King’s midwife part of award-winning team

12 February 2026 - Congratulations to Octavia Wiseman, Community Midwife at King's, on winning a Royal College of Midwives award.

Octavia, [pictured second from right] is part of the south east London Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) team, which has been presented with the RCM Equity, Diversity and Inclusion award recognising their work in the Parent Education in Foreign Languages programme.

This ambitious programme, which grew out of the Spanish-language sessions Octavia and other Spanish-speaking colleagues have delivered at King’s since 2014, launched in 2024 and supports mothers and birthing people living across south east London who speak little or no English by providing sessions in six priority languages. The sessions signpost to NHS services, rights in pregnancy, healthy pregnancy, birth options, labour and birth, caesarean section, postnatal care, infant feeding and mental health. Outside the sessions, service users are sent a Padlet with additional resources.

Since the programme launched, 740 people have registered and 265 people have attended sessions. Ninety-five percent of attendees said they would recommend the service to others and felt more informed about other NHS services. Eighty-four percent of attendees understood more about their rights following the sessions, and 79% felt more confident about giving birth.

The service was Highly Commended in the NHSE London Maternity and Neonatal Awards in September 2025 and was cited as an example of good practice in NHSE’s Improvement Framework for translation and interpreting services.

Tracey Carter,  Chief Nurse and Executive Director of Midwifery at King’s, said: “Many of the women who use our maternity services do not speak English as their first language, and Olivia and her colleagues have worked extremely hard to ensure we can break down barriers and provide exceptional care to expectant mothers when they need us most. We are all extremely proud of Olivia and the achievements of the LMNS team.”