On the 2nd November 2022 we held our first ever Maternity Partnership Meeting for Gloucestershire!
This meeting felt a huge step in the right direction for collaboration and coproduction.
MVPs were set up as independent organisations who listen to feedback about maternity services. As the chair of Gloucestershire MVP, I sit in meetings with the Hospital trust and ensure that the voice of women, birthing people, their families, and their experiences is heard. I attend a meeting called the Local Maternity and Neonatal System Board, which is attended by commissioners and the Hospital Trust, so your voice is being represented to decision makers.
Previously, we as the MVP has meet with our members separately, and this worked during the pandemic. But this did always feel a little disconnected from decision makers for maternity services. Well not any more! To be able to have everyone in one room, with a focused agenda, based on the feedback you give us through engagement and the Birth Experience Survey, felt very powerful.
We had representative from midwifery, health visiting, HomeStart, Health watch, Dad Matters, the perinatal mental health team and PALS. As well as your voice being represented by the MVP service user representatives.
We started the morning by sharing examples of positive feedback and asked the attendees to think about how this feels as the woman/ birthing person and the care provider. How can we share and celebrate all the great feedback we receive? The groups came up with lots of ideas from sharing on social media and different ways to share with teams to boost staff morale.
The main part of the meeting split into four focus groups, discussing the following –
- Posters for partners
- Discharge times
- The health visiting service offer
- The maternity ward
The focus groups were decided by the by main themes of feedback that the MVP and PALS hear. I have since met again with the Trust and commissioners to discuss how we take forward some of the ideas and comments from the meeting to help service design and improvement. And this is the part that I am most excited about; any improvements will be based on coproduced discussions with the voice of women and birthing people at the centre.
I want to tell you some of the comments and how these will be actioned –
Posters for partners
A poster has been designed for partners to tell them what they are able to do whilst visiting the postnatal ward overnight. The focus group looking at this poster felt that it is focused on ‘what you can not do’, rather than ‘what you can do’. Dad Matters were part of this discussion, which was great. Some of the suggestions are:
- Give reasoning when there might be a requirement – such as why you need to wear shoes on the ward
- Include on the poster that there is a reclining chair
- Clear items that partners can bring to the ward to stay comfortable over night
- Congratulate the partner too and make them feel welcome.
Action – from this group, it has been agreed that Dad Matters is going to review the poster, they are going to design something which includes the information they know partners want to know. It has also been discussed to create a video for partners about what to expect on the ward and what to pack.
Discharge times
This group looked at the feedback around discharge times. Some of the suggestions were –
- Start a conversation about discharge times during antenatal classes, so families know what to expect
- A leaflet to explain the discharge process
- The use of an electronic system may help
- The need for more pharmacy deliveries
- Chaptering the discharge film so that families can watch again once home
Actions – after the partnership meeting, I found out that there is a midwife working on a project to improve discharge. All the feedback has been shared with them, so that they can consider all the suggestions. As part of the project, a midwife on each shift will be solely focus on new born baby checks . The cost of chaptering the discharge film is being looked into. We will keep you updated on this one to see what else can happen.
The health visiting service
We receive feedback from families saying that they are not sure what the health visiting service offer, so one of the focus groups looked at the recent posters and leaflets created by the service to see if they help to explain what is offered.
These were the comments-
- Not clear that families can call the health visiting service anytime outside of booked appointments
- Create a timeline of when appointments with health visiting are offered
- Who meets a health visitor at 28 week pregnant?
- Try starting the information to be about what is important to you as a family, rather than listing what the service can talk to you about
Actions – I have shared all the comments with the health visiting service. The MVP is looking to do some live sessions on Facebook with the Health visiting service, so that we can let people know more about what they offer. A timeline about all appointments offered, whose care you are under and what to expect from pregnancy to 5 years is being considered, so that families know who to call and when.
The maternity ward
This focus group had a wide topic to discuss, the main points they spoke about were
- partners visiting over night, noise levels, what partners can expect (similar to what was covered in the partners poster focus group)
- language – both written and verbally and how language can hugely affect a family’s experience
- medication and the timeliness of medication
- review the feedback and understand more women and birthing peoples experience of the ward and why they some might feel nervous being on a ward
Action – it has been agreed that the Trust will review medication, this is likely to also fall into some of the work happening around discharge times. We are going to bring a language poster created by Cornwall to the next partnership meeting to continue this discussion and see how we might use the suggestions there to create a compassionate language culture locally. I will be reading all the feedback we received about the ward and when we do engagement we will ask people about their ward experience, to better understand what families are feeling when there, so that we can use this information to shape discussions about ward improvements.
We did also discuss the current staffing shortage and the direct impact that this is having on Aveta and Stroud postnatal beds. We know from engagement and people contacting us directly that the community is missing these services. Lisa Stephens, the Head of Midwifery, assured the group that there are no plans to close either of the birth units. We will continue to share your comments and concerns about these two services with the Trust and will ask for an update at each Partnership meeting.
Want to be involved in future meetings?
This was our first meeting hosted by the MVP, so it does feel that we are just getting going. We have lots of actions to now be taking forward. But it feels positive. It feels encouraging to have everyone in one room, working towards the same goals. What we really want now is for you to attend the meetings. As an MVP we host these meetings, as we want to ensure that your voice is heard. For each focus group we had quotes from our survey, but there is nothing more powerful than hearing experiences directly from people. If you would like to join the MVP as a member and be invited to our Partnership meetings, you can do so here. I will contact you and introduce myself and welcome you as a member.
These Partnership meetings will happen every 3 months, I look forward to keeping you updated on progress and actions from these.