Sheena Byrom
Freelance
Sheena Byrom is a practising midwife, an international speaker, and provides consultancy services to organisations globally. Sheena was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to midwifery. Mary Newburn is a parent advocate, policy researcher, editor and she is now working freelance.
Description of innovation: Following publication of the Birthplace in England research and NICE Intrapartum Care guideline, three UK midwives and a service user advocate set up an online network (website, Twitter and Facebook) to promote and support midwifery-led units (MLU's) also called birth centres,. Units managed by midwives, providing midwifery care for women who meet nationally agreed eligibility criteria, provide excellent opportunities for women to experience physiological birth, with excellent clinical outcomes and women reporting feelings of psychosocial safety. However, MLU's often face financial obstacles, both in establishing birth centres and in sustaining them. In many places there are also ideological reasons why MLU's do not exist at all. MUNet aims to share innovation and success to support the growth of MLU's worldwide.
Midwifery Unit Network (MUNet) aims to build a community of practice to support midwifery care settings and facilitate implementation of evidence. The session will share the philosophy and practice of MUNet. The model will be critically appraised and evidence around MLU's and outcomes will be discussed. Delegates will be introduced to the website and social media platforms; asked to consider how the network could be developed further; and whether they would like to participate or create an affiliated MUNet in their own country.
Discussion: From a small unfunded start, the collaboration between a small group of committed individuals creating a website and social media network, has provided a platform for gaining funding for developments, including an academic fellowship and a leadership education programme.
Conclusion – This community of practice builds midwifery confidence and potentially capacity for more physiological birth. The model will benefit from new ideas, and can be learned from and adapted.
References:
Birthplace in England Collaborative Programme. Perinatal and maternal outcomes by planned place of birth for healthy women with low risk pregnancies: the Birthplace in England national prospective cohort study. BMJ 2011;343:dz400 http://www.bmj.com/content/343...
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Intrapartum Care for healthy women and babies. Clinical guideline (CG190). NICE, London. 2014. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidan...
Newburn M. The best of both worlds – Parents’ motivations for using an alongside birth centre from an ethnographic study. Midwifery 2012;28(1):61-6. http://www.midwiferyjournal.co...
Midwifery Unit Network. What is a Midwifery unit? http://www.midwiferyunitnetwor...
Workmeister G, Jokinen M, Mamood T et al Making normal labour and birth a reality- Developing a multi-disciplinary consensus Midwifery 2008;24:(3)256-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
Drama, virtual reality, and other multi-media and e-technology approaches
