Hello

Thanks for getting in touch with me regarding your pregnancy, congratulations on beginning this amazing journey, I hope I can help make it as smooth and joyful as possible. To help you decide if I am the right midwife for you I have prepared this brief resume about my history, experience and how I work.

History
I am proud to be the third generation of women in my family to train as a midwife. My grandmother worked in Ireland, and my mother moved from there to train in Glasgow (imagine Call a Midwife with even stronger accents). I trained in Dudley, in the industrial centre of the UK, and moved to this beautiful country in March 2013, we have come along way!

Experience
I was lucky enough to be part of an amazing team in the NHS trust hospital, in Dudley. The birth rate ranged between four and five thousand per year. I spent most of my time working with women who had normal births in the water, on birth couches and on birth stools. The system is different in the UK sometimes 3 women a night would birth their baby with me in attendance. I was seconded 6 out of 8 weeks to the primary unit with 2 weeks in the tertiary unit. I had a great time, thoroughly enjoying the connections I made with women and their families. At the same time I attended women who chose to birth at home, they were inspiring.

Like thousands before me though the lure of New Zealand as a home for my family was too strong and a week after we moved here I began work at Christchurch Women’s Hospital. It has been an amazing experience and a wonderful way to learn about the system here. I was honoured to be accepted as part of the Burwood Birth Unit team at the start of 2015 and loved my time there working in primary care, while still working a weekly shift at Womens. With Burwood’s closure my longing for primary care, to work with women in a way where only necessary interventions occurred, has lead me to become an LMC. I am thrilled to be part of the well established, much respected practice – Rātā Midwives .

How I work
My philosophy is founded in the knowledge that birth is a normal physiological process, an everyday miracle. We are jolly good at it too, as the population on the planet shows! My role is to support women to find their individual strength and power, their self belief and ability to birth. I am supported in this knowledge by research, I am a fan of evidence based practice, although I recognise that not all wisdom has been researched, there are gaps in our knowledge. The joy of working in an experienced practice is that we all share our understanding within the practice. I am also an active member of our professional body and keep up-to-date with the latest knowledge through conferences, workshops and Standards Reviews.

Midwives are the guardians of normality – ‘normal’ is our field of expertise – it is a wide spectrum which we are skilled in identifying. If something is outside my scope of practice, if it is not normal, I will refer you to a specialist in the field for advice, but will continue to provide midwifery care. When choosing where to birth I will support you to use the evidence available to you, and provide care at home or in a primary unit. Having spent 3 years working in the tertiary unit I feel strongly that women should ONLY go there if medically necessary, again the evidence for the medical benefits and safety of this approach absolutely support my experience. If you should need to go to Christchurch Women’s I will continue to provide care and am happy to work with the teams there, as I have done with pleasure over the last few years.

My approach to managing labour is consistent with the rest of my philosophy, guided by knowledge, experience and evidence. Women are amazingly strong, their minds and bodies are powerful and birthing can, and should be, a joyful experience. I support the use of water, tens machines, massage, breathing, mindfulness and hypnobirthing. The use of unnecessary interventions; such as epidurals, interrupt this ability, as has been seen time and again. Outcomes can be severely affected for women and babies. I will support you to use other means to experience and birth your baby. If an epidural is MEDICALLY indicated, and these cases are rare, I will continue to support you as your midwife. I may not be your first choice though if epidurals are part of your birth plan.

I love the continuity of care the New Zealand maternity system provides, having worked in the UK I know the benefits this brings. I look forward to supporting your feeding choice and in helping you get to know your new baby. I have a small caseload; which means I have time to provide breastfeeding support, after having worked in the hospitals here, mainly on night shifts, I know what the middle of the night can be like! I aim to prepare you well and support you.

The small caseload means that when you are pregnant I have appointments that last between 45 minutes and 1 hour. I don’t do home visits unless you plan a home birth, and then I will see you at home later in pregnancy. My backup is Kate Henderson and we work together sharing a caseload. We also support each other throughout the practice, so we are never too over stretched to provide good quality care. As I am on call 24/7 I keep my appointments and non urgent work to reasonable hours – 9 to 5 monday to friday.

Well I hope this helps in your decision making, call me on 0273838006 to make an appointment. All the best

Sheena