Maternity Patients Report Improved Care
Women using our maternity services have reported much improved care, according to a National Survey looking at the experiences of all women giving birth in units across the country.
Our maternity service has seen an improvement since the survey was last conducted three years ago.
The survey asked patients 48 questions, covering care from booking for pregnancy through to discharge from midwifery care after birth.
Eighteen of the questions were identical to those asked in 2010 and Plymouth Hospitals has seen an improvement in 17 out of those 18* areas.
Head of Midwifery Sue Stock said: “We have been making many improvements to our service. As a result, we have seen a rise in the amount of compliment letters we receive from patients and a dramatic fall in the number of complaints.
“Now this independent survey is showing once again that we really have improved our service across the entire care pathway; results that are significantly improved upon since 2010. It is testament to how hard the team are working to make sure those families accessing maternity care locally have a service they can be confident in.
“We are obviously delighted with such exceptional progress and this survey was conducted in February, before we invested in 18 more midwives and made further changes based on national evidence of best practice.”
Plymouth’s maternity service was rated in the top 20% of all Trusts in the country in eight different areas by women completing the survey.
They were:
- Skin to skin contact shortly after birth
- Decisions about new mothers wanted to feed their baby were always or sometimes respected by midwives
- Had telephone number for midwife or midwifery team that they could contact when they were home
- Saw midwife as much as they wanted to
- Midwife or midwives they saw, appeared to be aware of the medical history of them and their baby
- Midwife or midwives they saw, always or sometimes listened
- Definitely or to some extent had confidence and trust in the midwives they saw after going home
- Midwife told them they would need to arrange a postnatal check‐up of their own health with their GP
“We have more to do to understand why women didn’t feel they were given appropriate advice when they first contacted us in labour,” added Ms Stock. “This was an area we didn’t do well in. Women also reported that their length of stay post-natally wasn’t right. The survey, however, doesn’t give us the detail as to whether that is because they were in hospital too long or not for long enough; we will be undertaking our own local research to understand this further.
“There is a lot to learn from the survey, for example we already knew that we needed to strengthen both our environment and ethos around low risk care for women who choose to give birth in the hospital setting. Evidence shows us that by normalising birth as much as possible for these women – those who are low risk with no complications - outcomes will further improve. The survey has further emphasised this is an area that needs our prompt attention with women not always feeling they were encouraged to be active in labour. In the New Year we intend to address our Labour Ward environment and have distinctive rooms that are able to support this with neither unnecessary monitors nor beds being the focus of the space.
“Pregnancy, birth and the early days with a baby are such an important time; we are privileged to be involved with local families at such a momentous period in their lives. We know how important it is to make services the best they can possibly be and we will continue to listen and work with our patient representatives and respond to national evidence and guidance to continually improve and develop our service.”
