Kayleigh started working at MSI UK in 2016, and after a brief hiatus to qualify as a registered midwife and work for the NHS, she has progressed quickly through the organisation. She currently works as a Practice Development and Advocacy Midwife. She spoke with us about her career journey and progression at MSI UK, her passion for helping others do the same, and viewing abortion as essential healthcare.
“I hope, because I’ve done so many different roles and progressed in different ways, this can be an example of the options that people have for progressing within MSI UK.”
How and why did you start working for MSI UK?
“I was really passionate about women’s health, and I knew I wanted to become a midwife”.
Before I was a qualified midwife, I joined MSI UK back in 2016, as a Health Advisor. In this role, I did consultations with clients over the phone and fitted the job around my university course. I was passionate about women’s health, and I knew I wanted to become a midwife, so I was also doing a foundation year at the time. I loved this job: it was a really nice team, and I enjoyed doing consultations.
When I was doing my maternity training whilst still at university, I looked after two different women for abortions, and both stories have stuck with me. One had an abortion at a higher gestation, and the other had an abortion due to foetal anomalies. They were two very different experiences, but each just as important as the other.
Following my foundation year, I was accepted onto a Midwifery course! Once I’d graduated, I did about three years working in the NHS before I decided I needed a change. I knew that MSI employed nurses and midwives as I’d worked alongside them in my role as a Health Advisor. I saw that there was a vacancy at One Call (our national call centre) for a Clinical Practitioner, and it sounded perfect. I decided to interview. It was so nice to go back to One Call, seeing familiar faces and be in the building again.
“I was given the time and space to deliver quality client care, every day.”
My manager at the time, Hannah, rang me and said I’d been offered the job! I was so excited. Once in role, I felt as though I could finally breathe, and I had really found my place. I was given the time and space to deliver quality client care, every day. I joined the aftercare team, who work 24/7 to offer clients support and advice during and after treatment, over the phone. I could also deliver on employee experience, which is something I’ve always been passionate about. I launched a newsletter for the team and made posters for staff where there were some potential knowledge gaps.
How has your role progressed since you’ve returned to MSI UK?
Whilst I was working as a Clinical Practitioner, the role came up for CTL (Clinical Team Lead), and I applied. I didn’t get it the first time, but I’m such a believer in everything happening at the right time. My manager, who’s been so supportive of my whole career, put me on a course and I was also offered to do a Master’s module with MSI. I got so much knowledge and the opportunity for networking through both. Then, when the time came, I applied to the role again and was successful! Within my CTL role, I grew so much. Some points were tough. The team grew very quickly because the demand for aftercare support was high.
“I truly feel like I’ve stepped into the role that was waiting for me.”
My passion has always been training and development, so when the Practice Development and Advocacy Midwife role came up, I just had to go for it! I truly feel like I’ve stepped into the role that was waiting for me. In a way, it’s the small extra bits I was delivering on before with employee experience, but on a much larger scale.
What does your day-to-day role look like now?
My days can be so varied. One day I could be doing clinical supervision all day, which means liaising with colleagues across the country. I can supervise pretty much anyone that is a registered nurse or midwife – this is from preceptees (new graduates) right up to advanced. For supervision sessions, we tend to really focus in on staff wellbeing. This includes reflecting on how they are, how things are going, if there’s anything we can help them with.
“We may guide someone on the right way to support themselves, help them to gain a new perspective, and just make them aware of their options.”
I run some supervision sessions one-on-one because I think it’s really important to have that safe space. We’re also trialling group supervision sessions for new starters, and then we run the same session again around three to six months later. This allows us to touch base and see how the first few months of their time at MSI have gone. We may guide someone on the right way to support themselves, help them to gain a new perspective, and just make them aware of their options. I hope, because I’ve done so many different roles and progressed in different ways, this can be an example of the options that people have for progressing within MSI UK.
“There are so many amazing staff members in MSI UK, who have been in their roles for a long time and have so much advice and experience”.
Another big part of my role is writing the iLearn modules (iLearn is our online training resource at MSI UK). For example, I’ve just written a new module about the foetal anomaly pathway, informed by great feedback we had from colleagues. Clinical guidelines can change rapidly, so it’s important training is up-to-date.
To sum it up, my role is lots of travel and lots of networking! I absolutely love meeting people, finding out what they do and seeing how we all can work together. There are so many amazing staff members in MSI UK, who have been in their roles for a long time and have so much advice and experience.
If you had to pick a favourite part of your role, what would it be?
“I like to help people understand just how good they are and be able to hype them up!”
I honestly think that it’s my colleagues. Hearing people’s stories, supporting them, getting to know them, what makes them tick. I like to help people understand just how good they are and be able to hype them up! I had a meeting with someone last week, and they were telling me how excited they were with a project they were doing about contraception. As they spoke, you could just see their face light up and how passionate they were about it. It’s so amazing I get to be a part of that, and I can suggest: Have you thought about this role? Have you heard of this course?
I enjoy dropping someone a message after we’ve had a session, a few weeks later, and asking them how they’ve been getting on. You can tell how much it means when you check in. Everything we do is for the client – by supporting our nurses and midwives, that gives a better experience to clients as well.
“It makes it easier to work with everyone when you know them on a deeper level and know how to communicate best with each other.”
Something else that’s valuable here are the Practice Development or supervision hours (time when colleagues can speak with Advanced Practice Development Leads or Practice Development & Advocacy Midwives). When they come into the clinics, everyone is happy to see them. You know that they’re there to offer their advice, support, and get the best out of you. It’s amazing that they can make such a difference to people.
Work culture is also so important. The simple things keep it fun – for example, last year, I ran the One Call version of the Traitors (I was Claudia!). Everyone got so into it! Maintaining these work relationships are so important. It makes it easier to work with everyone when you know them on a deeper level and know how to communicate best with each other.
What made you want to have a career in abortion care?
Working in abortion care was a no-brainer for me. I feel so passionately about women’s health. Abortion is healthcare. It’s no different from someone that wants to continue their pregnancy and accesses support from midwives.
Midwives are so integral to abortion care. Midwife literally means ‘with woman’. Our remit is even extended in this role, because we offer support to everyone including clients having vasectomies or accessing contraception.
Have you faced any misconceptions about the work that you do?
“I’m continuously learning – we all are.”
I do get questions on my work, and a lot of the time this is just because there’s a lack of knowledge about abortion care. Also, when I was training as a midwife, abortion wasn’t covered at all – a lot of my initial knowledge came from just having previously worked at MSI. A lot of the questions I get come from a place of wanting to understand, wanting to know more, and people perhaps think I’m an expert, but I’m continuously learning – we all are. I feel very lucky that I’ve always been brought up to be a strong woman and have strength in my own views. For example, my grandad and I sometimes have different views on politics, but I always remind him that he brought me up to have my own mind and speak up for what I think is right.
What do you think the main issues affecting abortion care are at the moment?
“I cannot believe that abortion is still criminalised here, and many people are unaware of this.”
I will always advocate for women and keep up with what is going on surrounding abortion in politics and the media. Yes, some see us as ‘lucky’ to have access to abortion in the UK, but also, this should be normal. We are behind in some ways, too. I cannot believe that abortion is still criminalised here, and many people are unaware of this. When I think that it is still governed by a law written in 1967, the same year my mum was born, and not much has changed in her whole lifetime, it baffles me.
Once, when I was working in One Call, I spoke to a woman whilst I was on night shift, the day after Roe v Wade was overturned. She had had a medical abortion, which had failed, and rung her provider, who had been legally shut down following the ruling. They couldn’t help her unless she drove to another state. She rung us, in the UK, in a panic, just asking what she could do, ringing whoever she could, to see if they could help. That really hit home for me then the stark differences between countries. She told me she’d have to drive up to 14 hours to another state for a follow-up to a treatment she’d been given legally that had overnight become illegal. I remember thinking that it could have been me, could have been any of us.
I thought what happened in America would never happen, that because it was in law it would be protected forever. I think we forget, for example, that we’ve had telemedicine (at-home abortion)* for such a short amount of time. It’s terrifying to think that things could be taken away from us so easily. It is therefore so important that we keep our provision as robust as possible. It is so vital to clients and such a lifeline for so many people.
Do you have anything else that you would like to share about your time at MSI?
“I’ve been so well supported, and I always feel I could reach out to anyone if I needed to.”
I am so grateful to everyone that’s ever pushed me and believed in me at MSI, because you’re only as good as the people that support you. It’s never easy progressing. I’ve been so well supported, and I always feel I could reach out to anyone if I needed to. My managers have always been the first to suggest pathways for progression and development to me, and now I feel so lucky to now be able to do that for lots of people in my new role.
*At-home abortion pills (or “abortion telemedicine”) is when eligible clients take both pills for medical abortion up to 9 weeks and 6 days in their own homes, without attending a clinic. Telemedicine was brought in to improve access to abortion care during the COVID-19 pandemic and made a permanent measure by the UK government in March 2022.
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