Help is at hand for expectant mothers as Inverness midwife organises antenatal education sessions in the Highlands – she single handedly set up a number of WhatsApp groups which united women and their babies within their communities
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During the pandemic an Inverness midwife realised there was a need for antenatal education in the Highlands because vital face-to-face sessions had stopped due to the crisis.
Natasha Niven, who has been a midwife for the past eight years and is based at Raigmore Hospital, decided to do something about it and initially set up an Instagram page – @TheHighlandMidwife – which provided helpful resources for women and their families.
She also single handedly set up a number of WhatsApp groups, which united women and their babies within their communities, where they did not have the ability to meet before.
Ms Niven, who is from Inverness, said support within a community setting was provided by the NHS before the lockdown, adding: “I was initially working as a community midwife during the pandemic and recognised that all face-to-face sessions had ceased within the Highlands and beyond.
“Women were only able to access generic online information which I found impersonal. The beauty of attending antenatal education sessions is meeting other women and establishing a peer support network but this benefit was no longer available.”
She said the Instagram page started out as a hobby and she planned to offer evidence-based information as well as create a community which would be inclusive to all and make women feel respected and supported by providing knowledge to empower them during pregnancy and after the birth.
“I share real-life birth stories and photos, poems, mum-to-mum recommendations and posts illustrating the highs and lows of pregnancy and motherhood,” she said. “My content covers sensitive issues such as poor maternal mental health and baby loss/miscarriage as well as the relationship of birth partners which is often overlooked.
“I was also able to acknowledge that despite Covid-19, women still need peer support. I started setting up WhatsApp groups for women depending on gestation of pregnancy and location. To date I have set up over 100 women – both pregnant and postnatal – within the Highlands. These women have gone on to meet up – both pregnant and/or with their babies.”
And the feedback she has received from the women has been positive and they say they have found the support they gave each other was invaluable.
She said: “I am also now pregnant so I try and create content that I would like to know and benefit from. I have also joined one of my own groups and feel grateful that I have some mum friends before the baby arrives.”
