Henry Vaughan, Jody Vaughan and Laura Wyatt
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (UHB) is celebrating success as the only Health Board in the UK to win three awards at the annual Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Awards 2017.
Since 2004, the RCM Annual Midwifery Awards have rewarded, celebrated and shared outstanding achievement in midwifery across the UK.
Midwife Karen Jewell, Ruth Mullineux from NSPCC and Mwenya Chimba from BAWSO won the Slimming World Award for Partnership Working on a project to tackle and raise awareness of female genital mutilation (FGM) with young people in Wales.
The award was for the ‘Voices over Silence’ project which aimed at engaging and involving young people from 12-19 years, and raising awareness about FGM with them. The project and campaign is a partnership between Health, Bawso and NSPCC Cymru/Wales.
The initiative brought a group of young people together from schools across Cardiff who worked on girls’ rights and issues related to FGM over a six month period from September 2015. The aim was to empower and encourage this group of young people to become cultural change-makers on FGM, raising awareness in their own places, schools and colleges and producing materials to spark conversations.
Bereavement midwife, Laura Wyatt, was not only awarded Emma’s Diary Regional Winner (Wales) Mums’ Midwife of the Year 2017 but also scooped the highly prestigious overall Midwife of the Year title.
This award gives mums the opportunity to express their gratitude and pay a heartfelt tribute to their own special midwife whose kindness and support went above and beyond what was expected of them.
Mum Jody Vaughan nominated Laura for this award as her son, Archie, died whilst she was in labour in June 2015.
When Laura met Jody and her partner Karl, she put them at ease straight away, not overwhelming them with information and ensuring they understood what was being explained.
Laura was undertaking a bereavement role at the time, supporting Jody and her family through their grief in a personal and professional manner, exuding warmth and care.
Laura went on to provide antenatal care to the family, demonstrating tremendous advocacy skills and instilling confidence during an understandably anxious second pregnancy. Jody has since delivered a healthy rainbow baby, Henry.
Ruth Walker, Executive Nurse Director/Deputy Chief Executive for Cardiff and Vale UHB said: “I’d like to congratulate Karen, Ruth and Mwenya on winning this prestigious award.
“It is important to broach issues such as FGM with young people to bring about awareness of this practice in the community. Working alongside our partners and agencies, we hope the Voices over Silence project will help prevent and eradicate FGM in Wales in the future.
“I’d also like to congratulate Laura on becoming Mums’ Midwife of the Year both for Wales and the UK. It is an incredibly difficult job to support a family though one of the darkest periods in their life and Laura does so with compassion and empathy, putting the patient at the centre of care.”
Suzanne Hardacre, Head of Midwifery and Lead Directorate Nurse for Obstetric and Gynecological Services at Cardiff and Vale UHB said: “Congratulations Karen, Ruth, Mwenya and Laura on receiving these prestigious award wins.
“I feel very proud that our service has been recognised on a national level and I’d like to thank them all for the hard work, commitment and dedication they show to their jobs every day.”
For more information about these awards please visit http://www.rcmawards.com/awards-day
