An interview with Dr Florence Wilcock

In this episode we have with us Dr Florence Wilcock , an obstetrician who has been working in NHS maternity services for more than 25 years. Florence has a special interest in improving women’s experience of maternity care & has been a consultant in London since 2007 where she is currently the lead obstetrician for Perinatal mental health as well as working with the Birth Options team, and homebirth team.
 As a member of the London Maternity Clinical Network Florence was responsible for the innovative Maternity ‘Whose Shoes’ co production workshops piloted across London in 2014. As a result she co-founded #MatExp with Gill Phillips; a grassroots movement of women, families and staff caring for them & working together to improve maternity services, and is also a clinical representative on the Royal College of Obs & Gyn women’s network. 
Florence hosts the podcast TheObsPod. Where she works towards demystifying obstetrics and help both maternity staff and families. 
Today we talk about how midwives and obstetricians can work more collaboratively in the hospital system. 
We discuss safety, the current discussions on physiological birth as radical thinking and the thoughts of some who propose inductions for everyone! 
Florence talks us through her Lithotomy challenge & the simple power of nurturing touch. She clearly points out how this education tool can spark our knowledge of how disempowering this can be for a woman. 
And we discuss how the small changes, or what is often known as the 'warm and fluffies' for both obstetrician and midwife, can make a significant difference for the woman physiologically as well as emotionally. 
And Florence leaves us with her zesty "nuggets" for us all to work in a space that benefits and protects women, midwives and obstetricians. 

Links:
Dr Florence Wilcock:
The Obs Pod podcast 
Twitter @FWMaternity and @TheObsPod Instagram @TheObsPod 
"Whose shoes" #matexp with Gill Phillips 

Dr Rachel Reed:
https://rachel-reed.website/
@midwifethinking