RCM Conference 2014

I thought I would do something a bit different this week. On the 11th of November I attended the RCM conference in Telford, so, I have decided to share my experience with you.

 My trust paid for tickets for 5 of my cohort to attend the conference, and I was lucky enough to be one of those 5. In turn, we felt as though it was a shame that other student midwives in our cohort would miss out. As co-president of our midwifery society we funded another 5 tickets for student midwives to attend the conference. We picked the lucky girls out of a hat and after lots of excitement we began planning our trip to Telford.

4 of the girls and I planned that we would have a road trip the night before and have a girly night in Telford. We booked our rooms in a Travelodge near the International Centre and started counting down the days. When it finally reached the morning of the 11th, we dragged our bags with us to uni, in anticipation of our 3 and a half hour adventure!

Our lectures finished early, at about 2.30pm, so after going for a wee, loading up on travelling snacks and then going for another wee, we were ready to set off. After some initial sat-nav trouble, we were well in to our journey. We talked for the entire journey, from midwifery to men (we student midwives definitely know how to talk). About 2 hours later, our pelvic floor exercises were no longer efficient and we had to stop for another wee break and a drink. 1 more hour in the car and we had arrived in Telford, tired, hungry, needing another wee but definitely excited.

After putting our faces on in the hotel room, we called a taxi and had a lovely meal in Zizzis in Telford town centre. Several bottles of Prosecco and wine were consumed (not by me - I don't really drink), so instead I treated myself to dessert, pomegranate sorbet with popping candy…. yum.

 Taxi home arranged and Zizzis bill sorted and paid we got back to the hotel on a high, and then proceeded to crawl into our cosy beds. We fell asleep watching Knocked Up (us student midwives never escape pregnancy).

The next morning our alarms summoned us out of our cocoons of warmth and out into the freezing cold. We then progressed to have a fight with the television remote and then flood the desk with the faulty kettle, but nevertheless we succeeded in making a brew. If all else fails, student midwives can always make tea, against all odds.

We put on our amazing new society t-shirts and hopped in the car again, in search of a McDonalds breakfast and then our final destination - The International Centre!

After more sat-nav trouble we were running too late for McDonalds breakfast and so we headed straight for the International Centre, in perfect time to register. It was packed inside the venue, I couldn't believe that all of these people were midwives or student midwives, and we were all united in a passion for midwifery. We registered and we got given our welcome packs, which had our IDs, programmes and the all important lunch ticket inside.

First on our list of priorities, hot chocolate, obviously. After queuing for ages in the Costa queue, hot chocolates and flapjacks on board, we made our way to the main hall where the introductions were going to be made. As we were walking through the venue I couldn't believe all the people I was seeing, Cathy Warwick, Lesley Page, Sheena Byrom and a few of my lecturers! The audience was so diverse, with people from all over the country attending. We had got there early and had managed to get some fantastic seats, and our excitement bubbled over as the conference finally got going.

First up to speak was Cathy Warwick, she spoke beautifully and eloquently about the RCM pay campaign for the 1% salary increase. She cleverly undermined the government's rationale against the 1% pay rise, and filled all of the people in the room with pride in themselves and admiration in her. My favourite part of her speech was this: "when midwives speak with a collective voice, they will be listened to." What a way to start, we were all fired up and fuelled with our passion for midwifery, as Cathy introduced the keynote speaker Dr. Ed Coats.

Dr. Ed Coats is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, he's married to a midwife and has a newborn son. He was definitely on the right track. He was funny and clever and very relevant, as he related his trek to the South Pole, with Ben Fogle and James Cracknell, to life in the maternity wards. He discussed the importance of teamwork, and the similarities he had noted between maternity and walking to the South Pole. He told us "the feeling of the emergency buzzer going off is the same as being at -50, all of you have experienced -50." His parting words were that "sometimes admitting your weaknesses is important in a team" and to me, that was particularly relevant, and is also something I'm experiencing on a day to day basis whilst training and running a midwifery society. Dr Ed's speech was definitely a surprise but we all loved it and he was my favourite speaker of the whole day.

After Dr. Ed finished, the student midwives conference started, so we moved over to a different part of the venue. All of the speakers lined up looked brilliant, but I was particularly excited about Michel Odent!

First up was Alison Baum - the CEO of Best Beginnings. I was really looking forward to this as I had recently downloaded her "Baby Buddy" app, and it is brilliant. I think it is a brilliant tool for mums, mums to be and health professionals alike. It is so clever and a fantastic use of today's technology to enhance antenatal care and maternal education.

Then we heard from Paulina Ewa Sporek, a 2nd year student midwife, who is also the founder of the Deaf Nest Project. A project to enhance the care of pregnant women and their families with hearing loss. She told us lots of interesting statistics that I was unaware of previously, for example 8 in 10 people would like to be educated in sign language but only 3 in 10 people get the opportunity to do so. And that 1 in 6 members of the population have some form of hearing loss. It was an inspiring and interesting speech about an aspect of maternity care that desperately needs improving. You can find the Deaf Nest report here http://www.deafnest.com/#!research/cvjx and also follow them on twitter @NestDeaf. Paulina also was responsible for the most inspiring quote of the entire day:

"people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do"

Finally in this trio of speakers was Katie de Freitas, discussing her special project on Cultural Competency and how to improve our knowledge in maternity. Another interesting and valuable talk.

Michel Odent was next, we all had goosebumps the minute he walked up on stage. His topic was childbirth in the scientific context, and he was utterly fascinating. But what I enjoyed most about his speech was how passionate he was about the topic, his enthusiasm oozed out of him and that meant he was a joy to listen to. There are so many quotes of his that were brilliant so I will list them below:

"A newborn baby only needs maternal love…is that new?"
"We need to protect birth as an evolutionary process"
"The birth process is an involuntary process controlled by archaic brain structures…"
"Stress in labour is important for babies"
"Our role is to protect women in labour from having their natural processes disturbed, with benefits to both mum and baby"
"As you turn off your light to sleep, so we should turn off the lights for birth"
"We see birth as an infinite process and our key task is to protect it"
"Birth does not need to be managed"

Hopefully this gives you a little insight into Odent's speech, and also some food for thought with regards to childbirth in the scientific context.

Lunch! And off we strolled to do some networking. We met so many people interested in the society, and were lucky enough to get hundreds of freebies. Before we knew it lunch was almost over, and we had the utter privilege of having a chat with Sheena Byrom before she started her speech. She was the most lovely and welcoming lady and we can't wait to invite her to our study day next year.

The next trio of speakers were also fabulous. First up was Liz Blamire, a newly qualified midwife talking about what it is like to be a preceptor and the trials and tribulations of being newly qualified. She had entitled her speech "So, do you love your job then?"… I loved this and it reminded me of the title of my first post on this blog. Liz was really lovely to listen to, it was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. One of my favourite parts of her speech was "the day you stop learning is the day you should put your pinard away in a cupboard." She was very realistic and didn't sugar coat the preceptor year, which I think we all appreciated and respected.

Stephen Hamilton was up next, a mental health nurse by trade he had taken a slightly different path and had ended up talking to us about acquiring resilience and stress management. He was fantastic to listen to, his entertaining tone and witty aspects of his speech engaged the audience and we loved his cliches. But he gave us some valuable tips about stress management and the importance of taking time for ourselves. He ended with the famous quote "women forget what you did, they'll forget what you said but they'll never forget how you made them feel."

Finally in this trio was Dotty Watkins. A head of midwifery in Sheffield. She was discussing interviewing for our first jobs and how to conduct ourselves in interview. She gave us some fabulous tips including: being careful with social media, spellchecking CVs and cover letters and staying "in the loop" with research and evidence. Dotty suggested that if you do all these things "before you know it, you've embarked on a way of life, not just your first job."


Last but not least, Sheena Byrom, discussing maternity and social media. This was a really interesting and contemporary topic. She stated that "there are 500,00 messages on social media about the NHS, we need to be part of that conversation." She offered us lots of insights into relevant and useful maternity-based websites, as well as offering us advice on how to be safe and that "wonderful things are happening in social media but we need to retain our professionalism." She also told us how "social media gives women and midwives a voice to collaborate together to stand up and make a change." And she ended with the inspiring message "never doubt that you can change the world with the touch of a button."

After Sheena had finished we had to leave to beat the traffic. Our arms were aching from the freebies and we were hungry and tired but we left with happy hearts, and full of admiration for the career which we are all privileged to work in.