KAREN
Hi, I am Karen, mum to 3 daughters and also a busy Grandmama!!
My whole working life has been dedicated to vocational midwifery, both in Hospital and community settings, in and out of the NHS.
I have just retired from the NHS in April 2022, leaving my position as Teamleader to the Emerald Midwives.
Under the Better births directive, the famous Rosie Hospital in Cambridge launched our first continuity team offering personalised midwifery care for women and their families.
My experience in midwifery spans more than 30 years. I have been privileged to travel and practise in many countries, experiencing and valuing different cultures. I spent 6 years as an Independent midwife in Andalucia from 2004, supporting many women to enjoy control and choice in their journeys, enabling them to achieve a joyful birth and a happy transition into motherhood. Now, back in Spain, working alongside Antonia is a complete natural migration. So looking forward to the next chapter with lots of new babies to come.
As they say “a midwife is born”.
- General Nurse Diploma 1989 North Western Area College of Nursing, Londonderry, NI.
- Midwifery Diploma e 1991 Mid-Downs College of Nursing and Midwifery,Crawley, UK.
- Suturing course, June 2020 Hospital Rosie, Cambridge
- Better Births Workshop, 2 days January 2021 Huntingdon, Hinchingbrooke Hospital
- Prompt Training (Obstetric Emergencies) December 2021 Cambridge University Hospitals
- Leading in a Crisis February 2021 Cambridge University Hospital
ANTONIA
Since I was a child, I knew that my place in the world would be sharing the path of life cycles and processes, but my particular passion for the world of births grew as I understood the essential imprint it leaves on the lives of babies and on our path as mothers and fathers.
In 2009-2010 I attended, or rather say I experienced the Doula training at Centro Nagual in Madrid, a profound journey where I not only soaked up knowledge for accompanying motherhood from great teachers, but also learned the importance of healing our own experience to be able to support families from THEIR experience.
For 6 years, my work as a doula was focused on the much-needed postpartum and breastfeeding support, while my desire to have more tools to support women and their families led me to train as a yoga instructor for pregnant women in 2011 and complete the training as a lactation consultant at FEDALMA (Spanish Federation of Associations for Breastfeeding) in 2012.
The more I immersed myself in the world of motherhood, the stronger the call to protect births became, and in 2014-2017 I completed my BSc in Midwifery at Edinburgh Napier University (Edinburgh, Scotland).
On finishing my studies, I worked for 2 years in labour ward at Edinburgh Infirmary Hospital in Edinburgh (2018-2020) and later decided to work as a community midwife (2020-2022), where I spent the last two years in Scotland, with my own caseload of women, offering all antenatal, childbirth preparation and postpartum care, and also providing a home birth service, since in the United Kingdom community midwives provide home birth care for women who opt for this option.
In my search for tools to better support families, I trained as a KG Hypnobirthing teacher in September 2021, and I am about to qualify as an IBCLC (international breastfeeding consultant lactation certificate).
I am still registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and also with the Colegio de Enfermería de Málaga, offering my services as an independent midwife on the Costa del Sol and surroundings.
- Online theory course on obstetric and neonatal emergencies. Practical cases. Alpac, 2023
- Neonatal resuscitation course. NHS Lothian. Edinburgh, Scotland 2021
- Gathering in the knowledge course with Sara Wickham. Edinburgh, Scotland 2020
- Perineal repair for midwives NHS Lothian. Edinburgh, Scotland 2018
- Venepuncture and cannulation for midwives NHS Lothian. Edinburgh, Scotland 2018
- Aromatherapy course for midwives NHS Lothian. Edinburgh, Scotland 2017
- Perinatal mental health for midwives NHS Lothian. Edinburgh, Scotland 2016
- NHS Lothian female genital mutilation awareness course. East Lothian, Scotland 2016