Midwifery
Midwifery Introduction - Careers
Our dedicated Women and Children’s Health Division at North Bristol NHS Trust provides maternity services for the Trust. We can offer midwives many exciting opportunities that will help to develop skills in all areas of maternity care, including in our antenatal, postnatal and birth settings, including the central delivery suite and midwifery led birth centres. We are proud to co-produce our services with the Local Maternity System and Maternity Voices Partnerships.
Roles include:
- Registered Midwife
- Maternity Support Worker
- Return to Practice Midwife
- Obstetric Sonographer
Our Maternity Services at North Bristol NHS Trust include the following:
- 24hr antenatal assessment unit
- Mendip Birth Centre - An alongside midwifery unit which support approx. 500 births per year in the birth centre and at home.
- Cossham Birth Centre – a freestanding midwifery unit with up to 150 births per year.
- A 15 bed Consultant led Obstetric Unit, including dedicated space for providing Level 2 High Dependency care and a newly refurbished bereavement suite
- Cross city maternal medicine services with specialist endocrine, epilepsy, haematology and renal clinics.
- A Fetal Medicine Service including preterm clinics.
- A Community Midwifery Service which covers South Gloucestershire, North Bristol and North Somerset.
- Specialist Midwifery services including bereavement midwives, complex care midwives, perinatal mental health team, practice development team, infant feeding team and fetal monitoring midwives.
- Collaborative working with the Trust theatre teams in the provision of elective and emergency maternity theatre care.
- Our Continuous Improvement and Learning Team, which has previously been awarded Healthcare Team of the Year at North Bristol NHS Trusts’ Annual Staff Awards.
What maternity services could I work in?
Our Maternity Services at North Bristol NHS Trust include the following:
- 24hr antenatal assessment unit
- Mendip Birth Centre – An alongside midwifery unit which support approx. 500 births per year in the birth centre and at home.
- Cossham Birth Centre – a freestanding midwifery unit with up to 150 births per year.
- A 15 bed Consultant led Obstetric Unit, including dedicated space for providing Level 2 High Dependency care and a newly refurbished bereavement suite
- Cross city maternal medicine services with specialist endocrine, epilepsy, haematology and renal clinics.
- A Fetal Medicine Service including preterm clinics.
- A Community Midwifery Service which covers South Gloucestershire, North Bristol and North Somerset.
- Specialist Midwifery services including bereavement midwives, complex care midwives, perinatal mental health team, practice development team, infant feeding team and fetal monitoring midwives.
- Collaborative working with the Trust theatre teams in the provision of elective and emergency maternity theatre care.
- Our Continuous Improvement and Learning Team, which has previously been awarded Healthcare Team of the Year at North Bristol NHS Trusts’ Annual Staff Awards.
Other divisional services include:
- Our dynamic Gynaecology Service with a clear vision to develop and take the service into the future with increased ambulatory care, supported by the Gynaecology Matron.
- The tertiary level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which is renowned for its excellent outcomes, particularly for the very preterm baby, which has 34 cots and offers intensive care, high dependency care and special care, with transitional care facilities on the postnatal ward.
- Our Maternity Unit works closely with interventional radiology in the management of placenta accreta/percreta providing a 24-hour service which accepts tertiary referrals for women with an abnormally invasive placenta.
Midwifery Opportunities
Registered Midwife
Registered Midwife
×We are fortunate to be able to offer new and exciting opportunities within our team who provide personalised, safe care and wellbeing for all women, babies and their families.
Our Practice Development Team and line managers will provide you with a comprehensive local induction /orientation programme that will enable you to gain experience within our hospital and community settings.
Our clinical education facilitators and practice education facilitators offer the opportunity to work alongside you within all clinical areas to ensure a smooth transition to our unit. We also have bespoke health and wellbeing support available, alongside the award-winning Trust Health and Wellbeing programme.
For newly registered Midwives, our comprehensive Preceptorship programme will ensure you are supported with your transition from student to registered professional.
As an organisation, we have strong links to the University of Bristol and University of the West of England. More than 7,000 patients take part in research with more than 500 studies each year, including through our active maternity research team.
The Women and Children's research department consistently tops the West of England clinical research network recruitment to Reproductive Health and Childbirth studies. From fertility to gynaecology, the department is committed to ensuring that all women – and in some cases their partners and babies - are offered the chance to participate in innovative and work leading research,
Want to find out more? Book a place at an upcoming event to meet our teams or explore current roles available below.
Maternity Support Worker
Maternity Support Worker
×Maternity Support Workers are vital members of the direct care team who support registered practitioners to meet woman’s needs during their time in our care.
Our Maternity Support Workers are responsible for providing care and therapy to women as delegated by the registered practitioner and directed by the appropriate team leader.
We can offer excellent career development available through our tailored educational pathways.
To work as a Maternity Support Worker (band 3), you will need to have completed an Apprenticeship in Health Level 3 or a QCF Diploma Level 3 Health.
If you have not completed the above training and would like to work as a Maternity Support Worker, we can offer a training contract dependent on your educational requirements. Prior to undertaking the Band 3 Maternity Support Worker apprenticeship, the expectation is that you would have already completed a level 2 Healthcare Support Worker standard or equivalent qualification.
At the end of this education pathway, you will achieve a level 3 Apprenticeship in Health.
Our Apprenticeship team have recently received Matrix Standard accreditation. The Matrix Standard is the Department of Education’s (DFE) standard for ensuring the quality of the delivery of high-quality information, advice and guidance.
Obstetric Sonographer
Obstetric Sonographer
×Working within our Obstetrics Scanning Department, based within our Antenatal Clinic, our Obstetric Sonographers perform a wide range of obstetric scans which include dating scans, first trimester combined screening scans, anomaly scans, assessment of fetal wellbeing, growth scans and umbilical artery doppler.
All of our sonographers work as independent reporting practitioners, working autonomously but also as an important part of the team with radiologists and the early pregnancy advanced nurse practitioners.
Our Obstetrics Scanning Department is a stand-alone service, supported by our team of Radiographers and Midwife Sonographers. We do not currently rotate staff through our main radiology service, although bespoke rotations may be available to support those who may wish to rotate.
We are proud to support our Sonographers in their practice and professional development.