APPG Maternity Summer Reception 2006 - 5 July 2006
The APPG wrote to all Heads of Midwifery in April 2006 asking if they would like to nominate their unit for an award where they felt they had practices that promote:
- Inclusive services for disadvantaged groups and communities
- The normality of childbirth or
- Involvement of women in improving local maternity services
Altogether, 40 maternity units nominated themselves, with over half of the nominations being made for ‘inclusive services for disadvantaged groups’ category. In making the awards, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Maternity looked for evidence that the initiatives were making a real difference to local women and for an innovative angle that we felt would be inspirational to other units.
We recognised that it is often difficult to demonstrate hard evidence that services are making a difference, particularly when numbers are small or projects are still fairly new. It was a difficult decision to make in all three categories, as there was such a wealth of exciting projects going on that are really making a difference to our communities.
Highlights
Care Services Minister, Ivan Lewis, presented Awards and met with members & service providers to Discuss their concerns
Lib Dem Environment Spokesman,Martin Horwood MP, shows his support for Birth Centres
Southend West MP, David Amess adds his name to our call for choice
APPG Maternity Chair, Laura Moffatt MP commended those working in maternity services but warned of potential troubles ahead 
AWARDS 2006
As always, fierce competition meant that only years of experience could guarantee an award.
2006 WINNERS
Inclusive services for disadvantaged groups and communities – joint winners
Amongst this first category of award, there were many impressive examples of support being offered to teenage mothers and fathers, to drug and alcohol users, to those in prison, to women suffering domestic violence and specialist services to those from ethnic minorities. The judges were unable to pick one winner, being particularly impressed by two projects that both specifically benefit women from ethnic minority communities.
The judges awarded this category jointly to two projects:
The Birth and Breastfeeding Support Project (BABS) in Newham, East London
The BABS project that began in Newham, East London in January 2005 is extremely innovative, in that it aims to match vulnerable women with a buddy from their ethnic background to provide emotional and cultural support during childbirth and breastfeeding. Women from the locally diverse community in Newham are being trained to give support to women just like themselves and it currently has 130 volunteers at different stages of training. To date, 226 women have been culturally matched with one of the buddies and many more have received advice and support on breastfeeding but chosen not to take up the buddy system. It is a project that is improving the health of local babies through increased duration of breastfeeding amongst the ‘buddied’ mothers, but it also offers the friendship and support that is so vital for new parents, particularly those who may be isolated because of cultural differences.
The Parentcraft Partnerships project at the Princess Anne Maternity Unit in Bolton
The APPG was similarly impressed with the Parentcraft Partnerships project run by a Sure Start midwife and a link worker from the local community in Bolton. They aim to provide quality antenatal education to all women in Bolton’s multi-cultural community and the support that the network provides for women – 144 women over the past year. A key to the success of the weekly parentcraft group is having the involvement of a link worker who speaks five languages fluently and uses Urdu and Gujarati at the sessions. The programme, that the women are instrumental in putting together, includes subjects much wider than preparing for birth, such as dental health and fire safety. This project was the other joint winner in this category, as it seems to be a project that could be successfully replicated elsewhere, if the right partnership working was in place, and as a beacon of success.
The normality of childbirth
In this category, several units showed how a variety of policies that they were putting in place were making a difference to women by promoting normal birth, however, the project that we chose as the winner seemed to have struggled to make a small but significant change, through which changes in outcomes for women have been demonstrated.
The winner was:
Stafford Hospital and their ‘normalising birth group’
The group was set up in 2004 to examine from scratch, what could be done to increase the numbers of women experiencing a normal birth. The end result has been the opening of a small, two-bedroom birth centre with a birthing pool in June 2006. Although similar achievements have been realised elsewhere, what impressed the judges was that this had been done without extra funding, with no extra facilities or staff, and in the face of much staff reluctance to change. To fund the group, the local community became heavily involved with events such as a fundraising barn dance and sky dive allowing the community to feel part of the plan from the beginning. Users of the service had been involved in the development of the centre from the start, and by using a rotation system with the main unit, more midwives have been able to benefit from updated training in supporting women to have a normal birth. Although it is early days, routine foetal monitoring has been reduced by 16%, inductions by 3% and normal deliveries increased by 3%. 13% more women are being booked for midwife-led care in place of consultant care, freeing up consultants to look after women with more complex pregnancies. All in all it was felt that the multi-disciplinary working and the sheer determination by a small group in the face of adversity was a model that would be inspirational to others.
Involvement of women in improving local maternity services
The project we have chosen as the winner in this category demonstrated that criticism by those who used the service can be used as a positive force for change and the judges appreciated how the voice of users had been heard throughout this project.
The winner in the user involvement category was:
Friarage Maternity Hospital in Northallerton, North Yorkshire
Following complaints from women about how they were cared for following a caesarean section, the Maternity Service Liaison Committee (MSLC) and the maternity unit decided to investigate what was going wrong, with the aim of putting in place an action plan for improvement. All women who had undergone a caesarean within a six-month period at the hospital were contacted and they were invited to attend consumer-led discussion groups at various locations throughout the area. Comments were also invited by post and email. Once the comments were received the findings were written up and a multi disciplinary group was formed to formulate an action plan. As a result, issues around post-operative pain relief, information for women, personalised care pathways and appropriate follow up were looked at and action taken to make improvements in all areas. Since the project, there have been no complaints around the care of women after caesarean sections and it is planned to re-audit once again later this year. The judges really felt this project took a negative side of their maternity services, and through having the courage to confront the issues, and by involving women in the process, Friarage has ended up with a very positive result which will benefit local women and may well be of interest to other units.