Spotlight On An Expert: Emma Twine September 2024

This month we are delighted to introduce readers to Emma Twine, one of our highly experienced registered midwives and expert witnesses. Emma joined our expert witness panel in 2022 and has recently become an Associate Trainer, responsible for delivering training and support for our newer experts. In her own words, Emma describes her midwifery journey and how she went on to work with us...

By the time I was eight years old, I knew I wanted to work in the NHS in a clinical role. I developed a passion at a young age about pregnancy and birth, including the physiology, psychology and attachment of mothers and babies. When I started my A-levels I started volunteering in the NHS when I was 16, and made the decision that I wanted to apply for medicine and had a keen interest to specialise in obstetrics. I was successful in my application, but unfortunately I missed my A-level grades, so I took a year out to re-evaluate my options and made the decision to apply for midwifery.

I trained as a midwife in a small district general hospital and qualified when I was 22. I have such fond memories of some of the amazing midwives I met during my training who made me the midwife I am today. After qualifying, I made the decision to move to London and consolidate my learning in a large maternal and fetal specialist obstetric unit. It was here that I learned even more in all areas of midwifery, and made lifelong friends who are still huge parts of my life today.

Despite loving midwifery, I still had a yearning to study medicine and was offered a place to study graduate medicine in Birmingham. Prior to starting medicine, I also had a battle with my own health after having some neurological problems. I was diagnosed with a clinically isolated syndrome which resolved itself and I took the plunge and moved away to the midlands to train to be a doctor, but continued working as a midwife too. Unfortunately after my first year I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and at the time couldn’t continue my studies, and was also missing full-time midwifery. I was offered a job as a community midwife, and have never looked back.

After a year I was successfully appointed into a community clinical lead midwife post in Berkshire and moved there, and after two years became the lead midwife for community services. During this time I had some amazing care from neurology services trying to find a medication to stabilise my multiple sclerosis.

In 2016 I met my husband at an emergency services Christmas party. We parted ways, but just 6 weeks later I bumped into him at a mutual friend’s birthday party. It is very clichéd, but I knew from the moment we met that he was the person I would marry. Both of us were originally from the South-West, and we knew that we wanted to be near a set of parents in the future for when we had our own children, so we moved to Bournemouth. Within 18 months of meeting we were married, and we had our first child. During the labour of my daughter we met a midwife who worked for Somek. She told me all about her role and I thought it sounded really interesting. I hadn’t been qualified for 10 years at that point, so I kept it in the back of my mind. I knew that as soon as I reached 10 years qualifying I would get in touch with Somek to see if they had any vacancies, as I had heard such great things about them as a company to work for.

I then had my son two years later, and underwent some treatment for my multiple sclerosis, which so far has completely stabilised me and reversed some of the effects I have had, and I now lead a completely normal life free of any symptoms. When I returned to work I got in touch with Somek, and fortunately was appointed as a midwife expert witness and have enjoyed every part of working with them. The support from everyone has been second to none, and I always talk about my role with others with such fondness and passion.

Since moving to Dorset I have had the pleasure of working in various areas of midwifery including community, a stand-alone birth centre, risk and governance, smoking cessation, telephone triage, service development and in maternity transformation. My current job role is antenatal clinic lead midwife, and I also continue to work clinically both in the community and in the maternity unit. I am currently completing a masters in advanced practice and have so far completed modules in operational management, examination of the newborn and independent prescribing.

My passions in midwifery are personalised care, supporting service users who wish to birth out of guidance, homebirth and breastfeeding. I am proud to have had my son at home, and breastfed him for 4 ½ years. I could not be more grateful to the NHS for the amazing care I had in both of my pregnancies, births and beyond.

During my time at Somek I have been able to apply my learning from my training into report writing. At the beginning of my journey it was a huge learning curve, but my confidence developed through experience and support from the trainers and I was able to successfully advance as an expert witness. As well as report writing, I have been able to present to solicitors and have been able to use my experience in my everyday practice. As I became more experienced I always hoped that an opportunity would come up for me to become a trainer. When I was offered a post as a trainer, there was no hesitation for me, and I am so pleased to now be a permanent member of the team.

During the writing of this, I looked at my personal statement from when I applied for midwifery 18 years ago. It states “It is the role of the midwife to respect the woman's choice, as well as providing care for the mother and family and helping the mother to enjoy her experience of pregnancy and childbirth, ensuring the mother has been advised of all options. Midwives must assist mothers physically, emotionally and psychologically during their pregnancy.” I can honestly say that this is how I still practice today, and I don’t know how it is possible, but I love my job even more than when I started.

Working as a midwife with two young children at home keeps me pretty busy! Outside of work I enjoy making the most of the beautiful area I live in and spending time with my children at the beach and in the New Forest. Whenever me and my husband get the opportunity, we enjoy good food and theatre shows.

I am proud to be a midwife, and having worked for the NHS for over 20 years, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

If you are a clinician interested in finding out more about how we recruit and what the benefits of expert witness work are, you can visit our recruitment pages here.

We have a broad range of 30 midwifery expert witnesses available. Their profiles are available to view here