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- Help expectant mothers and their babies with advice, support and care
- You'll work under the supervision of a midwife and may work in a hospital or out in the community
- This could be a route into training to become a midwife or nurse
You'll work under the direction of a qualified midwife, directly with expecting mothers and those who have just given birth.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
- Sharing information with midwives about the condition of mothers and babies
- Helping to deliver care plans, providing women with support to help them look after themselves and their baby on their own
- Providing support to families in labour wards and maternity theatres
- Helping with parenting classes
- Collecting statistics
- Keeping records up-to-date and making sure that procedures are followed
- Helping on wards and other clinical areas
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
You could work in an NHS or private hospital, in the community, or at a client's home. Your working environment might be physically demanding.
You'll need
To be a maternity support worker, you'll need customer service skills, knowledge of medicine and dentistry, sensitivity and understanding, thoroughness and attention to detail, the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure, thinking and reasoning skills, and good initiative.
Direct application is possible if you've got relevant skills and experience from work like child care or health-related roles. Employers might ask for a qualification in a child care or health-related subject, and experience of working with people.
You could take a college course in health and social care; many colleges offer work placements with these courses, which is a great way of gaining more experience.
You could get into this job through an intermediate or advanced apprenticeship as a healthcare support worker.
You can also start as a healthcare assistant and learn on the job, moving into maternity work through further training and promotion.
Paid or unpaid voluntary experience in a healthcare setting or a role working with children and families would be very beneficial for working towards this job role.
You'll need clearance from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
CAREER PROSPECTS
With experience you could become a senior support worker, or train as a midwife or adult nurse.