A little bit about me
Hi. I'm Sheryl Wright
and I began my career as a community midwife in 2004,
working in the rural and remote rural areas of the North
Waikato. In 2019 I moved to the northern Coromandel
where I have continued my passion
for providing rural primary midwifery care. I'm
the proud Mum of three (now adult) children and recently became a 'Grammy' for the
third time. Experiencing the joys (and demands!)
of pregnancy, birth and becoming a mum inspired
me to become a midwife and I enjoy supporting
women and families during this special time. After many years working with a
huge variety of women I still believe that the secret to achieving
a positive pregnancy and birthing experience is having the right attitude and
excellent support. In my spare time you’ll find me
spending time with my family, with my head in a book, out in the
garden or in the kitchen.
What area do you cover?
I cover
the upper and western side of the Coromandel peninsula
from Port Jackson to Manaia, including Colville, Kennedy
Bay &
Coromandel Town.
What services do you offer?
I
provide
friendly, supportive, flexible and professional care
including:
-
Free Pregnancy Testing
-
Antenatal care
including referrals for pregnancy testing (such as blood
tests & ultrasounds) and information / resources to help
you make a birth plan
-
Labour and birth care.
For women who are low-risk I can provide your labour and birth care
at the Thames Birthing Unit. The
option of a homebirth may also be available for women who
have previously had an uncomplicated birth however this
is subject to a second midwife being available to attend
which can be challenging with the current midwifery
shortages in this area.
For women who chose to birth outside of the region or
who need to birth at a hospital due to their more
complex needs in consultation with you I will refer you
to your choice of provider (e.g. another community
midwife living closer to your planned birth location or
if your needs are complex the specialist hospital team
at Waikato
Hospital) and will share you care with them.
-
Postnatal care in your
own home (or other location at your request) for one
month after the birth
-
Prescriptions relating
to the pregnancy and post-natal period, including some
contraception options
-
Referral to your
chosen Well Child / Tamariki Ora Provider / GP and
other health care practitioners, medical specialists and
support agencies if / when required
All midwifery
services are fully funded by the Ministry of Health (if
you are a NZ citizen, resident or have a work visa).
However during your pregnancy you may need to pay for
additional services such as ultrasound scans,
prescription part charges, childbirth education classes
and optional tests at private laboratories.
When will I see
you?
Regular antenatal and postnatal visits are a very important part
of your care. Most of my care is provided via
pre-booked weekday appointments, typically in your home or at my
clinic's in either Coromandel town (Wednesday afternoons) or
Amodeo Bay (as needed).
Your partner, family and support people
are always welcome and encouraged to be part of your
visits. The schedule of visits will be negotiated
with you but typically are recommended as follows:
booking visit (ideally by 10 weeks), 16 weeks, 24 weeks, 28
weeks, 31 weeks, 34 weeks, 36 weeks, 38 weeks, 39 weeks, 40
weeks and then as needed until your baby is born. Once your baby
is born I will visit you at your home (or other
location on request) for one month (minimum
of five home visits).
As you can
imagine the schedule of a remote rural midwife can be
unpredictable due to the travel distances, road
conditions and the difficulty of planning
appointments around urgent care. So
please
understand that at times I might be running
a little early or late, or may need to
reschedule your appointment, but I will make
every effort to keep you informed.
To assist with this
please ensure I can always contact you by
letting me know if you change your phone number
or address.
If you are not able to keep your appointment
please contact me as well in advance as possible and
I will do
my best to arrange a new date and time. Please
be aware that if you do not cancel and then miss
your appointment you may have to wait for my next
clinic day to be seen. I am also required to
document in your notes that you ‘did not attend’
a booked appointment as research shows that
non-attendance or under-attendance for pregnancy
care carries a substantially elevated risk of
severe adverse pregnancy outcomes which puts
you, your baby and me as a midwife at risk.
Unfortunately if appointments are frequently missed
I may need to
ask you to make other arrangements for your
on-going maternity care.
Sadly many
health professionals, including community
midwives, are increasingly being subjected to
incidents of intimidation, threatening and
abusive behaviour from both clients and support
people. While
stress, anxiety, grief and fear can cause people
to act in a way they wouldn’t normally there is
never an excuse for aggressive bad behaviour and
all forms of violence (both words and actions)
will not be tolerated. As a result depending on the level
of violence I may need to withdraw from your care and
/ or the Police may need to be involved.
Please also
ensure that when I visit you at home that your
home is a safe environment. This includes
making sure that all animals are tied up.
What happens
when you are off-call?
As
a community midwives I am available "on call" 24/7 for urgent
care. As I am sure you will
understand providing this care is demanding and
unpredictable so it's essential I get regular
time off "off-call" to rest and recuperate, not only
for my own health and wellbeing, but also to ensure
I can do my best for you and your baby when I am "on
call". Most of my time
“off-call” is planned in advance (e.g weekends
off, annual leave, attending the meetings / study days required
for my continuing education) but at times I
might need to go “off-call” unexpectedly, if for
example I am fatigued, am
unwell, or have a family commitment / emergency. At these times
I will be supported by a locum midwife (or other midwives from the region) to ensure
you are always offered the safest possible care. I understand it
can be disappointing when I am unavailable but I ask you to
please respect my own self-care and understand that I have a
life and family outside of work, just like you do.
What happens
if my pregnancy becomes complicated?
Community midwives specialise in
providing maternity care within the "primary”
(normal) scope of practice. Although I hope
everything goes smoothly for you a vital part of
my role is to recognise when aspects of your
pregnancy, labour, birth or postnatal care may
have deviated from normal. If this occurs, in
consultation with you, I will arrange a (free)
referral to the medical / obstetric team at the
hospital.
If you then require ongoing “secondary” care
(also known as “complex” or “high risk” care)
then after discussing this with you and the
hospital team it will be agreed who is best to
now provide your maternity care. For minor
concerns I am likely to remain your
main carer, working together with the hospital
team. However if your needs are more
complex then responsibility for your care will
likely be transferred to the hospital team.
I will then take on the role of
providing support and advocacy working closely
with the hospital team and / or remaining in
regular contact with yourself and the hospital team
in order to maintain your continuity of care.
All midwives are trained to provide emergency
care should this become necessary.
How do I
contact you?
New Clients
I look forward
to hearing from potential new clients.
Please
contact me to check on my availability and
we will then make an appointment to meet and discuss your
options. If phoning
please make contact during business hours (Monday to Friday: 9am -
5pm) on (022) 500 1310 or
send an email
Existing
Clients
Emergencies / Urgent Contacts:
If you need
to contact me URGENTLY (e.g. You are
concerned about you or your baby’s
well-being or you are in labour) please
always PHONE me on (022) 5001310
If your call is answered by
voicemail (which can happen if I am on
another call, am busy with another client or
am in
an area with poor mobile phone coverage)
please leave a message and I will
ring
you back as soon as I can.
If you do not receive a reply
within 5 – 10 minutes please try again as unfortunately the mobile
phone network in the rural Coromandel is
poor and subject to weather conditions.
-
It is very
important that you do not text with urgent
queries or medical questions as there are frequently long delays
in text messages being received,
medical advice can’t be given via text due
to the risk of misunderstandings and texts
can not be forwarded to my locums when I
am off-call.
-
If you are
feeling unwell and it is NOT pregnancy
related please see your doctor or after
hours medical clinic.
-
Please remember
it is your responsibility to ensure you are
always able to make contact. This means making
sure you always have enough credit on your phone
to make calls.
Non-Urgent Contacts: (e.g. change
of appointments, non-urgent questions).
Please restrict all non-urgent contacts to within
business hours e.g. Monday to Friday: 9am -
5pm.