Role of the Midwife of the NMC Code

Running Head: ROLE OF THE MIDWIFE
ROLE OF THE MIDWIFE IN RELATION TO THE FOUR THEMES OF THE NMC
CODE
Name of the Student:
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Author’s Note:

1ROLE OF THE MIDWIFE
The NMC code makes sure that the professional standards have the appropriate skills
to take care of people with integrity; respect; compassion and expertise safely. Four themes
are there to provide support, which are prioritise people; practise effectively; preserve safety
as well as promote professionalism and trust (NMC 2015). However, the paper has focused
on the role of the midwives within antenatal care relating to four themes of NMC code.
Antenatal care provides regular check up, which allows the midwife to avoid and treat
potential health risks and problems. Moreover, it helps to promote the health of pregnant
mothers and their babies to promote the healthy lifestyle. The paper focuses on key themes of
NMC code and the influence of the themes on the midwife in the antenatal setting. The paper
discusses the statutory; professional and ethical framework and the role of midwife in the
specific clinical setting. It is necessary to identify the principles on which the midwife is
based. For the midwife, it is necessary to work in partnership with the pregnant women with
dignity and respect.
The NMC code gives a structure to the midwives about their conduct as a healthcare
provider. The NMC code, which is the series of professional standards ensures that the care
professionals wok effectively all times. Midwife, the healthcare professional is trained so that
they can provide necessary support and care to the women during pregnancy; labour and
birth. However, the care differs in antenatal and postnatal stage. Hence, the midwife should
understand the duties and responsibilities accordingly while providing care to the pregnant
women. In this period of antenatal care, the midwife needs to examine and monitor the
expecting women. As mentioned by Taylor et al. (2019), the midwives must listen and
understand the need of people and respond accordingly. To achieve this, the midwives needs
to display few characteristics; for example, kindness; being compassionate and showing
respect. On the other hand, Oni et al. (2020) opined that it can be expected that the midwives
would not do any judgements and recognize diversity as well as choice of individuals. It is
their responsibility to encourage and empower the pregnant woman and their partners to take
active part in decision making process that helps the woman to convey her opinion about the
her requirement of care.
According to the first theme of NMC code, it is necessary to give priority to the
choice of people (NMC 2015). The midwife is responsible to assess the care requirements
and write down the care plan as well as provide emotional support; information and
reassurance to the expecting mother and partners. As mentioned by Regan et al. (2018), the
individual choice of giving birth can be varied due to the religious belief. The midwife needs

2ROLE OF THE MIDWIFE
to follow the domains of NMC code and should have good communication skills to provide
cognitive and psychological support. According to the NMC code (2015), the midwife needs
to recognise the individual choice and social beliefs; cultural beliefs as well as religious
beliefs. One of such example is Muslim faith. In UK, near about 3.3 million Muslim lives and
they have certain cultural and religious practices (Muslim Population in the UK Ons.gov.uk.
2018). The midwife should understand those and should not hurt those beliefs. While treating
the Muslim women, the midwife needs to be more careful during communication to adhere
the wishes of women. Midwife needs to be more sensitive and should understand the cultural
needs and beliefs. For example, while communicating with the Muslim woman, the midwife
should not allow Muslim men or chid as an interpreter.
While treating a woman, consent plays the vital role (England.nhs.uk. 2016). As the
midwives have a bludge of workload, they need to decide the priorities and divide work
among them accordingly. It is not possible to provide continuity of care all time; hence, it is
necessary to understand the needs of women and provide support accordingly. It is important
to work in partnership to provide care and the partnership can be done among the midwives;
between the doctors and midwives; between women and midwives and between midwives
and other healthcare workers. Corrigan (2017) stated that modern healthcare is focused on the
outcome oriented; cost effective and prescriptive practices. To provide care to women, it is
necessary to understand the cognitive, psychological and physical needs by making strong
relationship with them that can be possible with effective communication skills (Magdalena
and Tamara 2020). Bradfield et al. (2018) opined that midwives are the integral part of
healthcare system, which should have strong communication skills to develop the bonding
with patients. However, The NMC code of practice has some standards that the midwife
follows and actions can be taken if those standards are not followed.
According to the 2nd theme of NMC (2015) the midwife needs to practise effectively.
It should include sharing individual skills and knowledge and communicating clearly for the
benefit of care seekers. This can be done with the available evidence. The guidance of NMC
states the necessity of effective as well as appropriate communication. The communication
process should be clear and midwife needs to communicate clearly without hurting anyone so
that women and their partners as well as family members can understand the care process
clearly. Hence, the care provider should be careful while choosing language and terminology.
However, the medical terminology needs to be avoided as women may not understand those
terms sand feel uncomfortable and confusion. In this regard, Bernabeo et al. (2018) opined