A New Generation of Maternity Leadership

Most recently I have been studying and composing an essay on the importance of leadership within the midwives' role and it made me think about how student midwives' can best develop their skills to be prepared for role model and leadership role when they become newly qualified midwives.

Leadership is difficult to define in the context of care services as you can have very definite role of leadership, be that Band 7 or Senior role, but a lot is discussed in relation to allowing women to be the leaders of their care, mentors leading their students and policy leading practice.

I think it is important to discuss the concept of empowerment alongside leadership, as many theories relate now to relationship models of women centred care, and within that the empowerment of the woman and the midwife to provide autonomous care.

With new policy being introduced in Better Births and The Best Start, caseloading opens options for midwives to become not only empowered autonomously, but also leading their own time, caseload, resources and continuous professional development.

A big part of being able to develop leadership skills, whether that be for a team, your caseload or your own practice, is understanding emotional intelligence (EI) and how it affects us in providing the bet possible care. Emotional intelligence for those unaware is the ability to examine one owns and others emotions - a key skill for a midwife. By developing this skill, we are able to develop a higher emotional capacity for the work and understanding when it comes to informed choice, empathy, adaptability, approach-ability and effective communication. All of these being aspects of the role that women note could be improved (The Best Start SG 2017).

It is true that developing the skill of EI and leadership is a struggle in the current climate of the NHS with staff shortages, burnout and increasing numbers of midwives leaving the profession. However, by cultivating these skills along with building resilience and sustainability it may be possible for midwives to facilitate positive attitudes to changes and workplace pressures. Clinical supervision in Scotland aims to address this  by supporting colleagues and facilitating empowerment of self and others.

So for a newly qualified midwife entering the profession, it important overall to maintain your passion for midwifery through empowerment of women and others, keep up with CPD, developing strategies from role models and mentors and building resilience through self care.

A great way to do this is develop your own support network of midwives and members of the multidisciplinary team. Social media is a fantastic place for this - from blogs to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Meeting like-minded people online to discuss midwifery, life and all sorts of things can help balance out some of those tougher days. Reflecting on care can also help facilitate the transition from student to newly qualified midwife.
This is why I think the new generation of midwives have a lot more resources to pull from to support them in becoming leaders in maternity care, and are well placed to develop and adapt to change in maternity services for the better.


Ruth x
twitter: @ruth_stmw

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