Job overview
Preterm birth (PTB) is defined as delivery at less than 37+0 week’s gestation and is a common complication of pregnancy comprising around 8% of births in England and Wales. It is the most important single determinant of adverse infant outcome with regards to survival and quality of life.
Babies born preterm have high rates of early, late, and post-neonatal mortality and morbidity and contributes to an estimated to cost health services in England and Wales of £3.4bn per year.
The Preterm Birth Midwife will work collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team and will play a key role in co-ordinating the care and support of women who are at increased risk of preterm labour, with suspected or confirmed preterm labour, or having a planned preterm birth (i.e. due to fetal growth restriction, pre-eclampsia or other clinical reason). This role will require a weekly clinical commitment providing antenatal care to women/birthing people at risk of preterm birth in the antenatal clinic setting.
The Preterm Birth Midwife will participate actively in local and regional networks, teaching, and research to improve education and implementation of Preterm Birth pathway. They will also work closely with the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) to co-design services to ensure that pathways are supportive and equitable for women and families accessing maternity care at UHSussex.
Main duties of the job
·Support women/pregnant/birthing people at increased risk of preterm birth throughout the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care continuum.
·Demonstrate strong clinical management and leadership skills which support the Midwifery, MDT and maternity service as a whole.
·Lead and develop services working alongside the nominated preterm specialist multidisciplinary team ensuring consistency and continuity of care for women at increased risk of preterm birth.
·Utilise current and ongoing research and continually develop local preterm birth pathways to progress the service agendas in relation to reducing preterm birth.
·To utilise key reports such as Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle Version 3, and the Department of Health’s Safer Maternity Care reports to inform clinical practice within UHSussex Maternity Services.
·To show compassionate behaviour towards women/birthing people and their families, ensuring equality and diversity differences are respected and women and their family are enabled to be partners in their own care.
·To work collaboratively with the Bereavement team should an adverse outcome be expected or experienced. Ensuring parents are supported sensitively and appropriately, with onward referral to additional support and/or bereavement counselling as required.
·To participate in on call rota as per the needs of the service.
Working for our organisation
At UHSussex, diversity is our strength, and we want you to feel included to help us always deliver Excellent Care Everywhere, as shown in our Outstanding for Caring CQC rating. Your uniqueness and experiences will be part of our creative and innovative community where everyone is encouraged to succeed. We have a range of staff networks to help break down barriers, and can offer a buddy to help new members settle in. We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 3) and a Veteran Aware Trust.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please note: This role does not meet the minimum criteria for visa sponsorship under the current UK immigration rules, which set specific salary and skill thresholds. As such, we are unable to provide sponsorship for this post. Applicants will therefore need to already have the right to work in the UK to be considered. We include this information at the outset to provide clarity and avoid unnecessary inconvenience for applicants.
If you are applying using a Graduate visa as your right to work, you must have a minimum of 18 months remaining on your visa at time of application.
·Understand preterm pregnancy management options including the pros and cons of prophylactic vaginal progesterone or cervical cerclage procedures, services and support.
·To be responsible for the management of individualised care to a defined group of mothers and babies using the assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating process within a multidisciplinary framework.
·Facilitate midwife led clinics, face to face, telephone and online facilities as appropriate to enable collaborative multidisciplinary communication in clinical decision making and care planning.
·To be confident in communicating with professionals at all levels in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary care settings.
·Able to participate professionally when having challenging conversations or delivering unwelcome and often unexpected bad news in an informative and compassionate way.
·To act as an advocate for women, ensuring informed consent for any proposed intervention or treatment and encouraging women/birthing people to be partners in their own care, supporting them to make informed decisions which best suit them.
·Willing to be a non-medical prescriber and/or work within pre-defined Midwifery patient group directives (PGD’s) and have knowledge of drug regimens and side effects.
·Able to have supportive multidisciplinary discussions relating to neonatal care of preterm babies including location of care and explanation of the immediate complications which can result from a baby being born pre-term.
·Ensuring women at risk of preterm birth are supported and able to have opportunities to discuss their wishes regarding ongoing treatment and resuscitation of their baby in the event of a preterm delivery, including potential tours of the neonatal unit and opportunity to speak with a consultant neonatologist.
·Be responsible for the data collection, audit and evaluation of the service, ensuring compliance with internal and external reporting mechanisms such as UHSussex governance meetings and CQC reporting.
The Preterm Birth Midwife will work closely with neonates becoming part of an MDT reviewing and audit all cases of preterm births against the KPI's, feeding back learning and creating action plans. This role will support all the maternity services on different sites. A key priority of this role will be to work with the neonatal and obstetric team on improving preterm optimisation and implementation of the PERIPrem passport.
Person specification
Essential and Desirable
Essential criteria
1. Experienced registered midwife
2. Assessor/Mentorship course
3. Experience of working in preterm birth or a similar specialism
Desirable criteria
4. Masters in Midwifery or working towards
5. Leadership/management course
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Essential criteria
6. Evidence of having undertaken own development to improve understanding of equalities issues
7. Evidence of having championed diversity in previous roles (as appropriate to role
Important information for applicants:
A Note on AI Use in Applications
We value the individuality and authenticity that each candidate brings to the application process. While AI tools are increasingly accessible, we strongly discourage their use in completing your application. Your responses should reflect your own voice, experiences, and motivations—elements that are essential to a fair and accurate evaluation.
Applications that rely heavily on AI-generated content may misrepresent your abilities and could result in your application being rejected. We encourage you to take the time to present your genuine self, as this helps us better understand your potential and ensures a transparent selection process.
Closing Adverts Early: In the event of exceptional interest, we may close adverts earlier than specified.
Some of our adverts are capped for a limited number of applications; therefore, the advert will close once the cap has been reached. We therefore encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible if you are interested in the position to prevent you from missing out on applying for the opportunity.
Flexible Working: If you would like to explore potential options regarding flexible working please speak with the appropriate recruiting/line manager.
DBS Checks: As part of our commitment to a safe working environment, we undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service check on all new employees where the role is eligible for a criminal record check. We make offers in line with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1975.
Skilled Worker Visa: Applications for Skilled Worker sponsorship are welcome for the roles that meet the Visa and Immigrations eligibility criteria. For further information please visit the gov.uk website searching for Skilled Worker. It is your responsibility as the applicant to ensure that you meet this criteria.
UHSussex reserves the right to close the role early if we receive a high volume of applications