Maternity Support Worker

To work alongside and under direction of the midwife and other members of the multidisciplinary team in order to ensure the safe and effective care of mothers and babies.

Maternity Support Workers will be required to assist in providing personal care for women, including: post operative care, venepuncture, recording of observations and obtaining microbiology specimens. A Maternity Support worker will assist the midwives and wider multidisciplinary team in care of the newborn. Newborn tasks will include: completing observations in line with local guidance, taking newborn blood spot samples and Jaundice Monitoring using Transcutaneous Bilirubinometer and planning care accordingly.

Responsibilities will include promoting healthy lifestyle for women including smoking cessation, exercise, diet and drug misuse in line with national recommendations and government initiatives.

Care of woman

To actively participate in the recognition and prevention of maternal illness and respond effectively in an emergency.

To promote health and wellbeing to birthing people and their families

To assist mothers with postnatal exercises

To arrange and process microbiological specimens

To obtain maternal capillary blood sample for glucose analysis, in line with Trust policy and guidelines.

To independent undertake venepuncture in line with national standards and local policy

To independently remove epidural catheter

To use the Haemacue, when asked, to assess the haemoglobin level of a woman, in line with national standards and local policy.

Following appropriate training to undertake group health promotion teaching as agreed with ward/ departmental managers, in line with national frameworks and initiatives

To actively participate in the recognition and prevention of domestic abuse, both physical and mental, reporting any suspicions to the ward manager.

To promote healthy life styles, including smoking cessation, exercise and diet, drug misuse in line with national recommendations and Government initiatives

To undertake removal of catheters and promote bladder care

To undertake routine postoperative care, within Trust and local policies and guidelines

Care of baby

To weigh the baby

To complete identification and security of the baby, in collaboration with the midwife.

To discuss with the mother normal appearance and range of changing stool and micturition in the health term new-born

To recognise and report to midwife potential signs of neonatal jaundice

To advise mother on care of umbilical cord and surrounding area

To process umbilical cord blood sample for cord gases

To gather urine sample in hospital

To actively participate in the recognition and prevention of neonatal illness and respond effectively in an emergency situation.

To actively participate in the recognition and prevention of child abuse, both physical and mental, reporting any suspicions to the ward manager.

To undertake and document, using Newborn Early Warning Trigger and Track (NEWTT) Chart, routine healthy baby observation (hospital/community), reporting abnormalities to the midwife

To obtain capillary blood sample via heel prick to undertake Newborn Blood Spot testing

To assist birthing people and their families with cares of the newborn

Infant feeding

To support Breast feeding in line with Baby Friendly principles and local policy and guidelines, including:

To assist women to undertake bonding activities,

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job

Educational Requirements

Skills knowledge and abilities

Experience