As we reach the middle of #FlamingJune I have been thinking about the week I’ve had. To be honest it has pushed my multitasking abilities to the limit: I have had a number of big events to attend or speak at, as well as the day job of being a divisional director at Kingston and a clinician seeing and caring for women – and this is before I even consider my husband and daughters.
Amongst all this I sometime wonder if #MatExp is really having an impact, or have I just got carried away.
It has been a tricky week for others too. The more people know about #MatExp and what we are trying to do the better, but this comes with pressure and also criticism.
It is hard to understand that this is an organic grassroots project with a direction and mind of its own. No one is ‘in charge’ and it is richer for it.
This was brought home to me at the London Maternity Strategic Clinical Network event held on Wednesday. The five pilot sites who had held a #MatExp ‘Whose Shoes’ workshop presented the action they had taken as a result and I was overwhelmed by the diversity of actions taken and the determination with which people had followed through in a multitude of ways.
Devolved leadership and true collaboration with women has been our hallmark from the beginning but I was bowled over to actually witness the results of all the actions gathered together in one place and to recognise how powerful the outcome of the workshops was.
At the same event we launched our ‘Maternity Experience’ film. It was a tense moment, it is so difficult when you are knee-deep in a project to step back and see it afresh and I wasn’t sure how others would find it. I so desperately wanted it to to be true to the workshops and #MatExp conversations we have had over the months.
Fortunately on the whole it seems to have rung true and be a success, which I hope will power more thinking and questioning on a daily basis of ‘why do we do it this way, what could we do instead?’
Rounding off my week I have had the small matter of conversations with the leadership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) about how they could help, and a flying visit by Helen Bevan to Kingston on Thursday when she said ‘there was lots going on #MatExp yesterday, I got tweeted your film about 15 times!’.
It’s a roller coaster ride but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Each time I have a doubt something happens that reaffirms that however small , changes are actually happening. Just yesterday a midwife at Kingston told me her pledge from our October workshop will be completed next week. She has stuck with it through barriers and blocks and seen it to completion and that desire for action, that is what #MatExp is all about!