Special award for globetrotter midwife

And today she is celebrating after winning an award for her pioneering work right here in Shropshire.

During her career Sandra, a specialist midwife, has helped deliver babies in Nigeria and in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia.

The mother-of-two now works at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust covering The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

She joined the trust nine years ago as a community midwife before taking up the role of the Baby Friendly Initiative co-ordinator for 18 months.

Sandra is now the infant feeding co-ordinator and has just scooped an award from the NHS trust for her work in helping to promote breastfeeding.

The mother-of-two, who lives in the Newport area, qualified as a midwife in 1989 after training in Scotland, where she also began her career.

"One of the earliest places I worked was the Shetland Isles, and that was fabulous but challenging," says Sandra.

"We had a midwife-led unit for low risk delivery but on occasions if women in labour became more high risk, for example raised blood pressure, then we had to fly with them in a small plane the 75-minute flight to Aberdeen. Just me, the mum, the pilot and an incubator.

"That was certainly challenging mid-winter. We could be flying to outer islands in heavy winds to pick up women and take them to Aberdeen."

She later moved over to West Africa to work in Nigeria for 18 months in 1990.

"Nigeria came about because one of my colleagues who I had trained with had worked in a Mission Hospital out there. I was asked to stand in for the midwife there and spent 18 months in the country," she adds.

She says it was a life changing experience and after further study it inspired her to spend three and a half years working in Kyrgyzstan.

And it was while working in the capital, Bishkek, that Sandra met her husband Bakhtiar. They were married in 1997 and have two children.

Now she has been honoured with a Chairman's Award after receiving glowing praise from colleagues.

Sandra has received praise for her efforts over recent months which have resulted in the trust securing Stage 2 accreditation within the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative.

Sandra was presented with her award at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital by Professor Peter Latchford, trust chairman.

Debbie Kadum, chief operating officer, read the citation for the award and says there had been many glowing comments about Sandra from colleagues, led by Anthea Gregory-Page, deputy head of midwifery.

Debbie said: "Sandra is a gentle natured and personable staff member who has worked tirelessly towards ensuring that all maternity, neonatal and paediatric staff have been trained in baby friendly infant feeding methods.

"She has also worked tirelessly to ensure that the mums feel confident in their choice of feeding, and that babies have the best start to life by them all having skin-to-skin at birth and encouraging babies to have the first feed from the breast.

"Sandra's stoic work over this last year has achieved and secured a Stage 2 accreditation of the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative.

"This has been no mean feat in having a 100 per cent rate for staff being orientated to the breast feeding policy, 100 per cent rate of staff receiving training, and 100 per cent rate of staff who were able to demonstrate effective breast feeding management to the external auditors.

"I know that Anthea and her colleagues would like to join me in congratulating Sandra and her breast feeding support workers in this momentous achievement."

The Chairman's Award is presented each month by the trust board to individuals and teams who represent the values of the trust and of the NHS as a whole. Recipients of the accolade are presented with a Chairman's Award certificate, a gift certificate and a Chairman's Award lapel badge.

Sandra adds: "It's been a privilege to work with and for women as a midwife, be it at a Mission Hospital in rural Africa, or a city centre hospital in Kyrgyzstan.

"I find this job enormously rewarding, the satisfaction of seeing a happy mother and content baby makes my day."