Recently, I shared the below presentation at the MVP meeting. It was an opportunity to talk to the JPUH Maternity health professionals and maternity related stakeholders, such as the CCG, Healthwatch, SANDS and Get Me Out about the views that service users have regarding the changes to services that had taken place as a result of Coronavirus. 

As a result of your feedback, work was done behind the scenes to enable the reintroduction of birth partners attending the 12 and 20 week scans, this was particularly important to parents who had tragically experienced bereavement of a baby and were incredibly worried about attending scans alone. We raised concerns about the impact on first time parents who were without the usual support networks of antenatal classes and groups to attend. Mental health of birthing people and their families was discussed, and agreed as a future workstream. Breastfeeding support was a hot topic, service users feel more needs to be done postnatally- our Breastfeeding MVP lead has been working with the Infant Feeding Leads at the JPUH and has been pleased to share that tongue tie clinics have now been reinstated. There will be a blog post specifically regarding breastfeeding support to follow. 
Time was also spent discussing communication, we discovered that overwhelmingly, respondents preferred to use a digital platform to keep abreast of maternity updates. The MVP suggested that more work needs to be done on the JPUH social media management, perhaps including training on the use of social media and the impact and influence the tool can have.

For now, please have a glance through the slides, if you'd like to get involved in the voluntary work we do, please complete the contact form, we'd love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading, 
​Jodie

This week we met with a lady from Norfolk County Council Public Health to ask her about the changes in breastfeeding support for mothers in Norfolk. When Suffolk ladies leave the James Paget Hospital (JPUH), they receive a telephone call from the Breastfeeding Team within a few days to ask how they are getting on and offer a home visit if they need further support with feeding. From my own experience, it really does feel like you are supported every step of the way.

When Norfolk ladies leave the hospital, there has been confusion about what support they can receive. When calling the Suffolk hotline the team have to unfortunately turn them away and signpost them to services in Norfolk. 

​The upshot of the response was that there is still support out there for Norfolk mums-  but it has now been transferred to the Health Visitors. The official response they have asked us to pass on is:

"In Norfolk, breastfeeding support is available via a Breastfeeding Practitioner and the Health Visitor Teams by telephone call, a home visit or clinic appointment. If you require breastfeeding support in Great Yarmouth locality, contact Mandi, Breastfeeding Practitioner on 07929 330165 or speak to your Health Visitor. There is a drop-in baby café every weekday in the Great Yarmouth and surrounding areas. To find out where your nearest baby café is, visit www.norfolk.gov.uk/norfolkslivingwell. There is also a national breastfeeding hotline on 0300 100 0212 open 9:30am-9:30pm every day of the year. The breastfeeding rates at 6-8 weeks are monitored for all localities in Norfolk. It would be useful to hear feedback from local women on the support they have received."

We at Birth Voices are happy to pass on any feedback (positive or negative) from local women on how this is working. Email us on birthvoiceseast@yahoo.co.uk or use the contact form on this website.

Anyway, we just wanted to let you all know who to contact if you need help! 

We also have a feedback survey on this page, so your experience of local maternity care can help JPH learn what is working well and what needs improving, so others can benefit from improved maternity care.

Thanks for reading,
Your 'Birth Voices' team x