Midwifery, masks and madness: a whole new world of mental well-being

‘Practice what you preach’. In midwifery, or any healthcare profession for that matter, you hear this phrase a lot. As part of our code of practice, we have a duty to ensure our own well-being is cared for. But how do we do that? When the world is suffering from a pandemic that only amplifies all the problems already present within the NHS and maternity care – how do we find time for us? Chloe Kay Mendum, registered NHS midwife, shares her perspective.

The already long shifts without breaks or persistent staff shortages are now much more frequent. The newest element of wearing PPE for every interaction you have introduces yet another barrier for building those important relationships quickly. The irony of reiterating the importance of keeping well-hydrated to everyone, but yourself. The fear of not being able to provide the gold standard care you dreamed of giving during your training is now matched with the fear of innocently introducing coronavirus into vulnerable families (or into your own). For me, this fear in particular is the breaking point. 

Hello, Anxiety
When my own anxiety decides to stem into my midwifery practice, it is not myself I am thinking about. It's the women and babies I am caring for. Anxiety makes you believe that not only are all your insecurities and thoughts true, but everyone around you must be thinking about them too. Introduce a pandemic into the equation and now you have another list of protocols you are worried about failing at! Constantly washing your hands to the point that they bleed becomes the norm and obsessively sanitising them after touching anything in sight, just in case you're the reason someone gets intubated due to coronavirus. Or ensuring the correct mask and PPE is worn depending on what the situation is and worrying people will scrutinise you for getting it wrong. 

“We are worthy of the same comfort and compassion we provide to women and their families”

Breathe
So, the day is done and you go home utterly exhausted, is now the time to practice what we preach? I always sit in my car before going home, take off my mask and breathe for a moment. Sounds odd as I have obviously been breathing all day, but it just feels different. Refreshing. I naturally always think about the things I have done wrong or forgotten to do throughout the day on the way home and end up making a panicking phone call to the unit because I have forgotten to swab someone on admission or fill out a piece of paperwork. Every time I get the same response – ‘it’s OK Chlo, we will sort it!' 

Simple solutions
Maternity is a 24/7 unit of madness and no one expects you to do absolutely everything on your own, even if you think you have to. Despite everything we still smile behind the masks and colleagues offer to make you a cup of tea whilst we talk about life. We offer to help each other with paperwork or perform a task and there it is: the simple solution. We just need to remind ourselves that we are worthy of the same comfort and compassion we provide to all our women and their families every day. The little gestures make such a huge difference to those who are hiding behind those same masks trying to convince everybody and themselves that they have to keep strong and keep it together. We are not alone and we are not superheroes. We are humans who have chosen a profession where we selflessly care for others, because that is what we do. But let's not forget to practice what we preach, because we matter just as much.

We recently launched our study on the lack of emotional support for maternity staff, you can read it here. In this post here, we share what we think support for staff should look like, particularly in the light of the pandemic.