Rachel was awarded the second prize in the British Journal of Midwifery Practice Awards 2011 in the Community Midwife category. The Community Midwife of the Year Award aims to highlight the work of Community Midwives who provide outstanding maternity care for women in a community setting. The award recognises the work of a Community Midwife who has shown an unfailing commitment to ensuring women receive the best antenatal and postnatal care.

Rachel Smith has worked as a community midwife in Banbury for 15 years – a period in which she has seen some major changes to the service. When the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust was approached by the new Banbury Health Centre and asked to provide a midwife clinic, her positive approach made her the ideal candidate to run the service. The service was initially provided as a walk in centre with women being seen who were not registered at the practice. As the workload at the centre was unpredictable, both in the number of women accessing the service and their histories, it needed someone with Rachel's ability to remain calm and with the ability to cope with the unexpected.

Through this new service, the Trust hoped to be able to reach vulnerable women who might otherwise not access the antenatal and postnatal maternity care. Many women have now benefited from this clinic's service.

All women who visit the clinic are given the initial care they need, are referred to the appropriate agencies and can come back for continuing care if they choose. This can be attributed to Rachel's no nonsense common-sense approach together with her ability to communicate to all women in a non-judgemental manner. This ensures that the woman's contact with the maternity services is a positive experience thus ensuring continuing engagement with the service.

The case load has increased and after a year the clinic was extended to cope with the demand. Whilst building up this service Rachel has continued with her regular clinics, at Sibford, Shennington and Hightown surgeries.

Sylvia Ashton, Clinical Midwifery Manager who nominated Rachel said: "Rachel is the perfect role model for any community midwife. She is respected by her peers and colleagues who turn to her for advice and guidance. Rachel has the enthusiasm and drive to make things happen and is an asset to our service. I think Rachel deserves this award which is why I nominated her."

Bev Bennett, Acting Head of Midwifery at the ORH said: "I fully support Rachel's nomination for this award. Whilst Rachel would say that she is 'just doing her job' we, her colleagues and the families she cares for – recognise that what she does is much more than that. Rachel has sound clinical skills and is an excellent communicator to all people on all levels. The rest of her colleagues regularly turn to her for support and advice, which is given willingly – even when she is not on duty.

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