursing background. I was happy and felt safe the whole time.

SO tricky. But so so important when lives are at risk.

Sally, I totally agree with the supervision thing. I know that in order to graduate, midwives need to attend so many births etc, but passing a final exam should not suddenly make them independent midwives. Especially younger people who aren't already qualified health professionals, such as nurses.

Working at a hospital under doctors and registrars would be excellent work experience for them IMO. I'd love to hear a MW point of view on this.

At any rate, there is no way I'd personally choose a newbie midwife for my LMC.

My first MW took ill just before DS' birth and I am so so glad I got an excellent experienced MW as back up. It could have been like Linda Barlow, that I was handed over to someone with less experience.

Sally wrote: Yeah, this is such a tragic event, isn't it. I'm going to put the cat out amongst the pigeons.... This case involved a new midwife, with little experience of working & decision-making independently...only a few months before this occurred, she presumably was deemed fit by her lecturers and supervisors to graduate with this qualification. ..........I tend to agree with the point of view that perhaps "newbie midwives" could do with further clinical supervision before they can work independently. Other professions have so much more supervision - for example doctors spend 6 years at med school and then work as 2-3 years as a house surgeon (close supervision) before working as a registrar (under supervision of consultant) for a period of generally 6 or so years before they are "unsupervised" as a consultant... Likewise, psychologists spend 6 years minimum at uni, and then a further 2 years close supervision... Midwives have 3 years training.....I am not sure of the level of supervision following this, but this case suggests that there is perhaps not enough. I chose an experienced midwife who had a nursing background. I was happy and felt safe the whole time. SO tricky. But so so important when lives are at risk.

Not a cat amongst the pigeons, this is exactly the purpose of the inquest and what the Barlows hope to achieve. Tragically it has taken the death of a baby and near death of a mother for people to sit up and take notice. Near misses occur a lot more frequently than people realise. I wonder how many women actually ask their midwives how many deliveries resulting in medical intervention for baby or stillbirths they have been involved in?

I'm interested in knowing if the bit about being paid less if an OB or the like is called in is true! Thats a bit shocking.

Mrs_B i wonder the same thing, i seriously considered asking my m/w how many still births she'd had when i met her the first time but didnt quite know how to put it...