How is research changing the role of midwives in maternity care?

When people think of midwives, they often think about pregnancy and birth, but the reality of modern midwifery is far broader. 

In this episode of Behind the Genes, our guests explore the many different roles midwives play across healthcare, from clinical care and safety improvement to research and genomics. 

The conversation looks at how midwives are helping shape the future of maternity care through research, supporting families to make informed decisions about genomic testing, and contributing to studies like the Generation Study. 

Our host, Sharon Jones is joined by: 

• Katie Handley - maternal and child health clinical lead for the Generation Study, 

• Fiona Smith - research midwife for the Generation Study at Rosie Hospital in Cambridgeshire 

• Jess Fletcher - safety and quality midwife at the Rosie Hospital and a participant on the Generation Study 

You can find out more about the Generation Study via the study’s official website. 

 “ The more brave we are as midwives, and the more that we're willing to be curious about what we can do to improve our care, the better we're going to be at our profession. All midwives want to do is to provide safe, effective care that is what is in the best interest of that woman. We are advocates for women and for their families.”

You can download the transcript or read it below.

[00:00:00] Sharon Jones: Welcome to Behind the Genes. How is genomics changing midwifery, and what role are midwives playing in shaping the future of genomic healthcare? Also, do midwives just deliver babies, or is their role much broader than many people realise?

[00:00:16] My name is Sharon Jones, and in this podcast we cover everything from cutting-edge research to real life stories in genomic healthcare.

[00:00:23] Joining me today are Katie Handley, Fiona Smith, and Jess Fletcher. Katie is Maternal and Child Health Clinical Lead for the Generation Study, Fiona is a research midwife for the Generation Study at Rosie Hospital in Cambridgeshire, and Jess is a safety and quality midwife at the Rosie Hospital, and a participant on the Generation Study.

[00:00:42] Together, we'll be exploring how midwifery's evolving, where research fits into clinical practice, and what genomics mean for maternity care now and in the future. We kicked off this one by asking Katie what roles midwives play day to day.

[00:00:56] Kate Handley: I think when people think of midwives, they think of helping a lady to have a baby.

[00:01:01] We're there for the birth, we're there to catch the baby, but it is so, so much more than that. We're there from the moment a woman becomes pregnant or even before that. We can help with prenatal, uh, preconception care. We're there all the way through the pregnancy, for the birth, and then afterwards as well, we'll look after the lady, her family, until, until we hand the baby and, and her over to the health visitor or to whoever's next in her care pathway.

[00:01:25] But that's just looking at clinical midwives for the... that are involved directly in that particular pregnancy. There's midwives doing all sorts of other roles. I think I'm a really good example of that. So I am a clinic- I was a clinical midwife. I am a registered midwife, but now I work as a clinical lead, so I'm using my midwifery background and my midwifery skills in a research environment, but to help people who don't know as much about midwifery to implement a research study, and how we can make a research study real in a clinical environment.

[00:01:59] So that's one example, but there are so many other things, and we have midwives doing screening roles and lots and lots of midwives working in research as well.

[00:02:08] Sharon Jones: That's interesting. I've got