Celebrating our Better Start Bradford midwives

A few weeks ago, Steph Marriott from our Personalised Midwifery Care Pilot shared her working week with us. Today we hear from one of the mums that has benefitted from her support, Mrs Bashir.

At seven weeks’ pregnant, Mrs Bashir attended her first appointment – the ‘booking appointment’ – with Personalised Midwifery Team midwife Steph Marriott. As this was her fourth pregnancy (and based on prior experience), she expected her midwifery care to be a rushed, form filling, non-personal experience. She could not have been more wrong.

Mrs Bashir’s story

Before I met Steph, I had always felt rushed and as though they were always thinking about the next person waiting; that I was just a name and a statistic.

But Steph took the time to listen to me: the form filling was always secondary. In previous pregnancies I did not see the same midwife all of the time so I would constantly have to re-explain any issues and it was impossible to build a trusting relationship. Steph has been with me all the way through this pregnancy.

I was devastated when my mum passed away during my pregnancy. I was feeling down and Steph really helped. I just felt I could talk to her and she listened. She always asked me how I was feeling and because of the consistency of her care and her approach, I felt very relaxed and was able to talk to her about my feelings. I would not have been able to do that with anyone else.

Steph knew everything about me so I didn’t have to start again explaining my history; we built a really good relationship. She even kept my son occupied at one meeting while a trainee did all the formalities.

Sometimes I could not make it into clinic and Steph worked around my routine and availability: she was so flexible.

When I gave birth to Zahra, I was really surprised when Steph visited me in hospital. Even though she was on annual leave, she came to see me in hospital as she had checked on the system and had seen that I had, had my baby. That extra touch. That thought. That meant a lot to me.