Our Maternity team is made up of a diverse range of health care professionals and support staff. We do not have a uniform and staff are encouraged to wear their own clothes to fit with our ethos of promoting normality in pregnancy and birth. On the labour ward staff wear both their own clothes and scrubs. You might meet only a handful of our team on your journey or you might meet a lot. Either way, this page explains our roles. We look forward to meeting you.
Community midwives are highly skilled and experienced members of the midwifery team who work in the community providing care in Children’s centres, GP practices and the home. They provide antenatal and, postnatal care from the first pregnancy appointment until discharge, usually around 10 days after birth, when they hand over care to the health visiting team. Community midwives run our award winning homebirth service. They are trained to assess the health of both mother and baby, plan care in conjunction with you, and will carry out all appointments for low risk maternity care. They will provide a link to hospital services and provide valuable support and education to all pregnant women and their families throughout their pregnancy.
We have a large team of highly skilled and dedicated hospital midwives who rotate between antenatal, labour and postnatal care. Our midwifery team is experienced in managing all aspects of your care.
We are a teaching trust and student midwives complete placements in all areas of maternity care. Some of our students are already registered nurses whilst others are completing a direct entry course. They are always supervised by a qualified midwife. Many women feedback to us that they really benefited from having a student midwife participate in their care. You will always be asked permission for a student midwife to be present, and it is not a problem if you decline this offer.
We have a team of specialist midwives who work on both sites. These midwives have completed extra training to enable them to specialise in these areas. For more information on our specialist midwives roles click here.
Supervision provides a statutory mechanism for support and guidance to every midwife practising in the UK. The purpose of supervision of midwives is to protect you and your baby by actively promoting a safe standard of midwifery practice. Supervision is also a means of promoting excellence in midwifery care, by supporting midwives to practice with confidence, therefore preventing poor practice. Supervisors can also provide you with guidance and support about any aspect of your maternity care.
Not all women will see an obstetrician during their pregnancy, labour and birth. If there are any concerns during your pregnancy, labour or after birth you might see a number of different doctors. Our team of doctor’s work within the maternity departments on both sites; ranging from junior doctors working on an obstetric rotation to registrar’s specialising in obstetric care. They are always supported by one of our obstetric consultants who are on-call 24/7.
Our team of highly experienced obstetric consultants provide 24/7 cover to both our sites and hold specialist antenatal clinics and are available to give support to both junior and senior doctors. Most women will not require consultant care during their pregnancy and birth.
Sonographers perform ultrasound scans during pregnancy. An ultrasound scan uses high-frequency sound waves to create a moving image of your baby.
Maternity care assistants work in all maternity departments and work extremely hard assisting our midwives. Maternity care assistants perform a varied and vital role in the daily care given to our women and their families.
Maternity Support Workers are support staff based in the community, specialising in postnatal care and providing support to the midwives. They have had additional training to support women and babies during the first days at home, providing newborn screening and ongoing breastfeeding support.
Nursery Nurses are a qualified team that specialise in caring for newborn babies. They are also on hand to promote breastfeeding and assist with artificial feeding. They also support our Paediatric doctors to assess and care for babies requiring additional treatment and observation after birth.
Our ward clerks are stationed at the reception of our hospital wards. They will welcome you to the ward and direct you to where you need to be.
Our cleaning staff provide a 24/7 cleaning service within the maternity department.
Some of our volunteers support our administrative and clerical staff. You might also meet our breast feeding peer support volunteers known as the ‘pink ladies’ on the post-natal ward at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton who offer invaluable feeding support.
