Becoming a Maternity Nurse, a Personal Journey

My Journey to becoming a qualified and experienced Maternity Nurse has been quite the experience!

It wasn’t a planned career path as such, although I had qualified as a General Nurse in 1990.

As a young girl I knew I wanted to work in a caring capacity.

However, the change from general nursing to a career as a Maternity Nurse developed following a personal experience.

In 1998 I gave birth to my first child, a boy who weighed in at just 3lb and arrived x weeks before he was due to join us.

As many other parents of premature babies will testify, this was an incredibly stressful and worrying time.

A bit about me, since 2009 I’ve been providing successful outcomes for parents and babies.

Subsequently, creating a happy and settled environment.

My training includes: Maternity Nurse with Babyem, Birth & Postnatal Doula with Nurturing Birth and DONA International.

Initially I trained to become a Registered General Nurse, prior to becoming a Maternity Nurse.

Additionally, I’m a Childbirth Educator with CAPPA and Certified Baby Massage Instructor with IAIM.

Specialist support is provided with breast and bottle feeding, sleep, development expectations, the daily routines. maternal and paternal mental health.

Furthermore, I provide in-home support for parents and a range of remote support services via e-mail, telephone and online consultations.

My Maternity Nurse Journey

As far back as I can recall I have always felt a strong desire to care for and support people.

With this intention, from a young age, I wanted to train as a nurse.

Subsequently, in 1991 I qualified as a Registered General Nurse, at Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

Initially I worked on an acute medical ward, palliative care and care of the elderly.

As a result, I enjoyed caring for patients and supporting their families.

Early on in my nursing career I was promoted to a more senior role as a nursing team lead.

As such, this included liaising with a multi-disciplinary team of clinical staff.

Additionally, I was supporting junior staff and ensuring a high standard of patient care.

During the years that followed I trained as a Nursery Nurse gaining a BTEC National Diploma in Childhood Studies.

My first role was establishing and running the baby unit for a new day-care facility.

Meanwhile, I became Deputy Manager of a Preschool.

The role included hearing and vision screening as part of the School Health Nursing team.

Furthermore working as a Special Educational Needs teaching assistant.

The Turning Point

The birth of my son in 1998 at 31 weeks was the turning point in my journey to supporting families with a new baby.

Despite my training and experience in Nursing and Early Years, I felt ill-prepared for the transition of becoming a parent.

Subsequently, I was often anxious and unsure of myself and there seemed to be so much conflicting advice.

Following the birth of my daughter, this time at 35 weeks, I began to research postnatal support.

My instinct was to make families feel nurtured and supported in a role where I could utilise my training and experience.

I came across the role of Postnatal Doula, ‘Mothering the Mother’. The idea was of not only providing practical and emotional support.

Likewise, one that was based on an evidence-based approach.

It was important to me that I was able to provide families with up to date research and options.

As opposed to the often-conflicting advice that I had experienced as a new parent.

Therefore, in 2009 my journey preparing families for birth and supporting them postnatally began.

Training

I trained as a Birth & Postnatal Doula firstly with Nurturing Birth then after a move to Canada in 2011, with DONA International.

I had the privilege of preparing women and their partners for birth and supporting them postnatally in the UK and Canada.

These are two very different maternal healthcare systems.

As I gained experience supporting families with newborns, more training followed.

Maternity Nursing with Babyem, Night Specialist with the Child Sleep Institute in Toronto and Childbirth Educator with CAPPA.

My work in the field of maternity continued to grow and I started to teach private childbirth preparation classes.

The focus was on the first month with a newborn as well as preparing for birth.

I continued to attend births, offering practical and emotional support to women and their partners during labour.

It was an incredible privilege to be included and witness the birth of so many babies and support people’s transition into parenthood.

My postnatal work grew and I loved the nurturing part of my role, helping parents gain confidence and build a relationship with their baby.

Establishing feeding, understanding baby’s cues and cries, implementing settling techniques and time to recover from the birth.

These were just some of the things I was able to offer families. As such, helping ease the first few weeks and sometimes months with a baby.

I started to receive calls asking for help troubleshooting feeding or sleep concerns with older babies.

A home visit would sometimes be useful to get to the root of the issue.

Similarly, at other times, a phone consultation and a written plan would be enough to turn the situation around.

I loved the opportunity to use my education and experience in this way.

Working with Maternity Experts

In 2012 I had the privilege of working alongside Susan Martensen, PDT(DONA), CLC.

I helped to create and facilitate a drop in programme for Mums with postnatal depression and anxiety.

And as such, the aim was to offer a warm, safe, non-judgmental environment.

One in which Mums could come together to share their concerns and challenges. Furthermore, receive support and access local resources as well as building connections.

This programme developed to include a separate support group for Dads and partners.

I learnt so much from being part of this programme, but two things stand out for me. Firstly, Susan taught me that listening is as important as doing.

Listening is the start of encouraging someone to share and release their anxieties without fear of judgement.

Additionally, it offers the opportunity to feel heard and have feelings validated.

When we listen we also have the opportunity to observe. This is so powerful as we look at body language, tone of voice and an insight into any underlying concerns.

From this, we can gain an understanding of the bigger picture and what support, tools and strategies may be useful.

Secondly, Susan and I offered knowledge and experience. However, the most powerful element was the support, trust and community built between parents.

Families formed friendships, offered support on a practical and emotional level and would meet socially outside of the group.