The Campaign aims to achieve the following in the initial 2 years:
- Lead thinking, communication, education, research, policy/political influence and practice in relation to normal birth
- Inspire and support normal birth practice with a portfolio of new member services and activities
- Build an evidence and experience base for normal birth
Outcomes
Ultimately what do we want to happen? The initial outcome objectives for the Campaign are below:
- Midwives energised and confident to practice and facilitate normal birth
- Better birth experiences for women and improved job satisfaction for midwives
- Greater rates of normal birth and a decrease in unnecessary intervention rates
Activities and tools
PRIORITY #1 (early 2005): stimulate and support the debate
PRIORITY #2 (late 2005): follow up with activities and tools that will enable changes in thinking and practice
Over the course of this year, you will see Campaign activities working across the website, a poster series, events, education and training, centres of excellence (beacon sites), research, publications and media management. In addition, the RCM is collaborating with women's organisations to ensure the views and needs of potential parents and mothers are represented and reflected in the campaign agenda.
This website
This website is built around a series of positive birth stories, each of which has several themes that can be explored in more detail. Stories appear to be a natural form of currency that midwives exchange to address the big issues to do with normal birth, particularly the emotional ones.
The stories aim to inspire, but they also drawn out themes that can be explored further. There's plenty of opportunity to share practical experiences of facilitating normal birth and see what others have to say. On top of that, there are tips for the busy practitioner – ideas, approaches and ways of thinking that can be put into action today.
Much of the information here addresses issues such as communicating with colleagues, building rapport with women in our care, dealing with fear and anxieties associated with practising normal birth in different settings, and the approach to using technology. These are tackled in brief digestible sections – the site is not an electronic library or database of all existing evidence as there are good resources available that do this already.
The poster campaign
Three posters are being displayed in maternity units and in educational institutes around the UK. The posters are intended to be rallying points around which conversation can take place.
