AN OPPORTUNITY to meet the Tavistock midwives is coming up next Thursday (May 5) as part of the first ever awareness week to raise the profile of the profession. Tavistock Midwifery Base is opening its doors from 10am to noon offering information about planning a baby, pregnancy, childbirth and parenting. The town?s six midwives would like to see as many people as possible from those who are thinking about having a baby to grandparents and former midwives. Midwife Julie Harmsworth said: ?We have a lot of information here and we want people to come and ask questions, learn about our role and see our delivery equipment in our mock delivery room.? Despite the closure of Tavistock Maternity Unit ten years ago, which means women have to either deliver at home or at Derriford Hospital, the midwives have been able to offer scans, consultant appointments and parentcraft classes from their base in Spring Hill. Mothers-to-be have been lucky enough to see the same midwife all the way through their pregnancies and often during childbirth, especially if they have their babies at home ? Tavistock has 8% more home births than the national average. Julie said the strong team, each member having served at least ten years with the Tavistock midwives, prided itself on individual personalised care. Midwife Suki Hardesty added: ?We feel very privileged to be involved in a such a life-changing event. ?Working in Tavistock with Dartmoor all around is an added bonus and one reason why we have all been here so long.? Tavistock Midwives deliver around 300 babies a year with two to three a month born at home: Julie said: ?Every woman is given the choice of having her baby at home as long as she is medically fit and there are no complications. ?Our ladies are very lucky because we get to know them well and equally it makes the job very rewarding for us. ?There is always a midwife available here, seven days a week 365 days a year, if anyone needs to be checked. ?We also have a library of books and videos and offer pre-conceptual advice on things like diet and exercise.? The role of the midwife is diverse, ranging from carrying out clinical examinations, providing health and parent education and supporting the mother and family throughout the childbearing process to help them adjust to their parental role. The midwife also works in partnership with other health and social care services to meet individual mothers? needs, for example teenage mothers, mothers who are socially excluded and disabled mothers. Midwife Gloria Cailes said it was a huge loss to Tavistock when the maternity unit closed, especially with the growing population. She said: ?We fought really hard, but in the end it was down to finance. ?Community units are being promoted again in this latest election campaign so we are hoping that in the next ten years we may see one created here.? On June 30 there will be a reunion of all staff who worked at Tavistock Maternity Unit. Gloria praised Tavistock Hospital League of Friends who had supported the midwifery base financially over the years. National Midwifery Week runs from May 1 to 8 and has been designed to centre on the International Day of the Midwife. A shortage or total absence of midwives in developing countries has had a bearing on the maternal mortality rate which is still higher than it was in the UK in 1881. For every woman who died as a result of pregnancy or labour in a Victorian slum, there are hundreds of women who still die throughout the world from avoidable maternity-related causes.
