ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the various roles that the midwife plays during her working day and how she might take on a specialist role in which one or more of the pieces of patchwork have dominance. There are some midwifery roles that have a specific public health remit and cover a wide range of issues, including the support of flu vaccination programmes, reducing maternal obesity, driving smoking cessation initiatives and working with infant feeding teams. A further role that is being taken on by some clinical midwives is that of midwife ultrasonographer. For a midwifery leader, at whatever level, maintaining credibility is essential. Education is part of the midwife’s role wherever she works. A midwife can be involved in research at a range of levels. It starts during her pre-registration midwifery programme, when the student midwife is undertaking reviews of the research on a chosen topic and learning how to find and critique the published evidence.
