Alumni journeys: Hermione Jackson

Our cohort was very small, just 14 nurses from a variety of backgrounds. The size of our course meant we quickly became a close group and bonded over the challenges we faced qualifying as midwives in half the time it usually takes.

We were really well supported by the course leaders, in particular Vicky Manning who led our course was a great inspiration. My placements were all at South London NHS Trust, in Bromley with two others from my course. It was here I met one of my best friends and am so glad to have her in my life. I am now godmother to one of her children and still keep in touch despite increasing geographical distance between us. We are always there to support each other both personally and professionally.

^{Hermione on her last day at King's}

After qualifying as a Midwife in 2013, I was offered a job at King’s College Hospital London and started my preceptorship. After 12 intense months working in all areas of midwifery, I had found my preferred area of practice, as a community midwife and I went on to become the team leader. Here I worked across several areas in Lambeth and Southwark working with women from very varied backgrounds. It felt a privilege to support all these women in their journey through pregnancy and was lovely to see them after the birth of their baby at home.

When our organisation introduced electronic records in 2016, I was immediately keen to be involved. This was a digital revolution I had been waiting for in maternity and not long after I became the IT Specialist Midwife for the trust, now working across our two sites supporting digital in all areas of maternity.

In 2019, an opportunity came up to work at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) as a Digital Midwife Advisor supporting the entire midwifery profession to make better use of digital technology. Having now worked for the RCM for 6 months I am excited to influence national policy on digital and ensure that we reap the full benefits of the available technology in maternity. This year I have also been awarded a Florence Nightingale Foundation Digital Leadership Scholarship and am excited to be starting that very soon.

^{Hermione as a newly qualified midwife}

The Year of the Midwife is a significant recognition of the role of our profession around the world. We are privileged in the UK to have midwives as a recognised, and respected profession. Many other countries both developed and developing do not have the same recognition for the role.

Day of the midwife has always been a great day of celebration, and at the RCM we have celebrated with our annual awards celebrating achievement within the profession. But a day was never enough, and year of the midwife is a more appropriate scale to recognise the value of our profession.

Despite technological advances in our profession, at the core are midwives. The care a midwife gives is unique and will have a lasting affect on that mother and her family and the long-term development of that baby into adulthood and when they go on to have their own family. Women are only in the midwife’s care for a few precious months, but the impact of that care will last for years, if not generations. The impact of good midwifery care cannot be underestimated and an is no doubt immeasurable.