Meeting update and new Chair

 Hello, I’d like to introduce myself – my name is Katherine and I’m delighted to say that I’ve recently been elected as the new Chair of Birth Voices East ‘Maternity Voices Partnership’ (MVP). I work part time for a local authority and am mum to a very lively 15 month old son! I wanted to join the group as I used the services offered by the James Paget, midwives and health visiting services extensively during my pregnancy and afterwards and I wanted to help other mums give feedback on services and help to continue to improve the services offered. Whilst I had a mostly positive experience, I feel having a platform for mums to give feedback and help shape services is vital and so I wanted to get involved with the MVP. I especially want to focus on getting feedback from more women, especially those who may find it difficult to access services for different reasons.
 
I want say thank you to our out-going Chair Jodie for doing such a brilliant job and also give a big thank our Vice-Chair Gemma for all the wonderful work she has done and continues to do, and for all the support she has given me since I joined the group. I look forward to working closely with her in the future!

We are always looking for feedback from mums (and dads!) and ideas for future focus topics. Please feel free to message me via our Facebook page with any ideas!
 
Our last meeting in December had a great attendance, and it was great to see mums and little ones come along! We discussed our new focus topic – looking at the postnatal care of mums and babies after leaving hospital. We felt the most useful way to get feedback will be through a survey, which we can then take the results of and work with our partners to look at the potential for realistic changes. At the meeting we received lots of suggestions for questions to ask mums in the survey, which should be published on the website by the end of January, so watch this space! 
 
We also discussed the new Local Maternity System (LMS), a plan for maternity services in the Norfolk and Waveney area. This is still being put together and input from mums will be vital to create the LMS. We are hoping to have more details on this by early February and will be asking for mums for feedback and to participate in creating the LMS. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for more information!
 
As always, we really appreciate your feedback about your experiences of maternity care, it would be great if you could fill out our maternity care survey and please feel free to get in touch with any other feedback!

Katherine (Chair)