Call the midwife

SHE’S a driven, fair, funny yet sometimes shy midwife who expects the highest standard in whatever she’s involved in.

Frances Day-Stirk told All Woman that before she became a midwife she considered many careers that her family did not approve of.

But after leaving the Convent of Mercy (Alpha) Academy and doing a brief stint at HD Hopwood, she made the decision to go into nursing, a field that would forever shape her life.

“I didn’t always want to be a nurse growing up as a child. There was a time I wanted to be a vet and my family said no, then I thought maybe a tour guide, and my family said no. Then Air Jamaica was coming in, so I thought I should be a flight attendant — no. So I left Alpha and went to Alpha Commercial and did typing and things of that sort,” Day-Stirk said.

“Then I was working at HD Hopwood and in those days they used to employ nurses and all of them spoke to me and said, ‘Ms Day, you need to go [away] and do nursing. Make sure you do obstetrics before you come back; paediatrics before you come back’. And so I went and did nursing and midwifery in the United Kingdom and fell in love with midwifery. I found paediatrics quite hard as I couldn’t deal with dying children, so I didn’t pursue that. Since then I’ve practised midwifery. It has become my love,” she said.

Day-Stirk explained that her love really developed when she saw that she was able to give good care to women and empower them to be confident mothers.

“As a student I worked with a lot of Jamaican midwives and they really influenced how I learnt, what I learnt, and how I practised. There were three who were very influential in how I developed into what I became. I worked in an area that had a very high clinical population and so I got a broad range of experiences. And the midwife that I was with was Jamaican. Women had the choice then to have their babies at home, or to have the babies in hospital but be cared for by a district midwife; or to just go into hospital and have their babies. What I liked was the system of home births or the district midwife system where the midwife visited the woman at home, looked after her there, and got to know the family,” she said.

Subsequently, Day-Stirk said she realised that giving good care to women and babies is the foundation of any nation and she would be a part of that movement through midwifery.

Now a midwife for over 38 years, and in her second term as president of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) — a non-governmental organisation and the voice of global midwifery — Day-Stirk has shattered many glass ceilings, one being to become the first Jamaican elected twice (in 2011 and in 2014) to head the global body.

In addition, she said though her job is sometimes challenging, it gives her an opportunity to challenge countries she visits where midwifery needs to be improved or enhanced, and it gives her the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people in many countries across the world and to meet at a high level with United Nations agencies that cover women’s rights.

Also a director of the Royal College of Midwives, Day-Stirk has been credited with introducing new initiatives among midwives such as water birthing. She has also influenced the quality of practice across the UK, and worked internationally with the European Forum of National Nursing and Midwifery Association as well as the European Midwives Association. She was vice-president of ICM prior to becoming president.

Day-Stirk, who also loves yoga, reading, gardening and spending time with her grandchildren, believes in treating people the way you’d like to be treated, and maintaining respect at all times.

Though she has lived in the UK for most of her life, Day-Stirk said she carries her Jamaican heritage very proudly and dreams of seeing midwifery once again become the norm in her homeland and other countries.

“If I had a magic wand I’d say to every prime minister, that if you want your population to be healthy you should invest in more competent midwives, as it is more cost- effective to care for the women and babies of your nation, and this is in tandem with the 2030 sustainable goals,” she said.