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Maternal death

By: Val Beale

Thankfully, maternal deaths are extremely rare in the United Kingdom. This is the result of many years of painstaking work by professionals, who have constantly reviewed their own working and organisational practices to help identify and reduce risk for women.

A midwife finding themselves in the midst of this catastrophic event needs to have a range of tools and structured support at their disposal. If you are involved in an event of this type, you will be required to assist in both formal and informal reviews.

Val Beale - LSA Midwifery Officer, South West Region
Bibliography – March 2010

Val is currently employed as the Local Supervising Authority Midwifery Officer at NHS South West. The Region comprises 19 Acute services with 13 Midwife led stand-alone units.

Val has been a Supervisor of Midwives for 22 years and a Midwife for 29 years.

Val has been closely involved with CMACE (formally CEMACH) since 1991, when she became a local midwife assessor for maternal deaths. Val became a central assessor for the organisation 5 years ago – this involves reviewing the findings of local Regional assessors and contributing to writing the midwifery chapter in the Triennial report (Saving Mothers Lives)

The prevention and treatment of Obstetric emergencies have been a significant area of interest for a number of years - long before the advent of Clinical Risk assessment and Clinical Governance review.

Val is also involved in medico-legal work, which adds an interesting perspective to her current substantive post.

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