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Chapter 1: What role do midwives play in supporting families during childbirth?
Theirs are often the very first hands that touch us. Their calm voices guide families through transformative moments. They are a crucial support to women at a critical life stage. Midwives share some of the most joyful moments in life. We're going to discuss the magic and the intensity of the role now with three expert practitioners. Here in studio with me are Louise May.
Good morning, you're all very welcome. Louise, when I outline it like that, it sounds like a very worthwhile and rewarding career. Is it accurate?
Absolutely accurate.
Chapter 2: Is being a midwife a rewarding career choice?
Yeah, it's it's magical. It's the most rewarding career I think that exists today. I get so much out of my work. I'm sure you'd agree. I come home from work with more energy sometimes than I go in because I just experienced the most lovely times with people. And it's such a lovely time to be with the woman, which is, you know, what the word midwife means with the woman.
oh I didn't know that Fiona is there any such thing as a standard day in the life of a midwife I wouldn't think so no it's so varied such a varied job every day is different and nowadays you're meeting people from all over the world as well lots of different cultures so every day when I go out to do my job I never know what's going to be ahead of me or who I'm going to meet makes it exciting different varied lovely job okay Yvonne good morning to you
Good morning. Thanks for having me. Thanks for joining us and thanks for taking the time. Tell me a little bit about the work you're doing day to day.
So I suppose my title is a little bit long, Advanced Midwife Practitioner in Supported Care. So my role really is I'm a lead care provider for a cohort of women who I work very autonomously with and provide direct care to those women, assess, treat, diagnose, prescribe.
And predominantly, I suppose my main role is overseeing our supported care pathway here in the University Maternity Hospital in Limerick. So Supported Care Pathway is a pathway of care recommended for women who are considered to be normal risk. So women who have no real medical, surgical, obstetric complications and a very well pregnancy.
And they then are triaged into care where they have all of their antenatal care delivered by our midwives from Limerick. So I suppose for me as well, I have an additional caseload where I have a clinic for women who have had a previous birth by caesarean section. That's a very specialised clinic offering very individualised specialist care with lots of information, education.
trying to help women to make decisions about their birth choices for their next pregnancy.
Okay, because a lot of times people have the impression that if you've had one cesarean, you have to have a cesarean the next time as well.
Absolutely. And is that the case? We're going to break that. No, it's not. Absolutely not. No, you know what? The idea of a clinic like this, birth after cesarean, is really birth options.
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Chapter 3: What does a typical day look like for a midwife?
So it's a lovely job.
Good. Now, I think you're the longest serving midwife in the Coombe at the moment. Congratulations. How many babies do you think you've delivered over the years? Do you keep count? No. OK. Louise, do you have any idea?
I was trying to figure this out. And I think I'm definitely it's definitely in the hundreds. But of course, the mum delivers the baby. You know, we're just there with her. And it definitely in the hundreds. But I suppose I didn't have a hugely long career in the labour ward. I was in the emergency department for quite a long time.
And, you know, some babies kind of can come along when the baby decides it's time. It's time. So definitely in the hundreds. But I suppose in terms of the women and the families I've supported over the 20 years, I'm in the rotunda. Thousands and thousands.
Thousands and thousands. Yvonne, can you top that?
I don't think I can top that. I don't think so. Thousands, I'm not sure. Thousands of families. Thousands of families, exactly. Very similar to Louise, I suppose my main kind of involvement is the antenatal, whether that was high risk or low risk. And I suppose getting women to the labour ward safely.
so that they can, you know, if that's their choice for where they want to birth, to have their babies. But definitely maybe 100 or so, I'd say. Don't keep count either.
OK. Yvonne, tell me, what made you decide that you wanted to be a midwife in the first place?
If I'm honest? It wasn't a very, you know, obvious career choice for me. I started out like any teenager, I suppose, you know, in school and I didn't really know what I wanted to do and it's a big decision. I decided to do my general nursing first and I felt that that gave me great opportunity and, you know, if I ever wanted to travel, it was a career that I could take with me.
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Chapter 4: How does the Supported Care Pathway benefit expectant mothers?
You've got the ad in there. Well done, Yvonne. Louise, I think you had a fairly circuitous route as well, didn't you?
I did, yes. So I... I had kind of loved kind of acting and drama and things like that. And I'd gone to UCD to do arts, thinking that I'd kind of weave on my way onto the stage somehow. Wasn't to be. I leaned into the party life a little bit and I dropped out and I kind of panicked. And I remember my mum, Lord Rester, my mum...
unfortunately passed away in her mid 40s and she used to tell me she used to say you'd be a lovely nurse you'd be lovely and I'd be like not at all I'm destined for the stage or whatever but when I dropped out of UCD I kind of panicked a little bit and I had nurses in my family Annette and Anne and
They just said, you need to present your dad with a plan because, you know, you've dropped out of college. So I just said, Dad, I'm really sorry I've dropped out of college, but I'm going to be a nurse. And Dad said, all right, OK, yeah, you'd be lovely. So I was like, phew. So I started nursing and I didn't know how it was going to go, but I loved it. I loved it.
I got such satisfaction out of looking after people. And obviously my mum had been unwell when I was very young. And I really loved looking after people and thinking, God, like, you know, if I had have been older, I would have been able to help or I would have been able to... And I got so much out of it. I really, really did.
And then then in third year, I did a placement in the Rotunda and it was the Rotunda that kind of called me more so than the babies. You know, I arrived to the Rotunda and it was such a friendly place. They were so proud of it. They were so proud of the building.
Like, you know, I remember one of the household staff showing me the chapel and this magical place where everyone was well and everyone was kind of. You know, you went around in the morning and you asked the women who wanted to go home. And I thought, oh, that's so different to a general setting because the doctors told you when you were going home in a general setting.
And I thought, God, the women are in charge here. The women are well. And when they're ready to go home with their baby. And I just that just really spoke to me that this was kind of being with people who are well at a normal part of their life, helping them to. you know, take that leap into the next stage. And it just really spoke to me.
And I, you know, my plan from that placement on was just to get back to the rotunda.
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Chapter 5: What options are available for women after a cesarean section?
OK. Yvonne, obviously, I mean, Louise has adverted to it, it's not always happy. There can be, things can go wrong sometimes and you have to really be empathetic and supportive of women at the most, and families at the most vulnerable points in their lives.
And that's, you know, that's exactly what
the purpose of your role is there is how you've described it you know you know people's pregnancy journeys you're you're meeting them where they're at in that journey and that could be you know a roller coaster for people so it's joy it's excitement it's worry it's concern it's unfortunately sometimes loss and grief and your role is to to be there and to support and
to hope that you've made some impact and that you've helped someone in some way. And that gives your job a real purpose. And I, I think, you know, we're so privileged to be around women and their families, like in those moments and to think that you could just hold space when it's needed and to share joy when it's appropriate.
You know, you really, it's, there's, it's so diverse, you know, you're meeting women where they're at in that journey. It's,
It's a big emotional ask from you too, you know, there's an emotional side to it and, you know, I think every midwife would say like, you know, we think about women all the time and, you know, we think about how they are and what they've been through and how they are at the other side of things, you know, like it stays with you. It's emotionally challenging, definitely.
OK, well, listen, you've already given a good ad for the higher diploma in midwifery and all three of you have given a great recommendation for it as a job. So Yvonne Trier, Louise May and Fiona Walsh, thank you all very much for joining me. And I was born in the Rotunda and my daughter was born in the Coombe. So thank you very much for all your service.
Time now to go over to the newsroom and Kate Carlin.
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