UK’s independent midwives form new organisation

The former Independent Midwives Association, made up of individual Independent Midwives from throughout the UK, today announced the launch of their new organisation. The midwives have formalised as an Industrial and Provident Society to become Independent Midwives UK and have announced their official board members.

The patron of Independent Midwives UK is Baroness Julia Cumberlege, the untiring champion for maternity services who chaired the Expert Group producing the landmark “Changing Childbirth” report.

Independent Midwives UK press secretary, Virginia Howes, says, “We are at the beginning of a very exciting time. Two years ago Independent Midwifery, which has been around as long as babies have been being born, was facing extinction in a relatively short time. Since then with amazing public supported an awareness campaign and Government input we have turned a negative worry into a positive excitement and we may be about to make a real difference to the country’s maternity services.”

The Government’s response to the successful campaign, which drew awareness to the plight of the midwives, was to suggest the Independent Midwives contract their services into Primary Care Trusts. In order to do so the midwives had to become a formal organisation. Virginia, who also runs her own Independent Practice in Kent said, “We took the Government’s advice and started the processes they advised, now with their continued support our enthusiasm and our organisation is growing. Now it’s all falling into place, just like any baby growing and developing in the womb, Independent Midwives UK is ready to be born, to grow and become strong.”

In the autumn of 2006 Independent Midwives were informed that the Government intended to make professional indemnity insurance mandatory for all health care professionals. Independent Midwives are the only group unable to purchase insurance commercially and have been forced to practise without professional indemnity insurance (PII) since 2002 when the last available insurance product was withdrawn from the market. Insurance is unavailable due to the small number of Independent Midwives and the potential for very high claims which is simply because of the nature of midwives work around birth. This is despite there being no cases of significant awards against Independent Midwives in the UK since 1994. Independent Midwives have not wanted to practise without insurance, but have had no choice.

75% of British mums find organising child’s party stressful

According to recent research from the children’s party organisers Les Enfants, three-quarters of UK mums find organising a child’s party stressful, while 26% feel pressured to arrange bigger and better parties each year.

Of the respondents, full-time working mothers find party organising most stressful and feel the most pressure to throw better parties each year, in comparison to stay-at-home mums or mums who work part time. Full-time working mums are also more likely to spend more on parties and theyÂ’’re least in favour of party bags.

The survey revealed that the average cost of a child’Â’s party is in the region of £200. Given that 64% of respondents said they hold birthday parties every year and 70% had more than one child, the costs start to add up. Most parents (44.9%) spend between £100 and £200 per party while 35.8% spend less than £100. However, 11% spend up to £300, just under 5% spend up to £500 and almost 3% are willing to fork out up to £1000 per party.

Read more

Planning Your Wedding – How To Get Organised

You have purchased the latest bridal magazines from your local grocery store and there are pages and pages of photos of beautiful wedding gowns, rings and articles on weddings. Some give you a brief idea of what you need to do to plan your wedding, but you’re still not sure how to begin the process.

The key is to start organizing and planning earlier than later.

You first need to create a system to keep all the details in one place. You may choose to use a binder with a tab for each category you will be using. Examples of categories are: Bakery, Ceremony, Catering, Florist, Music, Reception, Photography, Transportation. An accordion file is another choice, using the same category tabs. You will be able to see each category at a glance.

Read more