AS midwives, doctors and other support staff working in maternity, we recognise that pregnancy and giving birth are milestones in the lives of families we care for – and we want to make that experience as good as it can be.
So how do we know if we are getting it right, or if there are things we can do to improve the services we offer?
At the moment we are looking at how we can help to make birth partners feel part of the birth experience, by enabling them to stay with mum during an induced labour, or overnight in the early postnatal period.
And a group of expectant dads has recently been involved in developing content for a new section of our website designed especially with dads in mind.
Throughout the year we ask for feedback from women about the service and care they have received. This may take place in hospital face-to-face with a member of maternity staff, through our Friends and Family test (the opportunity for all hospital inpatients to comment on their stay anonymously as they go home), or through a more structured questionnaire.
In the autumn we will be introducing a more detailed Friends and Family test which is specific to maternity services. This will give us the opportunity to view our services as they are seen by the people using them.
As for the future we plan to increase opportunities for families to be involved in how maternity services are developed at our hospitals and in the community. Anyone interested in being part of this can see details of how to get involved on the NUH website.