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Niamh Howard-Jones appointed Candidate Advanced Midwife Practitioner - Early Pregnancy Loss/Miscarriage Services at CUMH
Niamh Howard-Jones was recently appointed Candidate Advanced Midwife Practitioner - Early Pregnancy Loss/Miscarriage Services at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH). This new role – currently one of several pilot roles across the country, funded by the National Women and Infants Health Programme – involves providing specialised care and support to women and their partners during and after early pregnancy loss.
In her role, Niamh is responsible for following up all cases of first trimester miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. This involves ensuring that anyone who has a first miscarriage is sign-posted to information (including booklets on first trimester miscarriage and recurrent miscarriage) and support, at the time and that they also receive a follow-up phone call, with some also attending a clinic with Niamh. She will also follow up test results and referrals. This is a key aspect of the graded model of care recommended for miscarriage and recurrent miscarriage, arising from the RE:CURRENT Project, which was led by Professor Keelin O’Donoghue and team within the Pregnancy Loss Research Group.
Niamh will also run dedicated clinics to review results and investigations, offering compassionate care and guidance while ensuring individualised, evidence-based support. She will work closely with the multidisciplinary team to ensure continuity of care and to enhance communication for women experiencing pregnancy loss in the first trimester. Her role involves working with staff across the hospital, including the Early Pregnancy Unit, emergency room, wards, clinics, theatres, pathology/laboratory and bereavement teams (including Clinical Midwife Specialists in Bereavement and Loss). She also has responsibility for recording and monitoring numbers of miscarriage within CUMH, as well as staff training.
Niamh recently completed her MSc in Loss and Bereavement, a two-year programme delivered by the Irish Hospice Foundation, in association with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). For her Master’s thesis, she examined the communication and management of pregnancy-related tissue in first trimester miscarriage within the 19 maternity units nationally to inform service improvements. Niamh has worked at CUMH since 2018. Prior to her appointment as Candidate Advanced Midwife Practitioner - Early Pregnancy Loss/Miscarriage Services, Niamh was a Clinical Midwife Specialist in Bereavement and Loss.
More information about Advanced Midwife Practitioners
Advanced midwife practitioners (AMPs) are educated to master’s degree level and have the required competencies to be senior decision makers. They can undertake and interpret the results of multiple different assessments and investigations to make a diagnosis, and plan and deliver care. As team leaders they can confidently and competently make ethical, evidence-based decisions and interventions and use appropriate therapies when faced with complexity and assess and manage the risk associated with these decisions. AMPs can prescribe and work with individuals to manage their medicines. Typically, they work independently but also as part of an inter- or multi-disciplinary team where they plan and provide skilled and competent care to meet a patient's health and social care needs. Involving or referring on to other members of the healthcare team as appropriate they can safely discharge a patient within their scope of practice. Registered Advanced Midwife Practitioners (RAMPs) work within an agreed scope of practice and meet established criteria set by Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) to register as a RAMP.