A survey of patients who used our maternity services shows we’ve been praised on how we listen and communicate with you.
The latest published National Maternity Survey from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) shows we scored high in the questions related to communication; listening to you, talking to you in an understandable way and treating you with dignity and respect.
It is important that we provide good communication for parents-to-be before, during and after birth, so you know what is happening every step of the way and feel supported by us.
Respondents were asked to provide a score between 0 and 10 for each question. We scored nine or more on nine questions. Patients felt they were listened to, offered support and treated with kindness and dignity during antenatal care and labour and birth. They also felt they were offered enough support for mental health during pregnancy, the facilities were clean and their decisions about feeding were respected.
We also scored highly in a number of other areas, including midwives providing relevant information and support about feeding your baby, opportunity to ask questions after birth, support from midwifery team, being involved in decisions about postnatal care and mental health support. 43% of our patients took part in the survey.
Nicky Foster, Deputy Head of Midwifery, said: “What stood out for me is a lot of where we had high scoring is our communication elements – how women are listened to and how we deliver information in an understandable way. We also scored high on mental health support in pregnancy. I think the survey is reflective of the hard work that everyone has put in and the changes we have made, specifically in relation to working together with women to plan their care.”
Our maternity team has worked up a series of actions, which matter most to you and your families, with the support of our Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP), based on the findings of the survey. These include improving the way we deliver information before induction about the benefits and risks of induced labour.
One of the ways we’re doing this is through an improvement project on the induction of labour. Our process is under review and the aim of the project is to:
- Improve patient and staff experience on the delivery of induction of labour care
- Use nationally-recognised induction methods to make sure the induction process and all information given is consistent across the maternity service
- Strengthen discussions on maternal choice and information.
We have also co-produced patient information leaflets on the benefits and risks of induced labour in different languages.
The survey involved 121 NHS trusts in England. All NHS trusts providing maternity services that had at least 300 live births were eligible to take part in the survey.
Anyone aged 16 years or over who had a live birth between 1 and 28 February 2022 (and January if a trust did not have a minimum of 300 eligible births in February) were invited to take part. Nearly 21,000 responses were received.
You can read the survey at www.cqc.org.uk/maternitysurvey.
