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| Maternity Services – Moving On |
| Written by Communications Team | ||
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Every working man and woman knows what it is to have to "deliver" - and sometimes the pressure means that, regrettably, job satisfaction has to be scaled-down in order to achieve that goal! But in the maternity unit at Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust not only is delivery is a 24/7 event, but the job satisfaction of seeing Mum and baby happily going home is immensely rewarding. Associate Director of Midwifery Services Eileen Nolan joined the Trust in 2007 and in that time she has introduced a number of changes that have the two-fold effect of benefiting both the Mums and the midwifery staff. Said Eileen: "Our midwifery-led maternity services have been moving on with the aim of providing more choice and "control" for the mothers, coupled with more choice and "control" over their working hours and career path for our midwifery staff. "It is a great privilege to be involved in the nine-month caring process of bringing new life into the world, whether a midwife is working in antenatal or postnatal care - or actually delivering the babies. It is now two years since we were able to begin to bring about the changes necessary for a modern maternity unit and I'm now keen to bring in additional experienced midwives in order that the unit can continue to develop and keep pace with what the mothers want to be offered." In response to comments from Mums, in the last 12 months the Trust has funded:
The maternity service was already a holder of a TAMBA Gold Award for its services to mums who have twins or more babies and also won a national All Party Parliamentary Award for "Inclusive Services to Disadvantaged Groups and Communities" in 2008 which demonstrates the recognition of the work that is going on to move services forward. Our maternity unit has now (July 11) been awarded a second GOLD award from TAMBA, the Twins and Multiple Births Association and is now the first and only maternity unit to have been awarded two Gold awards, which is a tremendous achievement. One of the most innovative developments has been to open a Triage facility which is open 24/7. By day it's staffed by hospital midwives and at night the community midwives are there ready to see an expectant mother whatever the time. Said Eileen: "The purpose of the Triage service is to streamline the woman's journey when she's in the early stages of labour. For some women, labour can be a bit "stop/start" and going into labour can be a daunting experience for some. With the Triage unit, if the woman thinks she may be in labour, but isn't sure or just wants some advice she can phone in and receive advice and support over the phone or she can come to the unit where she will be assessed by the midwife. She will then be given advice which could range from going home for a while, if not in labour to going up to the labour ward. If she needs to ring again, in most cases she will be able to talk to the same midwife. Interestingly, of an average of 12 women seen in triage daily, three are usually able to go home again. Our midwives working in Triage are able to make their own decisions in partnership with the woman." For some mothers giving birth in St. Peter's Hospital, the new 12-hour shift system for midwives has the benefit that their baby may be delivered by a midwife who was on duty when they arrived therefore giving more continuity to the mum and the midwife. The 12-hour shift also suits staff as a working week only consists of three shifts, which is helpful to their own family life. Whether a mother has her baby in hospital or at home, she will have the continuity of one of the five colour-coded community teams throughout her pregnancy. It's highly likely that a member of that team will deliver the baby and over the pregnancy she may possibly have met them all. The midwives are gaining more and more confidence in developing services, for example, the community midwives have now developed several services in Children's' Centres over the last year, including several "Drop-in" postnatal clinics to make life easier for new mums. The St. Peter's Hospital midwives are also gaining more confidence to develop new services such as the classes for women who have had a previous caesarean section and who are hoping to deliver vaginally next time. Said Eileen: "This growing confidence is partly due to our staff feeling more valued and due also to the new mandatory four-day annual training programme for all staff. These four consecutive days ensures that they are all up-to-date on national advances in maternity care. We believe that developing staff means not only more settled staff but also better care for mums and babies." If you are a midwife and might be interested in joining Eileen and the other midwives in developing services further can ring her or labour ward manager Lesley Howick on: 01932 722903.
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