Universal Care And Human Development

Midwives promote a high standard of universal and continuity of care, and work across the continuum from pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, labour and birth, to the postpartum period, and the early weeks of newborn infants’ life. They work in the birthing person’s home, hospitals, the community, midwifery led units and all other environments where care is provided by midwives. The midwife is responsible for creating an environment that is safe, respectful, kind, nurturing, and empowering, ensuring that the birthing person’s experience of care during the whole maternity journey is seamless.

The aim of this unit is to introduce you to the fundamental knowledge base required to understand human development from conception and birth to the development of early childhood.  You will explore how genes have an influence on the influences on growth, development and the functioning of the human body and reproductive system and how healthcare professionals screen for genetic disorders to promote the best start in life for the newborn infant. It provides the theoretical experience necessary to appreciate the relationship of the midwife with the birthing person and their family in different clinical settings, whilst respecting the beliefs and values of a culturally diverse population. A review of your knowledge of anatomy and physiology of human development, from conception to early childhood and genomics, will assist in your application of knowledge to midwifery practice.

Public Health And The Accountable Midwife

This Unit revisits key psychological and physiological health and social care concepts to assist you in developing a safe level of competence in recognising and promoting uncomplicated pregnancy, including maternal and neonatal wellbeing. It enables you to explore midwifery practice within a public health arena as delivered to birthing people and their families.

Midwives work in partnership with women to care for and support all childbearing people, newborn infants, and their families. They make an important contribution to population health, promoting psychological and physical health and well-being. Midwives optimise normal physiological processes, and support safe psychological, social, cultural and spiritual situations, working to promote positive outcomes and to anticipate and prevent complications.

Reflecting on practice is central to midwifery practice and you will explore how this can be achieved. You will revisit professional codes, standards of behaviour and the underlying principles and apply them to your practice as a potential midwife. Underpinning values which are core to healthcare and to your interactions with women and their families will be analysed for integration into your midwifery practice.

Midwifery Care In Practice

Midwives are skilled, autonomous practitioners who apply knowledge safely and effectively, to optimise outcomes for all birthing people and newborn infants. They combine clinical knowledge, understanding, skills, and interpersonal and cultural competence, to provide quality care that is tailored to individual circumstances. They assess, plan, provide, and evaluate care in partnership with women, referring to and collaborating with other health and social care professionals as needed. They continue to enhance their midwifery practice for the benefit of birthing people, newborn infants, partners, and families.

During this practice-based unit, undertaken in an approved maternity placement, you will be provided with supervised opportunities and introduced to antenatal, labour and postnatal care.

As part of the unit you will identify areas for individual skills development that can be addressed within the first year, and taken forward into the second year as part of your continuing development. You will also gain experience in working within a multidisciplinary team.

During this period you will be introduced to the concept of continuity of care and will be given the opportunity to provide care and support throughout the childbirth continuum to a minimum of three women and birthing people.  

Enhancing Quality And Safety In Midwifery

This unit will provide you with the skills to identify, critically analyse, and interpret research evidence, at local, national, international levels to support women and birthing people in making evidence informed decisions through their care. You will study areas such as; epidemiology, public health strategies and safeguarding and build on your knowledge surrounding advocating for those in your care. 

On a wider scale, you will study how research and evidence underpin governance, quality and safety within healthcare provisions.  

Individualised And Additional Midwifery Care

This unit aims to equip you with the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to act, manage and escalate care in additional and emergency situations within the maternity care setting. It will assist in the development of your knowledge, skills and behaviours required to anticipate and recognise situations which require additional and urgent action and immediate response. It will assist you to respond and deliver first-line management and timely collaboration and referral to multidisciplinary teams. You will explore the concept of individualised care across the continuum of care provided by the midwife.

You will develop the skills necessary for the delivery of ongoing midwifery care as part of the multidisciplinary team. It will assist you to take responsibility as an advocate for women, birthing people, their families and newborn infants as coordinators in the provision of continuity of midwifery care. 

The midwife has specific responsibility for continuity and coordination of care, providing ongoing midwifery care as part of the interdisciplinary team, while acting as an advocate for birthing women, people, and newborn infants to ensure that they are always the focus of care (NMC, 2019). This includes optimizing physiological processes, and supporting safe psychological, social, cultural and spiritual situations and transition to parenthood, working to promote positive outcomes and to anticipate where additional needs occur and how to support them.

Developing The Future Midwife

This unit aims to develop the midwife as a colleague, and leader. It responds to the need for qualified midwives to recognise their strengths and limitations as practitioners; the effectiveness of their interaction with students and other colleagues across and within teams in the interests of clients. It addresses the ways in which you may fulfil both formal and informal leadership roles within midwifery and the community in which you will work. 

You will develop the knowledge, positive role modelling and leadership to both a midwife a teacher and leader. You will explore the importance of current and ongoing local, national and international research and leadership in midwifery and related fields, and how to use this knowledge to keep updated, to inform decision-making and to develop your practice. This will enable you to explore potential career pathways that may include practice, management, leadership, education, research and policy.  You will review, evaluate and apply national and local guidance and policy to current maternity care. Key features of the unit are how coordination of care is managed within the NHS and safe medications management.

Domain 5 of the NMC’s Standards of Proficiency for Midwives (2019) identifies these knowledge and skill areas as critical to the future midwife, ‘enabling effective team working and promoting continuous improvement’ (NMC 2019 p26).  

Examination Of The Newborn

This unit focuses on equipping you with the skills, knowledge and competencies in examination of the newborn baby. It responds to the current demands of women and families and of the midwifery service to have appropriately trained professionals to undertake this assessment in a prompt and timely manner to provide high quality continuity of care. 

Throughout the unit you will explore, practice and evaluate the skill of newborn examination and your own performance. You will work to the NIPE standards and competencies which focus on screening in four areas; the heart, hips, eyes and testes (in boys). 

You will explore how midwives provide an evidence-based screening examination/assessment of newborn infants, while ensuring that the needs (information, health promotion) of the woman, family and relevant others are met or safeguarded. 

Through the unit content and teaching you will foster the values and attitudes of self-leadership and collaboration, to enable you to develop yourself in the assessment of newborn infants and the management of their care.

Midwifery Project

This unit offers you the opportunity to demonstrate and develop your independent scholarly skills commensurate with the awarding of a Masters degree and the requirements of professional practice. Specifically, it offers you the following:

• time to engage in deep level critical study of a chosen topic area
• development of confidence in your ability to work independently and effectively
• preparation for qualification and autonomous practice through the process of project preparation and completion to a deadline
• an opportunity to focus your personal practice interests prior to qualification and in preparation for future practice direction

Proficiency In Midwifery Care

During this practice-based unit, undertaken in an approved maternity placement, you will be provided with supervised opportunities in practice and demonstrate proficiency in antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care.

Building upon your proficiencies, you will have the opportunity to focus on the core midwifery knowledge and skills required for safe practice on completion on the course in order that you can meet the NMC (2019) Standards of proficiency for midwives (domain 6). This will enable you to complete practice assessments that are meaningful and recognisable in a practical context and that addresses the need for you to demonstrate your ability to integrate knowledge and skills in midwifery practice. 

During this period, you will demonstrate proficiency in the provision of continuity of care, supporting a minimum of three women and birthing people throughout the childbirth continuum.  

As part of the unit you will identify areas for individual skills development that may be addressed within the final year if deemed essential, or taken forward into the preceptor year as part of your continuing professional development. You will also gain further experience in working within a multidisciplinary team.

During this unit you will complete a numeracy activity related to the midwifery proficiencies and the calculation of medicines (NMC 2019 Part 3: Standards for pre-registration midwifery programmes).