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Glen Gbayagula, a midwife at from the Royal Free, has been named midwife of the year for the London region after he was nominated by a grateful new mum.  Tammy Cowan put Glen forward for the award. She said; “Glen was fantastic. He put me and my baby Kyan at ease immediately. He made us laugh and provided us with great advice. I would love to see his dedication rewarded as an example of the excellent jobs our male midwives are doing.”
Glen was named ‘Mamas & Papas Midwife of the Year 2005 for the London Region’ at an awards ceremony in West Yorkshire last week (14 September). He remembers meeting Tammy on the post-natal ward: “She was quite inexperienced and felt that she was doing everything wrong.” He said. “I was able to have a chat with her and help her to feel more in control. “I feel very happy to have got this award but it is really about the support I get from the rest of the team, many of whom were my mentors while I was training.” Glen, who originally comes from Sierra Leone, is one of only 94 male midwives in the UK. He has been working at the Royal Free since he qualified as a nurse in 2002. He joined Middlesex University 18 months later and trained to be a midwife, qualifying in February this year. “Midwifery is not a man’s thing where I come from and I was a bit worried about whether women would accept me as a midwife. However they see who is good at their job and who wants to help them and I have not had any negative responses. “I enjoy being able to share experiences with women through their pregnancy,” added Glen who has two children of his own – neither of whom he saw born. “It was the best decision I ever made to become a midwife, I feel very lucky to have got this award and will try to live up to it.”
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