A maternity support worker (MSW) is an unregistered employee providing support to a maternity team, women and their families. The MSW undertakes duties in a maternity setting, under the direction and supervision of a registered midwife or other health professional, for which midwifery training and registration are not required. MSWs support the care delivered to women and babies and their families through pregnancy, labour and the post-natal period. The title MSW is the most commonly used title to describe a support worker working in maternity but there are a range of alternative titles used that describe the same role. In Scotland the most commonly used title used is maternity care assistant (MCA).

MSWs can be NHS Agenda for Change pay banded at 2, 3 or 4 and the responsibilities associated with each band are covered in the following pages.

Click the link to download a copy of the RCM document:  The Roles and Responsiblities of MSWs.

The following i-learn courses can support you in furthering your career as a support worker:

- A range of courses supporting the Care Certificate. Search for Care Certificate at the top right of this page

- A range or courses on leadership

- The i-learn module Recognising the deteriorating postpartum woman is aimed at maternity support workers 

- The majority of i-learn courses are relevant to support workers, use the search option to look for topics of interest, or browse through the All Courses list on the i-learn front page