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DEDICATED: Midlands midwife Elsie Gayle points to shocking of cial gures showing black mothers’ mortality rates as proof that change is needed in the health system

A CAMPAIGNING Midlands midwife has announced her plans to host an international conference to tackle inequalities in antenatal care after receiving recognition from a leading sector trust for the success of her work addressing health inequalities.

Elsie Gayle, who divides her time between developing the community-based Mimosa Midwives Practice and serving as an honorary fellow at the University of Wolverhampton, will put on the event after winning this year’s Royal College of Midwives’ Jean Davies Award from the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust.

The conference aims to reduce mortality in black women and babies, and will also analyse the root causes of black maternal and perinatal mortality and take learning from an international panel of experts. It will take place on September 23 at the Open University’s branch in Camden, with the trust’s support.

The trust is a charity that aims to promote and improve the care of mothers, babies and families through awarding grants and fellowships in sup- port of midwifery education, practice and research.

Dr Jacque Gerrard, Iolanthe’s new chair of trustees, who announced the award-winning recipients whom it will support, said that the judges had been “impressed at the sheer volume of entrants and quality of projects from midwives and student midwives”.

She added: “Congratulations to all our award winners and we look forward to seeing the results of your projects!”

Elsie commented: “My award shares with you another next step in my very personal and professional journey. I have been steadfast in my work to raise the issue of the impact of poor maternity care for mothers and babies of African descent. This award helps to move them forward.”

Elsie’s commitment to the issues to be examined in the conference arises from her own personal and professional experience of maternity care as a woman of African descent.

She said: “There has been another rise in black mothers’ mortality. Now five times more likely to die than white [people] during the childbearing year – 40 and eight out of 100,000 births, respectively.

“This detriment extends to black babies, who according to 2016 Office of National Statistics data, have a 121 per cent increased risk for stillbirth and are 50 per cent more likely to suffer neonatal death compared to white babies. Urgent action is needed for black families in the UK.”

The conference is targeted to all involved in midwifery, plus service users, their families and
health service professionals. The keynote conference speakers will be midwife Jenny Johnson and author Dr Dorothy Roberts, author of the hard-hitting book Killing The Black Body, an exploration of racial and gender justice in the US.
COLLECTIVE

Elsie is also address inequality through the Mimosa Midwives Practice, an independent collective of community-based black midwives, which is working to secure NHS contracts instead of requiring midwives to be allied to a specific hospitals, and therefore avoid disparities in working conditions.

The controversial closure of the midwife-led Halcyon Birth Centre in Sandwell, West Midlands, illustrates concerns. Opened in 2013 following the closure of hospital-based provision, NHS chiefs pulled the plug last autumn allegedly without consulting with the local women for whom it was opened or the midwives who would operate it.

“I have been in the profession for over 30 years and I’ve seen the growth of a culture of not talking about the issues around working conditions, primarily for black practitioners. We need to call out and address the structures that cause damage to the practice of midwifery, where it has been hard for many, including myself, to rise to senior positions and overcome resistance to progressive action,” said Elsie.

She has previously worked in the Caribbean, Africa and the West Midlands, and has combined lecturing, research and advocacy to see her through leaner times. Elsie added: “There are many midwives who have left the system because they are not prepared to put up with its restrictions, while others would walk away but cannot as they are the main breadwinners for their families.”

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