Welcome to my blog!

Hi, my name is Christine Griffiths and I am a midwife. I have worked as a midwife for over 25 years in many settings -both community and hospital based. I have worked in midwifery management as well as practice but until last year had not worked in formal midwifery education. Since the beginning of 2010 I have been employed as a Student Practice Facilitator (SPF) and Lecturer within the School of Midwifery at Otago Polytechnic (OP), while remaining based at my home in Whitby, just north of Wellington. In addition I continue to have a small caseload of women for whom I am Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) for their pregnancy, birth and postnatal period.

I am responsible (with four other North Island SPFs/Lecturers) for a group of first and second year midwifery students in the lower North Island who are undertaking their Bachelor of Midwifery degree through Otago Polytechnic through a blended model of programme delivery. The midwifery degree programme is delivered via a combination of online tutorials (elluminate sessions), block intensive weeks, face to face meetings with their nominated SPF weekly, self directed learning and clinical placements within hospital facilities and with LMC midwives. The advantages of this is that students wishing to undertake their midwifery degree can do so without moving their families to Dunedin for three years. They also get to know and become known in the community they reside in and will ideally practice midwifery in their home areas once they are qualified. It is a wonderful degree programme and I enjoy being part of it very much. In addition to this I have responsibilities in several other papers both at undergraduate and post graduate levels.

I really love my job and am extremely happy working for the School of Midwifery at OP. This has been the most challenging and at the same time the most rewarding job I have ever had in my midwifery career. The learning curve has been huge, but it has at the same time been exilerating!

I have a MA in Midwifery through Massey University in Palmerston North. My thesis explored the care processes used by self employed midwives in their work with women living in areas of high deprivation. It is 9 years since I graduated now but one of my aims for 2011 is that my thesis comes off the shelf, gets dusted down and worked on and updated. One of my dreams is to write a paper based on the findings of my thesis and current evidence and have it incorporated into either the undergraduate or postgraduate midwifery programme.

I am also enrolled in the GCTLT through OP. Flexible Learning is my second to last paper for this qualification. I felt very motivated and inspired after attending the elluminate with Bronwyn and Roger earlier in the week, but more on that later...

Regards, Chris