Hartlepool midwife retires after nearly half a century caring for people

Sheenagh Robson, who left her role as a community midwife at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust earlier this month, worked in healthcare in the town for 49 years.

She started as a cadet nurse in 1974 before qualifying as a registered nurse four years later.

Sheenagh worked as a staff nurse in a range of roles in orthopaedics, ENT, plastics and trauma in the former St Hilda’s Hospital before it closed in 1984.

Moving to Hartlepool General Hospital, now known as the University Hospital of Hartlepool, she worked in accident and emergency before starting midwifery training in 1993.

Sheenagh, 65, said: “Being a midwife was something I had always wanted to do but did not have the opportunity before then as previously Hartlepool wasn’t one of the places where training took place.

“When that changed, I was determined to do it and I loved it since then.”

Sheenagh, who is married to Derrick and has a son, Nicki, and 12-year-old grandson, Jacob, has stayed with the organisation ever since, helping hundreds of new mothers across town.

She said: “I have loved helping women and supporting them through their pregnancies. It has been a really rewarding career and one I wouldn’t change at all.

“One of the biggest things for me has been the people I have worked with in Hartlepool, I seem to know almost everyone because I have been here my whole working life.

“Through my job I have met my husband and gone on to have a family and amazing grandson.”