Management structure

Our senior management team provide strategic and operational leadership for the women’s health division. They ensure we are delivering high quality and responsive services and that patient care and experience remains central to what we do.

• Wendy Clarke, Interim Assistant Director
• Dr Jennifer McKenna, Consultant Midwife

  I was delighted to take up the post of Consultant Midwife for the Southern HSCT in June 2022. The role of the Consultant Midwife is to promote expert clinical practice through education and training, while demonstrating professional leadership and consultancy through practice and service development, research and evaluation (DoH, 2017). I am passionate about promoting holistic, individualised, woman-centred midwifery care for all women, throughout their childbearing journey. All women should have care and support from a midwife.

  My goals include establishing a Birth Choices Clinic, promoting our fantastic Midwife-Led Units and Birth at Home service, developing our Complementary Therapies service, and supporting the Continuity of Midwifery Carer model. I’m also working to put midwifery care at the heart of the perinatal mental health, perinatal epilepsy, and perinatal diabetes services. Above all, I want to improve maternity care for all women in the Southern HSCT by working with midwives, obstetricians, other healthcare professionals, and women and their families.

• Mary Dawson, Interim Head of Midwifery and Gynaecology

  I am currently in post from February 2019.  As the Lead Midwife I manage, lead and support 6 community teams within 3 localities across the SHSCT, Armagh/Dungannon, Brownlow/Banbridge, Newry and Mourne alongside the Birth at Home team who cover the whole Trust.

  My role is to promote and ensure safe, effective, evidenced based, person centred care through good leadership and support to both the midwives and the woman and families that use our service.  Having worked as a community midwife for many years it is my passion that care is delivered in the right place, at the right time by the right person.  Birth at Home and service user involvement are other particular areas of interest and involvement.

• Lorraine McKeown, Lead Midwife for Daisy Hill
• Oonagh Kelly-Campbell, Lead Midwife Craigavon Area Hospital
• Maria Garvey, Lead Midwife – Continuity of Midwifery Carer (CoMC)

  

  I have been a Midwife for many years working through all areas of Maternity and then as a Delivery Suite Sister in Craigavon Area Hospital. I moved out into Community Midwifery initially to Brownlow and then to Armagh and Dungannon. I became the Team Leader for Armagh and Dungannon in 2016 and was there until I took up my current role as Lead Midwife for Continuity of Midwifery Carer. (CoMC)

  I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to lead on the Regional design and implementation stage of introducing CoMC on behalf of the Trust.

  I am very passionate about CoMC as it will be a way of working within Maternity Services that will provide integrated, appropriate and seamless care for all women through their journey from pregnancy and birth to the early parenting period.

  While all pregnant women need a midwife, many women will also need an obstetrician.  Women may also need to see a range of other specialists including doctors, mental health professionals, allied health professionals or specialist midwives and nurses, depending on their particular needs. All of this will be delivered within the new model which I am delighted about the inclusiveness for all women.

   

• Brid France, Sister, Antenatal and Postnatal Ward, Craigavon Area Hospital

  I was appointed as Ward Manager for the Antenatal and Postnatal ward in Craigavon Hospital in June 2021. I am very lucky to lead an excellent team of midwives and maternity support workers who are passionate about delivering an excellent standard of care to the mothers and babies within our service. Our team was voted Team of the Year in 2021 at the Queens University Belfast training awards and we were also nominated in this category again in 2022 and 2023.

  My role as Ward Manager requires me act as a leader, advisor and role model, ensuring appropriate standards of assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care are delivered to patients within the Antenatal and Postnatal in-patient clinical setting. I also implement and monitor quality assurance initiatives which provide an assurance that the care being delivered on the ward is safe and patient centred.

• Emma Creagh, Ward Manager, Daisy Hill Hospital
  
• Gemma Winter, Antenatal Education Coordinator Midwife

  

  I’m Gemma Winter, and I’ve been proudly part of maternity services in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust for over 23 years. During that time, I have worked across all areas of maternity care, supporting families through some of the most important moments of their lives.

  These days, I have the absolute joy of coordinating our Antenatal Education Programmes — creating and delivering classes that help expectant parents feel informed, confident, and ready for the journey ahead. From pregnancy through to birth and beyond, I am here to make sure you feel supported every step of the way.

  I’m passionate about helping women feel empowered, calm, and connected during this special time. If you have any questions about our antenatal classes or what’s available, please do not hesitate to get in touch — I’d love to hear from you!   G.ready4babyclasses@southerntrust.hscni.net

• Michelle O'Hagan, Infant Feeding Lead Midwife
• Donna King, Staff Development Midwife
  
• Katrina McCullough, Clinical Skills Midwife
  
• Donna McLoughlin, Fetal Monitoring Midwife

  I am responsible for training and education in relation to CTG interpretation as well as intermittent auscultation for low risk pregnancies.
• Maria McEnery, Substance Misuse and Social Complexities Midwife

  I am delighted to have been recently appointed in my new position of Substance Misuse and Social Complexities Midwife at Southern Health and Social Care Trust.

  My role is to ensure identification and management of pregnant women with current or historical substance misuse or those women leading socially complex lives.  I will develop and maintain appropriate pathways for a small caseload of women.  I will liaise with Child Care Services in respect of any perceived issues relating to pregnant women or their children’s welfare whilst using local strategies and resources. This will happen in conjunction with Obstetric, Midwifery and Addiction Services, alongside other External Agencies and Voluntary Organisations.

  I am passionate in supporting co-ordinated care, promoting therapeutic individualised care plans to guarantee high quality effective safeguarding processes are in place.  Thereby ensuring excellent care and compassion is offered to pregnant women and their families at all levels by using evidence based practice to offer appropriate interventions.

• Leanne Armstrong, Perinatal Mental Health Midwife

  

• Julie McKenna and Ita McCaughey, Community Midwives

  

• Katherine Martin, Midwifery Practice Education Facilitator

  Hi – my name is Katherine Martin and I am the Practice Education Facilitator for Midwifery in the SHSCT.  The main focus of my role is to ensure that our Trust is meeting the clinical aspect of the NMC Future Nurse, Future Midwife education standards (NMC, 2018) – in other words, students are learning what they need to learn in practice.  There is a useful document on the NMC website that gives you, as a service user, some great information about what these standards mean to you.  You can access it by using this link: my-future-my-midwife-leaflet.pdf (nmc.org.uk)

   

• Oonagh King, Bereavement Midwives

  As a Bereavement Support Midwive, I help and support families through the heartache and tragedy of pregnancy/ baby loss. I have worked in SHSCT for many years as midwives in various clinical settings and came into post in February 2019 and one of my many roles is to help ensure women and their partners receive high quality, individualised and excellent bereavement care following a miscarriage (from 11 weeks), stillbirth or neonatal death.

• Kate Maxwell Antenatal screening midwife

  HI- my name is Kate Maxwell, I have been qualified as a midwife for 14 years.  Prior to that my experience was as a gynae nurse for 5 years.

  My current role is as an Antenatal Screening Coordinator within the Southern Trust.  I have the responsibility for coordinating the infectious disease screening programme within our Trust.  This includes the management of the blood results for every woman whom has consented for screening for HIV, Hepatitis B, Syphilis and Rubella in pregnancy.  These tests look for possible health problems that could affect your health and the health of your baby.  There is a useful leaflet explaining the blood tests that are offered at your first antenatal visit which you as a service user can access in different languages via www.pha.site/antenatal-blood-tests

  Having these blood tests will help you make decisions about your care, both before and after birth, to help protect the health of your baby.  If there is a positive infection you may need to go on treatment to reduce the risk of mother to child transmission or your baby may need some treatment at birth.

  As a midwife I am passionate and feel privileged to work within the Southern Health and Social care midwifery and obstetric teams to deliver a high standard of individualised and evidence based maternity care for women and their families in our locality.

• Edel Magee, Community Midwife Lead for Newry and Mourne

  I have worked as a Midwife for over 27 years I have worked in all areas of maternity care. I thoroughly enjoy my job being an advocate for the women, educating and empowering them to make the right choices regarding their pregnancy, labour and during the post-natal period. Being a part of their journey is so rewarding and worthwhile.

  The last 1.5 years I have worked as the Community Midwife Team leader, it’s a managerial role I love the challenges it brings, I love being a part of a team , working with students and bringing the best out of my team , supporting them when needed and ensuring they are delivering the highest standard of safe , evidence based care to the women , babies and families that they are involved with.

  I am available Mon – Fri 9-5pm if you need any advice or support. Newry.Midwives@southerntrust.hscni.net

• Janet Cooke, Antenatal and Gynae Outpatients

  I started work as an adult nurse over 20 years ago in Craigavon Area Hospital and gained lots of experience and confidence in my abilities over these years. I always wanted to be a midwife and applied for a number of years before being accepted onto the course in Queens.  Once I completed the BSc Hons in Midwifery,  I rotated through all the areas of maternity care and predominately worked in the induction bay, which I found very rewarding . After I had my first child I rotated into the ANGOPD and undertook the ultrasound scanning module in Queens . I spent the next few years performing booking scans for many women and their partners which I really enjoyed .

  For the last eight years I have been the sister in Antenatal and Gynae Outpatients Department . This includes the Day obstetric unit , Fertility clinic and colposcopy/outpatient hysteroscopy clinics . It is a rewarding role with many challenges and the system is ever changing and evolving . We strive to make improvements in all areas of Antenatal and Gynae care and welcome feedback to help us to improve this .

  As I reach eight years as manager of this department, I have many lovely memories or ladies who have passed through the care in our department . I have over 20 years’ service in the Trust and hope to have many more servicing our community .

  Maternity care for me is has to be women centred and family based . It is one of the most important times in any young families life and it has been a pleasure to be involved with so many families over the years.