Heartbeat: Listening to moms helps improve our maternity care

February 25, 2019

Every year, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carry out a maternity survey as part of a national programme to capture and collect feedback on the experiences of women using NHS maternity services across the country.

Here at SWBH we are keen to ensure that we make the most of the valuable insight and opinions of our patients to ensure that we are able to meet their needs and deliver a safe an effective care.

To find out more about the national maternity survey, Heartbeat caught up with, Lorraine Cardill, Deputy Director of Midwifery to discuss the results and find out what was being done to act on suggestions. Lorraine said: “Following feedback from the 2018 survey, we put in place processes for women who are undergoing induction of labour to have a birth partner accompany them. We had concerns about how other women in a shared room may feel about this so, with their involvement, we produced some guidance whereby the birth partner is female unless the woman is in a single bedroom.

Lorraine continued: “This year we will implement our continuity of carer work which will see women cared for by the same midwife for the majority of her antenatal and postnatal care, as well as being cared for in labour by a midwife who is known to her.

The maternity team are continuously seeking to improve care so that all women have the best possible pregnancy, birth and postnatal experience.

“There are a variety ways in which we can improve, for example, ensuring that our communication is always clear and that women and their partners are truly involved with all elements of their care, and in making choices,” said Lorraine

The national maternity survey was commissioned by the CQC and sent to all new mothers aged 16 or over who were due to give birth in our units in February last year. Of those who were sent a survey, just 21 per cent responded.

“It can be challenging to encourage people to complete any kind of survey, especially when they also have a young baby.” said Lorraine.

“However, after analysing the results, we can see that the service is moving in the right direction with progress being made in labour and birth.”