The Humber and North Yorkshire (HNY) Health and Care Partnership has asked women and birthing people across Humber and North Yorkshire what was important to them when choosing where to give birth.
Across Humber and North Yorkshire, the NHS and local partners are looking at ways to improve healthcare in our region.
Last year, as they started to consider how maternity and neonatal care could be delivered in the future, they launched a survey to hear from new and expectant mothers, women trying to conceive, surrogates, other birthing people, and their families about what matters to them when accessing maternity services.
Working collaboratively with Maternity Voice Partnerships (MVPs) across the region, an engagement exercise called ‘Your Birthing Choices’ was co-produced to help them better understand what environment people would prefer to give birth in, what influences their decisions on where to give birth, what their main concerns are and what could be put in place to alleviate those concerns.
An incredible 1,136 people participated and shared their views, through either an online survey or by attending a focus group. You can read what they had to say on the HNY website.
- Overall, an Alongside Midwifery-Led Unit was participants’ preferred place to give birth, but not everyone’s first choice
- At Home and at a Standalone Midwifery Led Unit were participants’ least preferred locations to give birth at due to concerns around safety should complications arise during labour
- Not having neonatal care available would influence where many participants choose to give birth
- Being kept safe and well looked after was comparatively more important to maternity service-users than the public as a whole.
HNY would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to respond, your feedback has been invaluable.
You can read the ‘Your Birthing Choices’ engagement report and the findings on the HNY website.
