Cambridge Maternity Services Liaison Committee
We care about your care!
Cambridge Maternity Services Liaison Committee
We care about your care!
In Attendance:
Sue Allen-Mills (Chair); Angela D’Amore; Kate Evans; Maddie McMahon; Anna Shasha; Claire Thompson; Jo Watt; Annie West; Kate Wilson
Apologies were received from: Jan Butler; Nicola Clapperton;
Callie Copeman-Bryant; Cheryl France; Julie Gardiner; Boo Newns; Sarah Ockwell-Smith; Jo Sharman; Heather Sturman
Approved.
10.2 SA-M has set up an MSLC Facebook page, and there is a link to it from the website. It currently has 13 people who ‘like’ it. SA-M asked members who have a Facebook presence to promote the MSLC page. MMcM will do this through her page, and will encourage others to do likewise.
ACTION: MMcM
10.4 No source of funding for training midwives in the use of aromatherapy has been identified. MMcM asked if a practising aromatherapist could be found who would be willing to share their skills, but KE pointed out that any training would need to be accredited. There is a further issue of there not being agreement within the Trust on the efficacy of aromatherapy. MMcM said that women could choose to take oils in themselves, and asked if it would be possible for community midwives to suggest this as an option to women. This could be done. AS offered to do a survey of midwives to find out if any have any training in aromatherapy already. SA-M pointed out that Penny Brett had been keen that complementary therapies should be offered in the new build, and the provision of aromatherapy on RBC had arisen for consideration as an interim measure.
ACTION: AS
The AGM went well. About 30 people attended, and there was a lot of positive feedback. SA-M reported that there was a much lower level of support for the organisation of the meeting from the PCT than had been the case in previous years. It was agreed to set up a meeting between AS,
SA-M and the PCT Chief Executive to discuss support for the MSLC.
The Annual Report is now available on the website.
ACTION: AS & SA-M
The Rosie and the MSLC had stands at the Show, and various MSLC members attended in other capacities. Public attendance was lower than last year, which was thought probably to have been due to the good weather, but over 500 people came through the door. KE felt that the opportunity to communicate directly with the public was very beneficial.
Feedback given by service users to the MSLC stand was almost all positive. The issue of cross-border communication came up again, with some out-of-area women saying that it was difficult to get information about the Rosie because their community midwives didn’t know about it. KE said the Rosie tried to get information through to midwives in bordering areas, but it was difficult to achieve this. AS said that once the Rosie website has been updated, women will be able to get information from there.
A woman visiting from Birmingham spoke highly of the Serenity Midwifery Birth Centre there and suggested visiting it for ideas for the new build. AS is aware of the Centre.
SA-M raised the issue of its name, in view of discussions that have been taking place regarding the use of the term Birth Centre or Midwife-Led Unit. KE said that she was in favour of giving units/wards names (e.g. Serenity/Lady Mary), as abbreviations such as MLBU were often meaningless to service users.
BN and her husband visited the dads group at Histon Early Years Centre in September, and SA-M went to one at the Fields earlier this month. The visits were of slightly limited use as many of the men attending the groups had children of two and above. The main issue that was raised was in relation to breastfeeding support, but evidence from more recent experience (see item 7) suggests that this is less of concern now. The dads spoke about how valuable they found the groups, but said they would have liked to have been given information about them earlier. CT said information was given out by health visitors.
KW and CT said that they knew of further dads groups and will send details of these to SA-M. KW said that she, and/or her husband, would be willing to go along to groups to talk to dads. AW also expressed an interest in doing this.
ACTION: KW & CT
SA-M, BN and HS visited Lady Mary last month and spoke to women and their partners on the ward about their experiences of it. Their report has been sent to AS and AW. It showed that feedback on breastfeeding support was more positive than it has been in the past, which was welcomed. The issue of space on the ward being restricted was acknowledged, and there was discussion about the importance of women being informed by their community midwives not to take a lot of stuff in with them. AS said that the report had been very useful to her, and asked if the MSLC would be willing to undertake further visits in the future, which it would.
In Oct 2007 and Oct 2008, SA-M carried out an informal survey of women’s experiences of Lady Mary among NCT members. In Oct 2009, the question of repeating this was raised again, and it was felt that it would be preferable to have a more formal questionnaire. At the time, the SHA was considering introducing an East of England questionnaire, which was then being trialled at Ipswich, so it was agreed to wait for the outcome of this trial. SA-M has recently spoken to Birte Harlev-Lam at the SHA, who said that the trial has stalled, although it is still hoped that there will be a regional questionnaire in time. The meeting felt that in the meantime, it would be beneficial to have a Rosie questionnaire, tailored to local needs. There was some discussion as to how best to do this – e.g. what form a questionnaire should take, how often it should be administered, and how the results would be processed. Suggestions for distributing it included circulating it through networks such as the NCT and Doula UK, or attaching it to the planned new Lady Mary leaflet. AS said that her previous unit had a questionnaire, which was devised by the MSLC. She will get a copy of this to use as a starting point. Also, there is a very short discharge questionnaire currently in use which AW will show to the committee. This is used throughout the Trust.
SA-M suggested possibly putting together a sub-group to take the project forward.
ACTION: AS
At the May meeting, SA-M presented figures, provided by Emma Te Braake, on the Rosie’s rate of normal birth as defined by the national Maternity Care Working Party, which was 39%. At the meeting, reservations were expressed about the MCWP’s definition. However, it is the definition that for the time being is being used by the government for the national collection of statistics for comparative purposes, and for this reason SA-M proposed that the Trust continues to collect figures on this basis. There was discussion as to the merit of formulating an alternative definition of normal birth, both for the purposes of collecting Trust data, and for informing the national debate about the definition. It was agreed for now to ask Emma to collect the figures according to the MCWP definition for the next six months, and to review the situation again once this data is to hand.
ACTION: SA-M to contact Emma Te Braake
AS presented the figures for September.
There were 475 births. Predictions for November and December are very high, with nearly 600 births predicted for December.
There were 19 homebirths, with a transfer rate of 4.
The caesarean rate was 26.8%, down on August’s figures, but up on July’s. SA-M pointed out that while the %age rate for September was higher than July’s, the difference in the absolute number of caesareans was only one (126 in September and 125 in July). AS said that she would like to see the MSLC challenge the Trust about why the caesarean rate is so high. MMcM asked if there were figures on the number of first-time mothers who were induced who had caesareans. SA-M will ask Emma Te Braake if she can provide these.
ACTION: SA-M
There were 60 births on the Birth Centre.
The midwife to birth ratio was 1:36.8.
No report given due to lack of time
No report given due to lack of time
These were circulated with the meeting agenda, and will shortly be uploaded onto the website.
SO-S has circulated an e-mail praising the work that JW does, particularly in providing women with one-to-one support for breastfeeding. She asked for more to be done to make parents aware of Jo’s services.
She also reported how valuable several of her clients had found JB’s input, particularly with regard to VBACs, and similarly asked that parents were made more aware of Jan’s services.
30 November, 12.00 pm – 2.00 pm
Rosie Maternity Hospital, Seminar Room 5
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