For all Midwives and Staff at the Women's Centre

All the parents and friends of the Silver Star Unit know from their intensive experience of their often long and or frequent stays in the hospital and use of clinics, monitoring, day assessment units and all the other services provided by midwives and other staff, that they are caring, dedicated and do a great job often in difficult circumstances.  Midwives are at the cutting edge of an acute, often emergency service, dealing with very anxious and often frightened parents, who can react in all sorts of ways under stress.  They do a great job, day in, day out and all through the night too.

The Silver Star Society respects and supports all midwives, whether working with the fortunate parents who have normal and uncomplicated pregnancies or dealing with the sick and vulnerable high-risk pregnancies.  Our aim is to support and help all staff…in normal times by fundraising, providing extra money for monitors and equipment that NHS budgets do not stretch to, family rooms which make life easier for disabled and long stay patients and in many other ways.  However when maternity services are under threat, we work to support all midwives in their right to deliver good care and best practice in safe conditions.  We believe it is their right not to be pushed into corners having to triage deliveries and care in crowded and difficult circumstances and deliver below what they know is best practice because they are so stretched that there is no other option to them as human beings because they cannot do the impossible.  This is particularly unfair for the many newly qualified midwives who staff the service.

We see our campaign as supporting all staff to deliver best practice in a calm and controlled way, to prevent maternity disasters which distress staff as well as parents.

Silver Star Society  6th July 2010