I am Jenneth Orias, an International Midwife working at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I came to the United Kingdom in November 2022. I was born and educated in the Philippines and obtained my license in 1996. My previous work experience was in a government hospital back home.
I was 19 years old when I qualified as a Midwife but due to lack of opportunities, I was not able to get a job back home but instead I worked as a nanny, domestic helper and odd jobs just to get on. I managed to get a Midwifery job in between but it was only temporary. Midwives are not in demand in the Philippines. We are often underpaid and undervalued.
I came to the UK in November 2022 as the 1st batch of International Midwives without an idea that Midwives in the UK are autonomous practitioners. Coming from an Obstetric led model of care and hierarchy, I found it difficult to adapt to my role and felt dumb and stupid because it took me 14 months to work autonomously instead of 12 weeks supernumerary. It greatly impacted my confidence. I thought about downgrading my role or just quit.
No matter how long it took, I was able to come out of supernumerary period in May 2023 and since then I started working on my own. It has been a long journey but if I gave up along the way I wouldn’t be in my situation now.
This is how my story parallels with Mary Seacole – she never let the challenges bring her down but instead it inspired her to do better things in life.