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A Supervisor of Midwives (SOM) is an experienced midwife who has undertaken extra training to become a Supervisor and is accountable to the Local Supervising Authority (LSA). To become a SOM the prospective Supervisor will have been voted for by her colleagues, interviewed and then recommended to undertake the Supervisor of Midwives training required. All SOM's do this role in addition to the post that they hold in the maternity services.
Supervision of midwives is controlled by statute (law), which has operated within the UK for over 100 years. Its aim is to ensure the standard of midwifery practice protects the interests and well being of mothers. Therefore, the main purpose of Supervision is to enable midwives to give high quality care to both mothers and babies.
In this role they support midwives in their practice, to ensure safe and good quality care is provided for women and their families.
Every midwife that works at Hinchingbrooke has a named SOM who they meet with regularly. Each Supervisor of Midwives will be responsible for supervising approximately 16 midwives. The Supervisor is not usually the manager for those midwives she supervises. Supervision of Midwives is separate from management of midwives. The Supervisor is someone that the midwife might go to for advice, guidance or support concerning professional issues. The Supervisor must make sure that each midwife keeps her midwifery skills and knowledge up to date, so that the care given to the mothers, babies and families is to the best standard possible.
The Supervisor will monitor care by, this can be undertaken by auditing the midwives record keeping and investigating any reports of problems in practice. The Supervisor will assess if things are done in the best way for the mother and baby. If the Supervisor identifies areas where change or improvement is needed, she will make the necessary recommendations. The Supervisor of Midwives will also make sure that maternity services have guidelines, policies and procedures based on the best available evidence, representing the interest of the mothers and babies.
A Supervisor of Midwives is available at Hinchingbrooke for both midwives and women to give advice and support 24 hours a day 52 weeks of the year. There are 7 Supervisors, details can be found at the bottom of this page.
Sometimes a woman or family may feel they are not involved in decisions regarding their care. In situations like this, the Supervisor can be approached to give advice and support. For example, if a woman wishes to have a home birth but is unsure how to arrange this, or feels she is not getting the support she needs, a supervisor will be able to help. All meetings and correspondences with a Supervisor are dealt with in a safe and confidential manner.
You can contact delivery suite on 01480 416245, someone will then take your details and get the on call Supervisor to call you back. Alternatively you can ask your community midwife to make contact for you.
| Name | Title |
| Ailsa Dale | Community Midwife |
| Janet Driver | Deputy Head of Midwifery, Risk Manager |
| Joy Kirby | Local Supervisory Authority Midwifery Officer East of England |
| Sarah Kitchen | Inservices Manager, Lead for CNST, Supervisor of Midwives |
| Fiona Armstrong | Senior Midwife |
| Vicky Lister | Midwifery Manager Outpatients |
| Jan Palmer | Associate Director, Womens and Elective Services |
| Sandra Sibanda | Senior Midwife, Risk Midwife/Audit Lead |
Last modified 17/01/12 15:16:19
Hinchingbrooke Hospital
Hinchingbrooke Park, Huntingdon
Cambs PE29 6NT
Hinchingbrooke Direct:
01480 416416
