London midwife celebrates 50 years of NHS service

A senior midwife at a south-east London hospital is retiring this week after 50 years of service to the NHS.

Ann Gibbs, who works for King’s College NHS Foundation Trust, started her NHS profession in September 1975, as a part of an experimental fast-track programme at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow.

In her first 4 years she accomplished her nursing qualification and certified as a midwife at Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, the place she delivered 40 infants in a single yr.

Head of midwifery at Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH), Clare Baker, stated Ann had “consistently been at the forefront of innovation”.

“From being one of the first midwives to complete the Newborn and Infant Physical Examination course (NIPE), to introducing mobile phones, and helping establish postnatal clinics, she has been a font of knowledge for her colleagues,” she added.

Gibbs labored at hospitals throughout London, Kent and Winchester together with King’s College Hospital, the place she skilled midwives in theatre follow as a sister on the labour ward.

She grew to become an worker of King’s College NHS Foundation Trust in 2013 when it took over Queen Mary’s Hospital from South London Healthcare NHS Trust.

“The families we work with are very different now. When I began working as a midwife, many women were having children in their teens and early twenties, and now we see more people who are in their thirties and forties,” stated Gibbs.

“This sets us more challenges, but we are there to help and support them. If we deliver good antenatal care, then we are limiting the complexities of what can happen when in labour.”