New competition to capture working in maternity services
By Colin Beesley on 17 June 2022 Midwifery Midwives RCM Annual Conference Maternity Services Maternity Safety
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has launched a new photography competition for its members to demonstrate a true picture of working in maternity services in the UK, focussing on the good and reason why members love the profession. Midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs) are being asked to capture images that best encapsulate the theme of ‘recover, reflect, renew’, with the winner being voted for by delegates at the RCM’s conference, which shares the same title, in October.
Black and white or colour, portrait or landscape, RCM members are being asked to email their images to the RCM by Monday 25 July. Submissions will be judged by RCM President Rebeccah Davies, Chair of the RCM Board Giuseppe Labriola and Gill Walton, the RCM’s chief executive and general secretary. The top 20 will be shortlisted and displayed at the RCM’s conference in Newport on 4 and 5 October. Delegates will then vote for their favourite, with the prizes presented to the winners on the final day of conference.
Gill Walton said: “After the past few years, all of us need to recover, reflect, and renew – and nowhere is that more true than in maternity services. Throughout the pandemic and beyond, midwives and maternity support workers have been working so hard to keep services going, often faced with staffing shortages which add to their own workloads. But even during these tough times, I know how resilient maternity staff are, how they pull together and so often hold each other up. The theme of recover, reflect, renew is so apt for midwives and MSWs, as it’s what they do on a daily basis. I want the world to see this, to see what I see when I go to maternity units.”
As well as being displayed at RCM Conference, the shortlisted images will also have a home at the RCM’s London headquarters.
Download this guidance, which includes a handful of examples of what the judges are looking for.
Entries must be sent to [email protected] by Monday 25 July.
Image size should be around 3.5MB, 300dpi and around the 5000 pixel mark for quality. We will accept candid and profile shots.
If taking pictures of colleagues, women and families, please ensure you get their consent to be photographed and permission for the pictures to be used in the competition.