Lots of updates, plus next meeting June 7th

Hi everyone,
sorry we've been really quiet in the last couple of months, we were exhausted from a manic Jan-March, with over 800 surveys, facebook comments and emails to sort through! On the upside, that means local women and partners want to have a say maternity care when they have the opportunity, and that health professionals are keen to hear what women have to say :)

The task of doing such a big update has been so daunting that we keep putting it off. The minutes the CCG provided us with were very brief which is a shame as we covered so much ground - normally we document everything! So, as briefly as I can:

1) Cuts to breastfeeding support - this was covered in Jodie's last post so I won't repeat it - apart from emphasising how we were the only organisation that actually got all the people involved and affected by the decision in one room talking about the issues - unfortunately after the decision had been made. Still, at least our County Council health commissioners now understand why things like tongue tie diagnosis is so crucial to new mums, and know they can contac tus if they wish to consult local women about any other aspects of maternity/postnatal care!

• We don't really see we can do much more on this topic - apart from gathering feedback on what you think about the new system (ie health visitors, community midwives, baby cafes, but no helpline or home visits) and passing that on
  

2) Funding and recruitment - We now have funding! Finally...that means we can now get money back for all the posters, leaflets, meeting rooms bookings, website costs etc that we (Gemma and Jodie) have incurred over the past 18 months. And get a small 'honararium' to cover some of the immense time it takes. Also, we can now cover transport and childcare costs for any local mums/dads that would like to come to our meetings (Ofted registered, 3 hours max). We are looking for a new chair/vice chair due to maternity cover, as well as more people to help out and share ideas/tasks so please get in contact if you're interested! We fit it into spare hour here and there around work/family. An interest in maternity care, access to a computer and ideally willingness to read through answers and statistics from surveys would be all that is needed :)

3) General feedback survey: We had over 80 new surveys back covering antenatal, labour/delivery, postnatal (Ward) and community postnatal. Overall, satisfaction rates are very good for antenatal care, labour/delivery and community postnatal, but Ward 11 postnatal is still giving much lower ratings.  This ties in with the next topic...

4) Partners staying overnight on Ward 11: We had nearly 450 unique surveys back so thank you so much to everyone that took part! I will do a separate post shortly with the results but the main message is:

• Most women do want partners to stay, mainly for physical and emotional support
• Over 60% had some concerns about safeguarding, privacy and dignity, noise, overcrowding. 
• A significant minority (10%) are very against partners staying, 
• There is no single answer that will make everyone happy! We have gone through the results in detail with JPUH, and are working with them to see if a compromise solution can be found - stay tuned!

5) Maternal/perinatal mental health

• A new framework for maternal mental health services is being rolled out in Norfolk and Waveney. I attended a meeting of people involved to represent service users
• A new unit will open next April in Norwich where new/expectant mothers with acute mental health issues can be admitted with their babies. Midwives, health visitors etc will be present
• We are supposed to be researching women's opinions and experience of local maternal mental healthcare, from antenatal to around 2 years postnatal. But we don't really know where to start so if anyone has thoughts please get in touch!

​​6) Next meeting is Wednesday 7th June, 9.45-11.45 at Seagulls Childrens Centre in Gorleston (Shrublands, Magdalen Way, NR31 7BP). The agenda includes

• Further discussion on partners staying - staff views and possible compromise approach 
• Update from Head of Midwifery on recent developments at JPUH
• Maternal mental health - we are not sure where to start with this focus topic as it is such a huge area! What would health professionals like us to find our from mums, and what would mums like to suggest or comment on regarding mental health care during pregnancy and in the first year postnatal? We are considering doing an online survey to find out how more could be done to improve detection of PND/postnatal depression etc in the postnatal period - and what role Health visitoris could/should play
• Normalisation of birth - this is JPUH's 2017 aims, to raise awareness of home births and dolphin suite - any comments from local women on these? One suggestion from our side is that women we have spoken to so far say they are not being informed enough about all the options - including what happens if things dont go to birth plan (so they are not so scared/disappointed by eg emergency c-section
• Update from JPUH on whether virtual tour of maternity department has made any progress?
• Update on how breastfeeding support is continuing in the community since April when funding was withdrawn in Suffolk
• Call for recruitment of new user reps/leadership - we would love more support and apart from that we need maternity cover ;) or permanent change to one or both leadership positions

Phew, think that's all the main things! I will do a focus post on the results of partner staying survey, and possible compromise options next week
All the best!
Gemma