Elaine Wilkins, Maternity Support Worker, Princess Royal University Hospital

Elaine Wilkins is a student Maternity Support Worker at the Princess Royal University Hospital, Kent. She started as a HCA, to gain an insight into life as a midwife, as this had been a long-time ambition of hers. When Elaine left college, she worked as a PA in various London organisations until she had her 4 children and 2 step-children. When finances dictated Elaine should return to work, she decided it had to be something really worthy of taking her away from the children, and vowed she would never work in an office again. Thus she began to consider her life-time ambition of becoming a midwife.

She thought the best way for her to get an insight into if she would like the job, or even be able to do the job, would be to become a healthcare assistant. Elaine began in 2006, and has never looked back. Her favourite part of my job is supporting women to breastfeed, especially when they have experienced challenging times, as she enjoys putting to good use the breastfeeding counselor training she received through the National Childbirth Trust.

Although Elaine has not been brave enough to embark upon midwifery training, she has been very privileged to be selected to be a student on the pilot Foundation Degree Course run by South Bank University, and has just completed her first year, ready to commence the final year in 2010/2011.