In March 2026, with the support of funding through the Iolanthe student award, I was able to facilitate a training afternoon for student midwives, midwives and those working within maternity services.
The training focused on anti-racist midwifery practice highlighting the health inequalities that Black and Brown women and babies face within maternity services.
EDI midwife Keelie Grindley and founder of the Nya birth collective provided the training. She delivered an enlightening and practical session, which created thought provoking conversation and forced people to sit in their own discomfort, in order to address their own racial biases, to help improve the care that we all provide and the culture in which we work.
Recent maternity reports continue to show inequalities for global majority women, despite reported changes within guidelines and standards.
This training really got to grips with the root of the problems that we are facing within the NHS and how we can weed out these problems to improve culture within the workplace, in order to provide safer, more equitable care to women and babies in the UK.
Conscious and unconscious bias was a big topic that people struggled to identify within themselves, but with the incorporation of a privilege walk during the session, people were able to see the difficulties that those of colour face in day to day life and relate that to the women we care for daily within maternity services.
The session was very well attended and provided students and midwives with training that they are otherwise not receiving as part of their midwifery curriculum or obstetric training.
My aim was to bring this issue to light within my local area, where global majority midwives are a minority and are otherwise not represented within my local trusts. Inequalities, disparities and racism are present within the local area that I work in, so bringing this to the forefront and identifying the need for change was something that Keelie did really well.
Since this session took place there has been an improvement in visibility of these issues and more conversations within my local trusts. More recently, cultural competence has now become part of our annual obstetric compulsory training within my home trust. This, I feel, is a step in the right direction.
More focus and conversation around health inequalities and racism within maternity services means that people are thinking about this and addressing these issues much more than they were in previous years. This has most likely come as a result of changes within NMC guidance; however I do feel that raising awareness locally has provided much needed food for thought, regarding what we are doing here in the north-east to really make a change.
As I approach my 1 year mark as a newly qualified midwife, I am looking forward to possibly championing anti-racist practice and cultural competence within my local trust and supporting staff to really address issues relating to these areas, to ensure health inequalities and disparities for women within my area are reduced and hopefully eradicated within the coming years.
