Meet The Instructor: Ros
From Midwife to Mother to Entrepreneur. We spent a morning with our London antenatal instructor, Ros, to hear about her career path so far and her new project to support black maternal health.
When I first decided to become a midwife I was lying on my couch, with a dislocated knee, watching TV. There was a segment on the show, ‘This Morning,’ about what job the presenters would like to do if they weren’t presenters - Fern Britton wanted to be a midwife and the cameras followed her for a day on a maternity ward. It was the first time I really understood what the role involved and that it wasn’t just about babies - it’s about supporting women through their precious journey to motherhood. At the time I was working in social housing, but this was an ‘ah-ha’ moment and I really felt midwifery would be for me.
Witnessing my first birth as a student midwife was mind-blowing and amazing. Before that, anything I’d seen related to birth had been on TV, with lots of editing and far from the full picture. Watching a baby coming out of somebody in real time - a bump becoming a person - confirmed that midwifery was exactly where I needed to be.
I have been a practicing midwife for nearly 12 years now, working mostly on the labour ward and in postnatal care in the UK and also in Australia. For me, the labour ward has always been the most rewarding. I love connecting with women during birth, being their support system and cheerleader and doing whatever I can to help them feel relaxed and safe. Birth is a joyous experience but it can also be stressful or frightening and ensuring she feels comfortable and safe and connected to her birth partner is so important. I am also the person that takes you to the toilet and brings you your first piece of toast after birth - those kinds of things mean a lot to me too.
There have been some hilarious moments over the years, like the time I found myself drenched when the waters of a lady I was caring for suddenly broke. They popped and flew across the room where I was writing my notes, several feet away. I was covered from my head to my Crocs in her waters, despite a (pathetic) attempt to jump out of the way as the cascade came towards me. The woman was of course focused on the arrival of her baby, but we had a really good laugh about it afterwards and it’s a moment I’ll never forget!
I am sure being a midwife helped me feel relaxed when it came to giving birth to my own daughter. My birth wasn’t straightforward at all, but I had a good experience as I knew exactly what was going on and that’s one of the reasons why I believe so strongly in antenatal education - knowledge is power.
Motherhood changed the direction of my career as the physicality of looking after my daughter and doing 12 hour shifts became too much. After having her I was just so tired. There was no recovery time and I was never switching off - just going straight back to looking after someone who needed me, at work and at home. So I chose to work part time and still work flexibly as a midwife.
I also have an exciting side project… I have started up a company to address the important issue of Black Maternal Health in the UK and the statistic that black women are 3.7 times more likely to die in childbirth. There is awareness about this issue and a lot of people from my community are pushing for change, but they are generally working on policy change which can be very slow - so I’m focusing on practical things we can do here and now to improve the situation.
I am part of the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme and creating a digital ‘Pregnancy Wellness Hub’ for black and mixed heritage women. The goal is to help them stay healthy during pregnancy and after birth by educating them about certain medical issues we can suffer from - like high blood pressure, gestational diabetes etc - and also giving them specific wellness and nutrition tips and advice. For example, looking at the foods they currently eat from their Caribbean African background, and encouraging them to swap less healthy choices with food that they already know - so they don’t feel like they’re missing out on what they love. And bringing in the idea of exercise like yoga and pilates, and having more representation around that.
I have managed to get a prototype done and now it’s all about trying to get the right funding, which is why I have bags under my eyes! It is a really important project for me as it will be free and accessible to the women who use it, and very empowering for them. The UK's Maternity system is stretched and under a lot of pressure, so I'm happy to be part of an entrepreneur programme where I can express my ideas, and the fact it exists within the NHS is very helpful. It has brought a lot of things together for me and is a really exciting new phase of my career.
