Abigail Lacey - Practice Development Support Midwife 
I am the Preceptorship Lead Midwife and Clinical Skills Facilitator. My main role is to support the newly qualified midwives transition from student midwife to band 5 and then to band 6. I work within the education team and support the training for all staff groups within the Maternity team..
Amanda Doherty - Deputy Screening Co-ordinator 
My role is to support the Screening Co-ordinator in the provision of the Antenatal and Newborn screening programmes we offer to women, including screening for Down’s, Edward’s and Patau’s syndromes, haemaglobinopathies and fetal anomalies. It is a diverse role and my day to day duties include informing and advising women of their screening results and supporting them through any decisions on their care that may arise from these results. I work closely with the fetal medicine consultant here at Darent Valley Hospital and we also have a very good working relationship with the team at our tertiary unit at Medway FMU. I gain a great deal of job satisfaction from the opportunity to support women through what can potentially be a difficult or challenging time.
Ana Llorente - Clinical Support Worker to Specialist Midwives 
I am a Maternity Support Worker providing clinical assistance to the Infant Feeding, Parent Education and Diabetes specialist teams. An important part of my work is dedicated to supporting families clinically and providing feeding and general antenatal education. I also support the Infant Feeding midwife in running the service in accordance to Unicef’s Baby Friendly Initiative and providing staff training.
Caroline Jordan - Infant Feeding Specialist Midwife 
As the lead for infant feeding for Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, I am responsible for training staff so that they are able to support women and their families in their chosen mode of feeding. I have worked for the trust for 12 years and have led our Unicef Baby Friendly journey, which culminated in full accreditation in 2017.
I am passionate about supporting women and families through their parenting journeys. I and have undertaken additional training to become a lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and a Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA).
Hannah Marchant - Midwifery Screening Coordinator 
My role as the screening coordinator is to have a clinical oversight of the screening services we offer. I am responsible for ensuring we are compliant with national standards set by NHS England for optimum screening opportunities and timing. I support the multi-disciplinary team with how to deliver services, teaching and support.
The screening team are also responsible for delivering difficult/worrying results. This can include high chance results for Down’s, Edwards’ and Patau’s; fetal abnormality; sickle cell and thalassaemia; and infectious diseases. I work closely with the specialist midwife for infectious diseases in ensuring pathways are smooth and robust. We support a local fetal medicine clinic and have a fantastic working relationship with other fetal medicine units in the south east. I strive to deliver a safe service which supports women and their families through potentially anxious times.
I am also a part of the Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA) team.
Hannah Williamson - Digital Transformation Midwife
My role as Digital Transformation Midwife is to lead on how we use digital technology in our Maternity service and implement digital change that will support the way staff work and how patients receive care. I am the staff and patient’s digital technology advocate, voice and negotiator. I am passionate about safe yet efficient care and how digital technology can support this.
My role has many avenues from supporting staff to use current technology and improving upon their current digital skills, to assisting with the implementation of new digital projects such as the pilot of the Latchaid App, as well as leading on digitally focussed projects such as Patient Knows Best. The benefits of digitally enabled care to staff and service users cannot be overlooked; especially since the pandemic saw the use of digital technology allow care to continue in the NHS.
Jenny Hodgson - Maternity Clerical/Safeguarding Admin Lead 
I support the Safeguarding Lead Midwife In all administrative duties. Including Collecting and collating data, producing statistics for reports, providing Agenda’s for the monthly Maternity Safeguarding & Mental Health Hub, which is attended by multiple external agencies, I also minute take for the hub and share important information to the relevant professionals. I enjoy my role and value being part of such a lovely team.
Kate Knightly-Jones - Mental Health Midwife
I am a midwife with a specialist interest in supporting women with their mental health. Every woman goes on a journey to become a mother and mental health plays a role for everyone. I provide a link between mental health services and pregnancy. I am available to give advice on mental health medications in pregnancy, breastfeeding whilst on medication and bonding with baby. I work closely with our lead consultant obstetrician Mark Waterstone to get the best outcome for you and your family. I love seeing the journey women go on.
Lesley Wright - Safeguarding Lead Midwife 
Maddy Hanson - Maternity Safeguarding Liason Midwife
I am the maternity safeguarding liaison midwife, specialising in substance misuse. I work supporting the Lead Midwife for safeguarding and the Perinatal Mental Health Midwife.
Mel Hawkins - Practice Development Midwife 
My role as Practice Development Midwife is multi-faceted. I am responsible for all mandatory multi-disciplinary education including booking, planning and facilitating all relevant study days. These are attended by all midwifery, obstetric and anaesthetic staff. Alongside my PDM support midwife Abigail Lacey I support the band 5 midwives and assist them through their preceptorship programme. Together we run drop-in sessions, facilitate specific training and give assistance/guidance in practice.
I am the Clinical Practice Facilitator, which means I work collaboratively with the University of Greenwich giving support to all student midwives in placement areas.
I am also the RCM learning representative, which enables me to utilise available resources in order to provide further ad-hoc training & steer midwives into different areas of learning.
Michelle Lyon - Birth Options & Maternal Wellbeing Midwife/PMA 
My role as Birth Options & Maternal Wellbeing Midwife is to provide women with relevant, unbiased information regarding their options for giving birth. This is primarily for women who have had previous caesarean birth but we offer appointments to all women who require support around their options for how they wish to birth their baby. The team run two clinics a week, and I facilitate a group session for women in advanced pregnancy who have had a caesarean birth. This supports their decision making regarding birth in their current pregnancy. I also co-ordinate the Reflection & Resolution team which provides a debrief service for women to discuss their birth experience.
I am a qualified Birth Trauma Resolution Therapy practitioner and a qualified Hypnobirthing Practitioner and these skills enable me to provide continued support throughout the antenatal and postnatal period. I strongly believe that providing women with evidence bases, non-biased information and individualised care allows women to make informed decisions regarding their care. This helps to improve maternal mental health, satisfaction and safety for women and their families and provides safe and best care.
I am also part of the Professional Midwifery Advocate Team (PMA).
Paul Seymour - Clinical Systems Manager (Maternity) 
You might be wondering what IT and Maternity have in common? Well… more than you might think!
We see some 500 women each and every month who will either be starting their journey towards motherhood or welcoming a precious new life into the world. Each of these ladies will have had important tests, measurements and pregnancy related data collected that needs to be readily available to those people who might need to ensure we all stay safe and informed.
From the very beginning to the end of this journey we will be reliant on up to date, accurate information and that is where our Clinical IT systems play a very vital part.
At the hospital and in the community we have numerous ‘IT’ systems that we use to store test results, pregnancy details, medical information, ultrasound scans and much more.
Without these systems the amount of information that we need to run our services would be simply overwhelming as we rely on the data that we capture at various points during and throughout a pregnancy to manage the 5000 or so babies that we deliver each and every year.
Rajeeni Jugoo- Antenatal Screening Failsafe Clerk
Ruth Sharpe - Birth Options Midwife 
I offer information, support and choice for women who have had a previous caesarean section. As a member of the hospital debriefing team I also offer debriefing consultations to women and their families who may have had a difficult birth experience and want to explore what happened and the reasons why.
Sadie Hafford - Diabetes and Infectious Diseases Lead Midwife
As both the lead for diabetes and Infectious diseases I have a very varied role and love following the journeys that you have.
The team run our clinics on Fridays working with both our Endocrine team and the Obstetric team offering a ‘one stop shop’ for those women who are a pre-existing diabetic and those who have Gestational diabetes requiring medication. The team contact all our newly diagnosed gestational diabetics and give information to maintain a safe delivery for both you and baby. The service also offers assistance with harvesting colostrum before the baby is born to for reduce the chance of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) in the baby.
Within my role as Infectious disease midwife I have forged close links with both the women and genito-urinary clinic (GUM) at Gravesend hospital. This link offers seamless care of all women and families by enabling them you to gain confidence with your own care and delivery.
I am also part of the Professional Midwifery Advocate team.
Sarah Kruger - Women's Experience and Parent Education Lead Midwife 
As the Women’s Experience Midwife, I champion the voice of the service user. My role is to influence the development of a safe and high standard of maternity care provision by supporting and co-ordinating women’s experiences of maternity care. I am responsible for obtaining feedback, analysing public engagement and reporting on feedback with relevant action plans for change. I do this in conjunction with promoting public and maternal health and wellbeing, in line with our local and national maternity agenda.
I am passionate about antenatal education and I lead our Programme of Parent Education in order to enable women and their partners to clarify their own needs and wishes for a more personalised and positive birthing experience. I am also a Hypnobirth Midwife Practioner and part of the birth reflection and resolution team.
Sharon Burke - Maternity Workforce Transformation Lead Midwife 
I work closely with the Practice Development team, along with senior midwifery leaders to ensure an effective delivery of the DGT Maternity Department’s Workforce Transformation strategy.
In my role I improve retention, specifically for midwives in early or later career stages through;
· Support international midwifery recruitment;
· Support wellbeing initiatives;
· Implement a robust rolling recruitment programme;
· Investigate opportunities for Return to Practice Midwives;
· Monitor and report on progress against the departmental workforce strategy.
Through the effective use of internal and external communication channels, I ensure that all stakeholders are aware of and engaged in the developments.
I work as part of the Senior Midwifery Team, working closely with colleagues from the Resourcing, Recruitment and Retention Team.
Sharon Hurst - Specialist Bereavement Midwife 
As the Specialist Bereavement Midwife, I provide sensitive holistic care to parents and their families following the death of a baby either during pregnancy or soon after birth.
I also offer ‘The Grief Recovery Programme’ to all our bereaved families; an eight-week programme which not only provides tools the help recover from loss but also allows them to meet with others who have had a similar experience.
Tamara Cumberbatch - Maternity Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead Midwife 
As the Maternity Equality Diversity and Inclusion Midwife (MEDI), my role is to address health inequalities and improve service user experiences and outcomes for specific identified groups within maternity. I work closely with our Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP), the Women’s Experience Lead Midwife, service users, and the MEDI group (consisting of various members of the multidisciplinary team) in order to address these inequalities, and to design and evaluate our services.