The standards of proficiency for midwives are designed to empower you, as a midwife, to deliver high quality care.

They set out the knowledge, understanding and skills that midwives must demonstrate at the point of qualification, when caring for women throughout the maternity journey, newborn infants, partners and families across all care settings.

The standards are split into 6 domains:

• Domain 1: Being an accountable, autonomous, professional midwife
• Domain 2: Safe and effective midwifery care: promoting and providing continuity of care and carer
• Domain 3: Universal care for all women and newborn infants
• Domain 4: Additional care for women and newborn infants with complications
• Domain 5: Promoting excellence: the midwife as colleague, scholar and leader
• Domain 6: The midwife as skilled practitioner

As a midwife, it’s important that you understand how the standards of proficiency apply to you in your everyday working life at every step in your career, no matter what role or banding you are working at.

These animations are designed to help you think about how you reflect the standards in the work that you do.

As you watch the animations, think about which of the 6 Domains is being represented at each point in the story. How do you demonstrate these skills and abilities in your own working life?

You can use the animations as prompts for reflection on your own practice, to identify areas for your learning or development or to think about your future career development. This could be especially helpful if you are due to complete your revalidation soon, or if you will be having a Personal Development Review (PDR).

Ideas for reflection:

• Think about a time when you provided continuity of care for a woman, how did that feel for you? Did you receive any feedback about how it felt for her?
• Consider a time when cared for a woman whose pregnancy was complex and needed specialist input. Did the team work well together to provide all the care that was needed?
• Spend some time thinking about the women that you care for and colleagues that you work with. How to you make sure that you provide care that is equitable?

Ideas for reflection:

• Think about a time when you experienced or witnessed unacceptable behaviour, how did you feel and what did you do?
• How could you help to improve the experience of students that you are working with?
• Consider how you can help to foster a positive culture in your workplace. What practical steps could you take?