“My day starts at 9am where I find out how many visits I will be doing today. The area that we cover is large and I could be driving up to 100 miles today.”
I will mainly be visiting new mums and babies, generally up to 10 days old. The planned visit will be for various different reasons, I will only see the mums and babies that need to see a midwife as everyone else will see our community support workers. I may be seeing whether a baby has jaundice, reweighing babies on a feeding plan and any mums that have any worries or need additional support. I will also be available if the birth centre needs another midwife or if I need to attend a homebirth. So I leave the office with a well-stocked car to cover every eventuality.
Be prepared…
The hardest bit about being on the community is knowing where you can go to the toilet and making sure you take a packed lunch as you are more than likely going to be eating in the care, en route. There is something nice about having the freedom to be in the car and being able to plan your own day though.
Out and about…
Today I have 6 visits. This means that I should have enough time to give everyone the amount of help they need. Most are first time mums and one is a lady that had her baby at home overnight.
Best bits about doing home visits…
I like going to see families in their own home, I suppose it’s a little more personal and I am naturally nosey, I probably should have been an estate agent as I love looking around people’s homes and finding out more about them. One of the ladies that is due for a visit is someone I have looked after during her pregnancy, I wasn’t there for her birth, which is so often the case, but I am looking forward to hearing all about her birth and meeting her new baby!
The end is in sight…
My day goes smoothly, I even had time to complete an urgent booking of a lady who has just found out that she is pregnant at 18 weeks, so I manage to sort out her antenatal notes and complete her blood test. Overall another rewarding day as a community midwife and I finish on time at 5pm, you can’t get better than that!
