National Maternity Support Foundation

	National Maternity Support Foundation
	In Loving Memory Of Jake Canter

About/Patrons

About/Patrons

NMSF Objectives

The NMSF has been founded by Jake's parents, Rachel & Andrew Canter and has been granted charity status by the Charity Commission (Charity registration number 1118833)

Picture: Rachel & Andrew Canter on Jake's memorial bench

The objects stated in the Declaration of Trust are:-

1. To preserve and protect the health of pregnant women and their babies by assisting in the provision of services or such other support not normally provided by statutory authorities as the trustees may from time to time determine.

2. To assist in the research into stillbirth and neonatal death for the public benefit.

These translate into our four key objectives as follows:-

1. Campaign to help keep maternity services available, accessible, safe and well resourced

2. Ensure that prospective parents have all the information needed to make informed decisions

3. Being a resource for others to obtain information and support

4. Support and promote, in partnership with other organisations, further research into stillbirth and neonatal death

Patrons to the Charity

Professor Cathy Warwick CBE (Lead Patron)

Cathy Warwick CBE is General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). She has been a midwife for over thirty years and brings a wealth of hands-on experience, knowledge and top level leadership to the College. She has held a number of senior posts in midwifery education and in the NHS managing midwifery and nursing services. Prior to joining the RCM she was Director of Midwifery and General Manager for Women & Children’s Services at King College Hospital in London. She has an MSc in Social Policy, an Advanced Diploma in Midwifery (ADM) and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education of Adults.

Her work has led to invitations to sit on many national maternity policy committees, and she has been Chair of the Midwifery Committee at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and Chair of the maternity working group contributing to the Darzi report, Healthcare for London.

Cathy has also written and published widely on midwifery issues and lectures and speaks nationally and internationally. She was awarded a visiting professorship by King’s College, London in 2004. She received a CBE for Services to Healthcare in 2006, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from St George’s and Kingston University, London in 2007.

Dr. Dame Karlene Davis DBE, Hon DSc, MA, BEd, HONS, RN, RM, MTD

Dame Karlene Davis DBE has recently retired from her position as General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives having been in the post since 1997. During this time she provided leadership and direction in influencing significant changes in the maternity services provision and the evolving role of the midwife in response to women’s choice, inequalities in health and social exclusion.

She has agreed to continue as a patron offering invaluable advice on the issues surrounding maternity services. We share her aim to see midwives recognised and rewarded for the pivotal role which they play in working with women to achieve optimum maternity services provision and the enhancement of the wider public health.

Grant Shapps, Shadow Housing Minister & Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield

Grant was elected as MP for Welwyn Hatfield at the 2001 General Election. Running an energetic and locally focused campaign, Grant concentrated his efforts on 'quality of life' issues. He quickly became a highly visible local candidate, which produced an unexpectedly high swing to the Conservatives in this seat. He produced one of the best Conservative swings of the election, slashing Labour's majority from 5,595 to just 1,196. He was reselected as the Parliamentary Spokesman for Welwyn Hatfield in June 2002. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in May 2005. He is now a key member of the Shadow Cabinet in his role of Shadow Housing Minister.

Mr Rami K Atalla MB, ChB, MRCOG

Mr. Rami Atalla is a consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologists at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, and his excellent reputation extends beyond Hertfordshire. Rami has special clinical interests in recurrent miscarriages, pregnancy loses and medical complications in pregnancy. He has several researches and publications and is a referee for several medical journals. He was qualified from medical school in 1987 and became a Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists in 1994 and then a Fellow in 2007.

Rami delivered both of our precious girls, Ruby and Mia at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Welwyn Garden City and we are proud to have him as a patron.

Jo Watt, Leading Community Midwife & Infant Feed Co-ordinator

Jo has worked as a Midwife for over 15 years, with experience supporting mothers both in hospital and in the community. More recently she has focused on providing support for breastfeeding mothers through working as a counsellor with the NCT, and in her current role as Infant Feeding Co-ordinator for the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Welwyn Garden City. She has recently moved to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge.

Why the Dragonfly logo?

We are often asked about why we chose a dragonfly as our logo.

In the early days following Jake’s death, we were told this wonderful story called Water bugs and dragonflies which was extremely poignant at the time and was read at Jake’s funeral and has always stayed with us, hence the charity logo.

Here is the story...

Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond.

They did notice that every once in a while one of their colony seemed to lose interest in going about with its friends. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily, it gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more.

‘Look’ said one of the water bugs to another. ‘One of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you suppose she is going?’

Up, up, up it went slowly. Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its friends waited and waited but it didn’t return.

‘That’s funny!’ said one water bug to another.

‘Wasn’t she happy here?’ asked a second water bug.

‘Where do you suppose she went?’ wondered a third.

No one had the answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its friends together. ‘I have an idea. The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why.’

‘We promise’, they said solemnly.

One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broken through the surface of the water, and fallen onto the broad green lily pad above.

When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn’t believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings. The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water. He had become a dragonfly.

Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere.

By and by, the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad to rest. Then it was that he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs! There they were, scurrying about, just as he had been doing some time before.

Then the dragonfly remembered the promise: ‘The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he or she went and why.’

Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly he hit the surface of the water and bounced away. Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water.

‘I can’t return!’ he said in dismay. ‘At least I tried, but I can’t keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my new body. I guess I’ll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too. Then they’ll understand what happened to me, and where I went.’

And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air.

Source Unknown