Award for midwives behind clinic for overweight women

TWO midwives from Doncaster have won a national award for their work in setting up a new clinic targeted at pregnant women who are overweight.

Carolyn West and Alison Williams, specialist healthy lifestyle midwives at Doncaster Women’s and Children’s Hospital, were awarded the Innovator of the Year prize at this year’s British Journal of Midwifery (BJM) Midwifery Practice Awards.

A spokesman for Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Doncaster has high levels of maternal obesity linked to socio-economic deprivation.

“The clinic addresses a national issue on a local level.”

The new clinic set up by the two midwives aims to raise awareness of the potential risks for both mothers and babies in cases where the mother is overweight.

Specialist midwives are now able to refer overweight pregnant women to both Doncaster Council’s Exercise for Health scheme and to a similar scheme in Bassetlaw.

After a one-to-one consultation with a specially-trained gym instructor at Armthorpe Sports Centre, those women are then able to use gym facilities at a reduced cost for 12 weeks, in a bid to get them to lose weight and become fitter.

The Exercise for Health scheme, which can only be used by those who have been referred by a health professional, is designed to increase people’s confidence in exercise.

Hilary Bond, director of nursing at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust ,said: “The BJM Midwifery Practice Awardsare a prestigious and important part of the midwifery calendar, attracting a very high standard of entries.”