National recognition for Taunton midwife

9:20pm Monday 25th February 2008

A TAUNTON midwife has achieved outstanding success in a prestigious national award.

Alish Edwards, who is based at Musgrove Park Hospital, was placed in the top three in the Royal College of Midwives Award.

Ailish started as a young mums specialist midwife last March to provide a more in depth service for teenage mums-to-be and their families.

The service aims to work with other agencies to halve the teenage conception rate by 2010; reduce second pregnancies; and improve the quality of service for a socially disadvantaged group.

Alish said: "Young pregnant women often have complex needs and social problems such as housing, finance, education, domestic violence or even sexual abuse which may mean that they do not get other services that they need.

"I visit every pregnant mum to be who is 18 or under at home to provide support and advice suited to their specific needs and not just the general antenatal advice.

"We also have a joint obstetric and midwifery clinic to make sure they and their baby are healthy.

"This means that the teenage mum only needs to attend one appointment rather than several."

New mum Vicky Florey, who has an 11-week-old daughter, added: "It was great to have Ailish on my side.

"She not only knows a lot about pregnancy and children, but also knows all the other people who can offer me help and support.

"Being a mum is difficult, and being a teenage mum is even harder, and it's good that there is someone around just for us."