BU midwife elected to Royal College of Midwives board

A midwife from Bournemouth University has been elected to a prestigious position on the board of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

Susan Way, Lead Midwife for Education at Bournemouth University, has been elected as one of the RCM’s 11 national board members.

She took up office on September 1st for four years.

Susan said: “I am extremely proud to serve as a member of the RCM Board and look forward to taking up this important role.”

The Board is the governing body for the RCM, setting the organisation’s strategic direction and ensuring it is viable, properly managed and properly governed.

It gives direction, exercises control and holds the Executive to account in its day-to-day management of the RCM. All Board members are midwife members of the RCM.

Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the RCM, said: “I am delighted to welcome Susan as one of the new board members and look forward to working with her. Our board members play a vital role in providing direction, ensuring the organisation is fit for purpose and securing accountability.”

Find out more about midwifery at BU

Midwifery lecturer Dr Catherine Angell on BBC Radio Solent

By Dean Eastmond

Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at BU, Dr Catherine Angell, featured on BBC Radio Solent talking to presenter Katie Martin about midwifery and how a woman’s life changes in a variety of ways after having a baby.

Dr Angell explained what physically happens to a woman’s body during pregnancy – including ligaments softening and certain hormones being produced to help the pregnancy – before going on to talk about a woman’s life in the first few weeks of being a mother.

“It’s very much an emotional rollercoaster,” she said.

She continued by explaining what “the new normal” was in terms of childbirth for a busy woman’s life.

Dr Angell told BBC Radio Solent that it’s nice to see when family and friends help out new mothers in terms of practical jobs such as “taking out the washing, cooking meals and taking the children to school”

“I think we’ve moved a long way in terms of actually now regarding birth as a normal event so for most women it will be completely normal, but that doesn’t mean to say that it is an everyday event, and I think we sometimes we muddle the two things up”, Dr Catherine Angell explained.

“So actually we want women to think about it as a normal thing in their life but actually it’s exceptional, it’s a profound thing to happen to them, so you need to kind of sit back and wait for the physical and emotional changes to settle in.”

The interview also mentioned the “royal baby hype” and what life will be like for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for the first few weeks of baby George’s life.

Dr Angell said: “It’s still a really big emotional change for whoever you are and it comes with that sense of responsibility and that can be scary for many first time parents.”

Dean is a student at Budmouth College in Weymouth, who is working at Bournemouth University in the Press and PR Department. He joined BU on a Sir Samuel Mico Scholarship, which provides 10 students from his college with essential work experience for four weeks over the summer.