Dear Jill/ everyone
I have been employed for to establish a midwifery group practice in
Wollongong-which is just over an hour south of Sydney here in sunny Oz. Like
you Jill we have six midwives working in two teams of three. They provide
continuity through antenatal, intra and post partum care for one woman per
week each ( max of 40 women per midwife per year).The midwives work an
annualised salary which allows them to be on call for their caseload of
women. So far we have had 63 babies and all but 2 women have had a known
midwife at the birth. This year we are running as a pilot programme from a
regional hospital that does about 2000 births pa. We are aiming to transfer
the programme to a smaller midwifery led unit next year if the evaluation is
successful (and if we can convince the sceptical obstetricians that it is a
viable idea!)
The enthusiasm of the midwives and the women has been fantastic, and makes
all the challenges of establishing a programme like this worthwhile!
One of the issues has been trying to find the perfect roster that allows for
set days off each week,( as per our union requirements) but with enough
flexibility for covering clinics and births. Has anyone found the perfect
solution for a team of 3 yet?! Both teams work a different roster to suit
their needs, and one team has less set days off in order to be more
available for their caseload of women. This is fantastic for the women, but
I am concerned the midwives will burn out more quickly this way.
Any advise from those of you who have been doing this for a bit longer than
5 months?!
Looking forward to hearing all your stories
Anne Lainchbury
-----Original Message-----
From: Caseload midwifery [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Jill Cooper
Sent: Wednesday, 10 November 2004 8:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New member
Hello everyone,
I have just joined this list and I am looking forward to reading and taking
part in the discussions here.
I work as a caseloading midwife in Blackburn Lancashire, as part of a
Surestart team although I continue to be employed by an NHS Trust. There are
6 of us in our group practice, looking after a personal caseload of 2-3
women each month. Well, that's the theory anyway, December and January we
are having a birth boom and are very over booked. We work in two groups of
three to cover on-call, but if our own women are labouring we try to be
available for them at anytime.
Obviously as we work in a Surestart area, there is a great deal of
deprivation amongst our clients. We have a large Asian population, mainly
Pakistani, but with some Indian families too. Working with Surestart means
that we can access language link workers readily which make a big
difference to everyone.
Looking forward to hearing from you all,
Jill Cooper
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