Re: Second Midwife Role

[Mary Murphy]

Dear Andrea,  the role of second midwife in our practice here in W.A. is to be a stand -in for the primary midwife at anytime that she is unavailable to the woman.  If we attend a birth as 2nd M/W it is because the Primary M/W has needed support for some reason... fatigue, intuition saying "have another M/W here just in case"... The "Back-up visit" we do to the woman's home at about 33 weeks helps the woman feel comfortable with the 2nd m/w in her home space & also allows her the opportunity to ask for another m/w if the vibes aren't right.  After the birth the 2nd M/w helps clean up and do some paper-work.. maybe even drives the Primary M/W home if she's exhausted.  P/N She does visits to the woman's house if the Primary M/W gets too caught up with other things.  It is also useful to have someone to be-brief with and reflect on the birth events.  Hope that helps ..Cheers, MM ----- Original Message ----- From: Andrea Bilcliff To: Ozmidwifery Mailing List Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 9:50 AM Subject: Second Midwife Role Hello again,   I was also wondering if anyone would be willing to share with me or the list what they see as the role of the second midwife during the pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatally.   Thanks again,   Andrea Bilcliff.