Dera Philimena,
It is great to read your email. I hope that in future we have many
more midwives like you. As you would have heard or read,
presently, the midwives morale is very low in UK, DUE TO STAFF
SHORTAGE, underpayment and lack of self and other
professionals' recognition of the midwifery worth.
I would like to have you come to speak to our present student
midwives. Just to reassure them that they can definitely survive
within and outside the NHS if they choose.
All the best for your now and the future.
Bridget I.Okereke
On 14 Jun 01, at 19:44, Philomena Canning wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I work as a self-employed midwife in Dublin since January 2000. Prior to that I did an MSc in Primary Health Care and prior to that again I worked in the remote Aboriginal communities of the Pitjantjarara Lands in Central Australia, about 2 hours south of Uluru (Ayers Rock). I qualified as a
midwife from the Whittington hospital in North London in 1983. Through default rather than design, I have come to be known as 'the travelling midwife' in Ireland and the mileage clock on my car backs up that reputation - I have travelled over 30,000 miles within one year to look after 14 women
giving birth at home! But not without travel and subsistence @ public service rates paid to me directly by the health boards, a new departure for the self-employed midwife in Ireland. My first 3 clients were medical card holders who could not afford to pay me. I undertook their care on the
agreement that they would seek to legally challenge their equal right as disadvantaged women to choose to give birth at home, and hence their right to have the costs of the midwife re-imbursed in full by the state. Their case is on-going and is due to be heard in the autumn.
>
> Last year, Marie O'Connor and I established the European Institute of Midwifery - please mail me for more information about same.
>
> I feel challenged and very fulfilled by my work as a midwife and every day I thank my lucky stars that I get paid to do work that I enjoy so much!
>
> regards,
>
> Philomena Canning
>
>
> Philomena Canning, RN, RM, MSc.
> European Institute of Midwifery
> 86 Loreto Avenue
> Rathfarnham
> Dublin 14
> Ireland
> Tel. +353-1-4951902
> Mobile 087-2900017
> E-mail [log in to unmask]
> Website www.homebirthmidwife.ie
>
>
Bridget.I.Okereke,
Midwifery Education Department,(Sen.Lecturer).
Middlesex University,
10 Highgate Hill,
London N19 5NF
0181 362 6020
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