Supervision of midwives
It has to be admitted that prior to two hour long sessions with Supervisors of Midwives, and a module fixed resource session that involved exposure to two more supervisors, the author knew little about supervision. However, the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Visiting (ENB) commissioned study ‘Evaluation of the Impact of the supervision of Midwifery Practice and the quality of Midwifery Care’ (Stapleton,Duerdon,Kirkham 1998), found that the majority of the practicing midwives it interviewed knew little about supervision also. The initial two supervisors approached for information were chosen because they were considered to offer what may have been different interpretations of what supervision is; coming from different working backgrounds, one a senior labour ward midwife, and one a manager, having very different lengths of experience of being supervisors, and vastly different lengths of service as midwives.