Community Midwife, Sumaya Bibi talks about the importance of seizing opportunities across midwifery
Sumaya Bibi, Community Midwife and Perinatal Mental Health Champion discusses how she has gone from strength to strength since gathering experience across various roles at our Women’s Hospital Midwifery services. Sumaya is a shining example of ‘switching up’ her role to diversify and seize new opportunities across our Trust. We’d like to share Sumaya’s ambitious story and will be pleased to welcome her as a Professional Midwifery Advocate; nurturing our midwives and inspiring ambition and compassion across our wards.
“I always knew I wanted to come into healthcare, what has always been important to me is to be able to give the best of me to others” driven by compassion and dedication this was the perfect path for me”.
Qualifying in 2014 after completing her qualifications with Birmingham City University, she decided to join our team. She said: “I’ve always had a soft spot for the women’s having spent time here as a volunteer and after having my first son there, Mikael. My midwife was inspirational and fantastic, she really made such a difference to my pregnancy and postpartum experience. It was kind of the defining moment that made me apply to join BWC.
Starting out on Delivery Suite for the first five years, Sumaya ventured across different areas of Midwifery, she joined the first Maternity Continuity of Carer teams in 2020 which has been the best experience of midwifery for her, she said “this was an opportunity she’d been waiting for, to be able to deliver care in a holistic way and to be ‘with woman and families’ through their entire journey from the point of referral to birth and postpartum was surreal. Sumaya said she has been able to support the most vulnerable women and families and give personalised care, taking time to listen to, educate, provide informed choice, and join other support services to nurture the families through their journey in maternity care was a breath of fresh air.
Sumaya said she is all about continuity, she has seen the real benefits of working in this way and the meaningful difference it has made to so many of our women and families. It has been special to be able to take the care to them and to build rapport and trust which has made the whole process easy for them. It is gold standard care and not one which you can provide without having real passion and commitment to want to be there.
Currently Sumaya is working in a hybrid community team model and has been able to transfer her skills and share her experiences with the new team and continue to support a larger caseload of women and families with additional needs such as safeguarding and perinatal mental health. It feels great to be an advocate for women and their families and transfer my skills in a new landscape. I feel like a can-do attitude can get you very far at BWC.”
Sumaya has also been sharing her expertise and experiences with student midwives by running teaching sessions at universities, she hopes to expand on this in the near future and support future midwives by contributing to their learning experience at BWC and more.
Sumaya will be training as a Professional Midwifery Advocate across this year to go onto support others who may be looking to switch up and continue their midwifery journey. She said: “I feel like I’ve grown as a person, not just as a professional, I am more in tune with the kind of midwife I want to be and aspire to become a compassionate leader. I’m undertaking a Public Health Programme to go on to make my positive changes and build a legacy at BWC along with community outreach across schools within deprived areas to inspire the next generation of midwives. I thank my 14-year-old son every day – he really went through the whole journey with me and I feel blessed with the support around me”.