The midwife has a responsibility to provide holistic woman/baby centred midwifery care; this may be leading midwifery care or working in collaboration with the multi- disciplinary team that advocates pregnancy as a normal physiological life event. The midwife will assess, plan, implement and evaluate care for the women/baby. The role will encompass taking responsibility for the management/ leadership of the ward/department/ community caseload on a shift to shift basis. To collaborate with external agencies and consumer groups.
The post holder will be required to exercise clinical judgement for the assessment of care needs, the development, the implementation and evaluation of programmes of care in partnership with a defined group of women in the ante, intra and post-natal period. They will work autonomously within departmental/Trust guidelines and professional sphere of practice, also abiding by the Midwives rules and standards (NMC 05.04)
The post holder will provide a full range of health education, social care and advice to women, liaising with multi-disciplinary/agency groups are to continually improve maternity care for childbearing women and their families, being responsive to the needs of the women and obtain user views as appropriate. The post holder will contribute to creating a learning environment in the department/ward/area acting as role model and mentor to less experience midwives, student midwives and other staff.
• Act as the professional lead for low risk women, promoting the normal birthing process.
• Assess and make appropriate referral of women for specialist counselling and support as appropriate, for example fetal anomaly screening, bereavement, sexual health, vulnerable and disadvantaged women; young mothers, refugees, the homeless, those living with domestic violent and those with psychological problems
• Work in collaboration with the child protection team, identifying women and their families where there are concerns with child protection, domestic violence, substance abuse and special needs.
• Participate in case conferences giving midwifery reports on care given to pregnant women and give feedback to the unit on the subsequent care plan made for the mother and baby.
• Practice as a midwife/team member taking responsibility for a defined caseload of women on a continuing basis in all areas of maternity care.
• Take and record histories of health, social and psychological factors, including full clinical assessments to determine individual health status
• Work collaboratively with women, respecting their right to make informed decisions about their care, seeking informed consent prior to for example, procedures, treatment, antenatal screening.
• To promote the uptake and provision of parent education to help parents to make and effective and confident transition to parenthood
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology.
Our Values
We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.
Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job.
• Promote the wellbeing and safeguarding of children and young people by implementing the Trust’s policy and procedures, acting promptly on concerns, communicating effectively and sharing information appropriately.
• Assess, plan implement and evaluate care women/babies for a defined caseload, using evidence to rationalise prescribed care.
• Develop link with all care agencies to facilitate seamless approach to maternity care.
• Practice within boundaries of autonomy as described by the NMC Code 2015.
• Review practices to reduce clinical risk. Record and report any untoward incidents and take action to avoid further incidents.
• Promote health and wellbeing through practice and education of women, relatives, carers and staff
• Participate in ‘on call’ roster when working in the community
• To monitor and maintain standards of care whilst providing ante natal and post-natal care at venues for example, women’s homes, health centre, family HUB’s, the hospital.
• To provide information and advice related to health education to improve health outcomes, for example counselling prior to and support after ante and post-natal screening, smoking cessation, drug and alcohol abuse
• To diagnose the onset of labour
• To monitor the progress of labour and monitor maternal and fetal wellbeing for hospital and home births.
This advert closes on Monday 3 Mar 2025