My current community role is for a large trust, caring for women and their families based in the community, within a multi cultural society. This involves managing a challenging caseload with a variety of safeguarding needs and implementing support for women victim to FGM. I am predominantly the main coordinator of care and first point of contact for a caseload of nearly 100 women. This role requires me to be autonomous and use excellent time and self-management skills, adapt to challenging situations and think quickly. Prioritising care is essential to the role and a skill I feel I am continuously developing. It is my responsibility to ensure the needs of women are met appropriately and efficiently and to educate women on the most up to date research based information and encourage informed choice. I consistently risk assess and make referrals where appropriate to ensure the safest care is provided. I run weekly clinics and daily home visits, managing my own workload, working autonomously and use the wider team for support where appropriate. Additionally to perinatal midwifery care, I also use my professional curiosity to identify safeguarding issues, mental wellbeing difficulties and other complexities, such as drug and alcohol addiction, putting in security measures to safeguard both the mother and her unborn baby. It is my role to work within a multidisciplinary team to implement a plan of care for women with co morbidities and complexities. I also have an on call duty to support community births in both the home and a birth centre setting. Continuous professional development is an integral element of my role. Alongside regular trust updates I spend time keeping my knowledge up to date by reading evidence based research and attending study days where possible.

It was my role to care for women of both high and low risk pregnancies, during the perinatal period. I undertook and experienced all aspects of midwifery care. I gained experience of taking charge on the antenatal ward and day assessment unit, areas of particularly high activity. It was essential to remain calm in emergency situations and be able to coordinate care appropriately, making timely referrals for safest care. I also developed key coping mechanisms and quick skill adaptation, appropriate to the situation, working within trust guidelines and ensuring legible and contemporaneous documentation was recorded to support my practice. I also rotated to the community, managing a caseload of up to 70 women, improving my practice and gaining further skills essential to the role. I left this role in order to relocate back to Yorkshire.

As a student midwife, I spent 3 years coordinating study, working varying shift patterns and home life as a single parent. In addition to this I also worked in employment to support my family financially. I finished my degree with a first class honors and 100% grade in my final year research project, which was later published in the university’s online journal. I showed great tenacity and dedication to becoming the midwife I wanted to be. I studied the theory and practice that underpins midwifery. The placements I undertook were in a variety of different settings, such as, but not limited to; community midwifery, acute hospital midwifery and community birth centres. I undertook both long days and night shifts, alongside community hours and on calls. I also undertook nursing placements that involved; cardiac, breast cancer care, gynecology, fertility treatment and ICU