When people think of midwifery, they often picture someone at the bedside supporting women in labour and facilitating births. However, Midwifery is broad and spans across a variety of clinical settings, including homes, clinics, communities, hospital wards, theatres, and a suite of specialities including education, research, patient experience and digital. That is one of the reasons I joined the RCM Digital Midwives Network Forum. I firmly believe that midwives belong in every room where care is being clinically, academically, strategically, or digitally designed
My own journey into midwifery began in rural Nigeria, where I had the privilege of working alongside traditional birth attendants. These women taught me the value of presence, instinctive care, and the power of community. Their compassion and strength stayed with me when I retrained in the UK and qualified as a midwife. Since then, I have worked across community and hospital settings, supporting women through pregnancy, birth, and postnatally. However, I have noticed a growing challenge with systems that do not mirror the flow of care, duplication of documentation which detracts from quality time spent with the women, and training on digital solutions that quite often doesn’t fully truly prepare us for optimum usage of technology. On the contrary, I have also witnessed when systems work well, and as midwives we feel more confident utilising the technology, to safely deliver care for our women.
This is what led me into digital transformation. Currently, I work as a Digital Clinical Facilitator, supporting the implementation of Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems across a busy NHS Trust. Within my role, I have learnt and designed workflows, troubleshooted on issues, advocated for new tools to enhance care and supported with clinician training. I bring to my role a blend of firsthand experience and insight, and a commitment to keeping woman-centred care at the core of digital change. I was apprehensive initially with stepping away from midwifery and I quickly corrected anyone who called me a “digital midwife” by saying I am a midwife who works in digital. However, I have come to realise that I have simply stepped into another part of midwifery. Our profession is not one-size-fits-all. There are clinical midwives, research midwives, educator midwives, public health midwives, policy midwives and digital midwives too. Digital midwives are equally important.
Joining the RCM Digital Midwives Network Forum feels like a powerful way to bring these themes together. I look forward to contributing and sharing real insights drawn from hands-on training, supporting teams through go-lives, and listening to what midwives love, and their challenges with digital systems. I want to bridge the gap between clinical, digital, and the lived experience of midwives.
I also want to amplify the voice of the midwife because representation matters. Midwives should be leading digital projects, challenging what does not work, and co-designing what does, therefore my role in amplifying the voice of the midwife is integral. Through the forum, I look forward to connecting with colleagues from across the UK, learning from their experiences, and strengthening our collective voice to help shape the future of digital maternity care.
