S5, E8: Preparing for Pregnancy and Birth: What to Expect From Your Midwife

This week our host, Theo Clarke, is joined by Debra Kroll, a community midwife with 44 years’ experience, and Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, to discuss preparing for pregnancy and birth and the wider state of maternity care in the UK.

Debra shares practical advice on what to expect throughout pregnancy, from your first midwife appointment and scans to choosing where to give birth, writing a birth plan and packing your hospital bag. Gill discusses maternity safety, staffing pressures and continuity of care, as well as what needs to change to ensure women and families receive high-quality maternity care.

Topics include: preparing for pregnancy; midwife appointments; pregnancy blood tests and scans; choosing where to give birth; birth plans; preparing birth partners; when to seek medical help; hyperemesis gravidarum; what to pack in your hospital bag; pregnancy after birth trauma; maternity safety; midwife staffing; continuity of care; and improving maternity services.

About Debra Kroll

Debra has been a midwife for 44 years and talks about how fulfilling her career has been. She has spent the majority of this working on the community, delivering care to local women and their families during pregnancy, labour (delivering both on the birth centre and at home) and in the postpartum period.

In addition to providing direct care, Debra has also worked as a midwifery lecturer and has contributed to work at the Royal College of Midwives and the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Working in the community has been the most satisfying part of her career, being able to be with and support women and their families where they live and can access local services. She is now a ‘granny midwife’ looking after pregnant women whose mothers were under her care when they were pregnant.

About Gill Walton

Gill Walton is Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), one of the world’s oldest and largest midwifery organisations, representing the majority of the UK’s midwives.

Gill is a passionate midwife, experienced midwifery leader and NHS manager. She started nursing at University College Hospital, and then undertook Midwifery training at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton. She has held Director of Midwifery posts at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Barking, Havering and Redbridge, John Radcliffe in Oxford and more recently at Portsmouth Hospitals.

RESOURCES

Tommy’s

The Lullaby Trust

NHS Pregnancy

About the Host

Theo Clarke is a bestselling author, podcaster and former Member of Parliament. She is the author of Breaking the Taboo: Why We Need to Talk About Birth Trauma and led the first UK parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma.

www.theo-clarke.org.ukInstagram: @theoclarkemp

Producer: Adam WoodwardResearch: Kate KenyonDesigner: Emily RyderSocial media: Eleanor Flavin