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Midwifery assistants, not doulas

This weekend I am working with a group in London. As often happens at workshops here, there are people from all over the country and it is an interesting mix of NCT teachers, students, yoga teachers, Midwifery Managers and staff from several London hospitals.

There are four “midwifery assistants” in this group, all from Southend Hospital. This unit, which has a very strong commitment to woman centred care and active birth, were having problems finding midwives (as are many other hospitals) so they have employed these assistants so do some of the labour support work, post-natal care and administrative tasks for the midwives. They are not calling themselves “doulas” because their role is more extensive than just labour support and they are clear that their role is provide back up so that the midwives can be “with woman” as much as possible. One task they are doing is entering the notes onto the computer after each birth and I imagine that the midwives are very relieved to be able to hand over this chore!

One subject we will tackle today the issue of drugs for labour pain - the view was expressed again yesterday by several group members that Entonox is not really a drug. This attitude makes me really mad - apart from the professional myopia and presumptive attitudes it exhibits, it is a worry that midwives are so uninformed. I have signalled that I will make sure they are aware of the effects that drugs have on newborns and I will be preparing a few hand grenades to lob about to make them stop and think!

Tonight I travel to Leicester......

Posted by andrea at October 12, 2003 05:42 PM

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