Newcastle midwives have been handed a national award for a service which helps new and expectant parents with their baby's feeding
On Friday, midwife Lynne MacDonald virtually accepted a partnership working award from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) behalf of colleagues at the Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust.
Led by Lynne, the service ensures that those who are preparing to or have just given birth receive consistent information as well as access to the right services, including paediatric and immunology teams.
It was developed and set-up by midwives to ensure not only that new parents are actively involved in the planning of care, but also to avoid the stress and frustration of having to tell multiple medical professionals the same information.
Gill Walton, chief executive of the RCM, said: “Empowering women, supporting them and acting as their advocate are such important elements of being a midwife and they are truly embodied by the team at Newcastle.
"By developing such strong partnership working with teams across the Trust they are making it easier for families to navigate services at a challenging time. I congratulate Lynne McDonald and her team not only on their award, but on making this happen.”
Judges said they were particularly impressed by Lynne’s "passion to ensure that the service embraces, supports and values every woman and her needs". As a result, they said, care was individually crafted for each new parent.
Speaking on May 5, International Day of the Midwife, Jane Anderson, associate director of midwifery at Newcastle Hospitals, thanked her colleagues for their "amazing" work and said: "Being a midwife places us in a unique position, requiring a complex still set combining inherent personal qualities with those that are learned and developed through years of experience.
"We are extremely privileged to be part of people's lives when they are at their most vulnerable, when they experience just about every emotion that a human being is capable of. To be a midwife and to support women and their families at this special time in their lives is a wonderful experience."
