A phone app created by Nottingham midwives helping pregnant women to track the progress of their babies has won a national award.
‘Pocket Midwife’ was developed by staff at Nottingham University Hospitals to let pregnant women keep a track of the progress of their child until their birth.
Users are able to look at what should be happening at each week of pregnancy, take selfies at each stage to create a photo album of their pregnancy and time contractions.
It came about in response to patients wanting to be able to access up-to-date information at each stage of pregnancy along with access to relevant patient information leaflets.
As a result, maternity matron Julia Gudgeon and the team behind the app won the Innovation in Practice award with specialist female genital mutilation (FGM) midwife Carol McCormick also winning the Contribution to Supporting Pregnant Women Who Have Experienced FGM category.
We’re absolutely thrilled to be double award winners
Speaking about the awards themselves, Nottingham University Hospitals’ head of midwifery Alison Atkinson said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be able to say we’re double award winners.
“It highlights some of the wonderful work we are doing within our maternity service at NUH and, above all, the commitment to providing the very best experience for our patients.
“Carol and Jules have worked extremely hard and I’m so proud of them and their achievements.”
Carol won her award for helping to set up a specialist service for pregnant women affected by FGM and works closely with the police and other local authorities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of patients and future generations.
The British Journal of Midwifery Practice (BJM) Awards were held at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on February 8.
BJM is the leading clinical journal for midwives which is published each month written by midwives for midwives.
