University of Limerick midwife student delivers award

A STUDENT at the University of Limerick (UL) debated her way to victory at this year’s Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland’s (NMBI) National Student Midwife Debate.

The event saw six student midwives, from each of the six education bodies that offer midwifery, compete in two teams to debate for or against a motion.

Khayla Timothy, from Co Galway, who is studying midwifery at University of Limerick won the prize for best speaker at the debate.

This year’s motion was: This house believes that the diminishing ‘normal birth’ rate is a threat to the midwifery profession.

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President of NMBI, Essene Cassidy, said: “This annual debate gives students an excellent opportunity to broaden their knowledge and understanding of the profession and inspire new thinking around topics relating to midwifery.

“Midwives play an instrumental role in supporting monitoring and encouraging women and their families at all stages of a woman’s pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatal period.

“Debating skills are essential to advocating for the best care at all these stages,” Ms Cassidy said.

It wasn’t an easy victory for Khayla as she was pitted against students from Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, Dundalk Institute of Technology, University College Dublin and University of Galway.

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“The speakers were a credit to their team and education bodies... I would particularly like to congratulate the winning student, Khayla Timothy, who passionately argued against the motion,” Ms Cassidy said.

This year’s judging panel included Denise Lawler, Chair of the Midwives Committee, NMBI; Sarah Benson, CEO of Women’s Aid Ireland and Mary Higgins, retired midwife and former Board Member International Confederation of Midwives.

Midwifery Advisor to the World Health Organization Fran McConville joined the event via video stream to thank the debaters for their robust arguments.