Parting the cloud s: a vision of supervision of midwifery

This paper describes a response to the evidence that midwives often have a limited view of the roles and responsibilities of the supervisor of midwives (SoM) and SoM team. Using a creative approach (word clouds) and midwife/SoM stories, the importance of relationships which are supportive of midwives, women and normality is highlighted. Emotional intelligence and interprofessional communication are also shown to be key aspects of the role. Supervision has an important role to play in supporting midwives' development, promoting normality and generally protecting midwives and the public. Reflection using creative media can contribute to this.