Meet The Instructor: Laura O
Our Ealing Club leader, Laura, fulfilled her teenage dream of becoming a midwife. A decade into her career, she reflects on the journey so far…
I first became interested in becoming a midwife when I was at school, around the time we were asked to think about our future careers. Everything about the job appealed to me. I found pregnancy fascinating and loved the idea of supporting women. I became really set on midwifery and spoke about it so much it was even written in the school Year Book when I was 15. I still have it today – underneath my name and photo it says I’m going to become a midwife!
This month is exactly 10 years since I qualified and I really believe I’m doing the job that I was meant to do. From the beginning I had a strong feeling of ‘belonging’ and that has never left. I think the reason the passion has stayed with me is because I’ve been able to move around and practice different specialities. There are lots of varied roles in midwifery – delivering babies, supporting women at home after birth, working within mental health and many more.
Having my two daughters was a big, transformative part of my journey and I’ve definitely taken bits of my experience into my working life. It has helped me have more of an understanding of the women I care for, but it’s so important as midwives we remember our own experience is just one scenario out of an infinite number of possible scenarios – we must never assume we know how other women are feeling or what they are going through.
I love learning about people and different cultures and the expectations within each family I care for. The area of London where I work is very multicultural and getting into people’s lives makes my days rich and interesting and constantly challenges my perspective on the world and how I do things. I try to find out as much as I can about people and, without a doubt, by the end of each working day I learn something valuable from someone.
The most rewarding phase of my career was when I was working within safe-guarding – looking after pregnant women with complex needs, such as those involved with social services or who have drug and alcohol dependencies and also asylum seekers. I made it my mission to get to know people for who they are, rather than what their ‘concern’ or dependency is – to see beyond their actions and understand why they were behaving in the way they were and why they couldn’t change it. It was an eye-opening role and women would tell me they really liked coming to my appointments because I was interested in all aspects of their life and treating them like a ‘normal’ person. Compassion is so important – they aren’t bad people making bad decisions, they are just coping with the difficult circumstances that life has thrown at them, and I believe they can be supported best by understanding this.
Teaching antenatal classes has been such an enjoyable part of my career. Passing on knowledge is an amazing feeling and I think it’s really important to prepare expectant parents for the realities of maternity care in the UK at the moment and help them to manage expectations so they can have the most positive experience possible. Watching friendships develop within my Bump and Baby Club groups is one of the best bits of all and I’m currently working on new ways to keep my classes fun and interactive. And, like my work within the NHS, I am always learning from the lovely and interesting people who join me.
